The Boss: 'This Is For Trayvon'

Bruce Springsteen performed last night in Philadelphia. Since March 23, he’s added a new song to his act: “American Skin (41 Shots).” It’s an old ditty Springsteen wrote years back, and was supposedly based on the killing of Amadou Diallo by the New York Police Department.

So why’s Springsteen trotting out this song? To stump for Trayvon Martin, of course! According to New Yorker editor David Remnick, Springsteen sang his “Apollo Medley.” Then, Remnick wrote, “the mood went somber, and Springsteen said, ‘This is for Trayvon.'”

This is Springsteen’s first leap into the political foray since suggesting to the foreign press that American society was on the point of collapse, that socialism was the solution, that America should look more like Sweden, and that Occupy Wall Street was preaching the good word.