Back in my days of concert band in high school, our music teacher was almost always able to point out flat sounds in a room full of kids and their instruments. I find it shameful that some discerning, logical adults can’t do the same.

I have been guilty of listening to and downloading on iTunes songs of musicians and artists whose politics do not align with my own. If it’s a catchy beat and it helps me burn off that cupcake I shouldn’t have ingested at the office, I’m all about putting it in my ears. I am also all about recognizing the unique talents that musicians and vocalists possess. I admire their marketing strategies and how they each play to their genre.

Enter Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen. Jersey-born, flannel-shirt-and Levis-wearing Bruce Springsteen. I’ve enjoyed a Springsteen song or two back in the 80s and was even present when he filmed his “Glory Days” video in Hoboken when I was just a kid. When people think of “The Boss”-they envision working class Americana. The white tee, the blue jeans and the red, white and blue, right? “Born in The U.S.A.”

It was not until I was an adult that I realized that “Born in the U.S.A.” was a song not boasting of American pride but of embarrassment of America and an anti-Vietnam war sentiment:

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

It seems as if the ongoing theme in some of Springsteen’s songs reflect the “embarrassed to be an American” sentiment. And it seems as if “The Boss” is at it again with what he does best with his next venture. The new song, “That’s What Makes Us Great”.

“Don’t tell me a lie / And sell it as a fact / I’ve been down that road before / And I ain’t goin’ back / And don’t you brag to me / That you never read a book / I never put my faith / In a con man and his crooks.”

It doesn’t take an astrophysicist to figure out that Springsteen’s newest piece takes direct aim at President Trump. We could’ve inserted “she” into the lyrics had Hillary Clinton been elected but if we did, liberals everywhere wouldn’t be eating it up like candy like they are now. “Way to go, Springsteen, way to represent the ‘working class’ of America”, they say. I made the mistake of mentioning my dislike publicly for Mr. Springsteen when one of my liberal friends challenged me and gave him kudos for calling out, as she dubs Trump, “President Fraud”.

I accepted the challenge and in a respectful manner explained that my disdain for Springsteen and his “working man” messages came into existence long before Trump. Why, you ask? Why, pray tell, would Springsteen choose to play “Fortunate Son” at a concert for Vets? Because for all of the rolling up of flannel sleeves, for all the blue-jean wearing Americana Springsteen wants to identify himself with, for the “working-class-blue-collar man” that he wants to portray and honor in his music, he has completely disrespected and disregarded an important group of “working class” Americans on several occasions-the members of our Armed Forces.

Springsteen can’t tell military families that he understands their plight while trying to rid America of a “Vietnam Ghost”. His disrespect is heard nationwide by those who go into harm’s way and fight for a cause he does not believe in because they believe in the cause. His disrespect is heard by family members who see their spouses off for months-sometimes years at a time and sleep with their cell phones under their pillows and jump when the phone rings at zero-dark-thirty. I was one of those spouses. The echoes of disrespect fall upon families who have lost loved ones in battles overseas. They tried to conquer hate. And yet they get no love in return. Even though Donald Trump appealed in large numbers to the blue-collar vote in 2016, Mr. 60-Million-Dollar Estate claims to understand their frustrations. While Springsteen can carry a soulful tune and a decent melody, he is as tone-deaf as they come.

"America is a nation of immigrants and we find this anti-democratic and fundamentally un-American." pic.twitter.com/DsXSaLeNNN

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) January 30, 2017

America is also a nation of immigrants and their children who came here legitimately. Some even fight for this country, Bruce. And yes, while the climate is “prime” for a demagogue (I think you guys all love that word because it makes you sound intellectual), the political climate is indeed ripe for musicians, actors and others in the entertainment field to spout off from their high horses as if they are so much more superior to the blue-collar workers who fell for “the ruse” all while cashing in on this process. Instead of a whiny little ditty about how you didn’t get your wish on Election Day, why not sing about the people who want to bomb us into oblivion? Or the people who want to ideologically destroy life as we know it in the United States of America? Or about fellow Americans-blue collar-middle-class Americans-who are downright hateful to one another because of their opposing political views? Why not sing about religious persecution in our very own country? About race wars? About killing innocent children despite indication of a heartbeat? Tell all of them who started this mess that love conquers hate because none of the above is Making America Great or Conquering the demon of hate so prevalent in our society. Why doesn’t he do this? Because none of these has a dollar sign with multiple figures to the right of it, that’s why.

And I think hit a sour note, y’all. Time to tune my saxophone.