Joe Grushecky - That's What Makes Us Great

First performance: no live dates

Coverinfo

2020-06-03 SiriusXM Studio, New York City
No live dates 
 
Bruce played the song  during 'From His Home, To Yours… Part 5' on Sirius XM's E Street Radio. This episode is titled "American Skin".
 
 

Songinfo

' That's what makes us great ' is a song written by Joe Grushecky and released by Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers as a single in 2017 and later included on their 2018 album More Yesterdays Than Tomorrows. The song features a guest appearance by Bruce Springsteen on duet vocals. 
 
' That's what makes us great ' is a protest song taking on U.S. president Donald Trump and his crackdown on illegal immigration. Joe Grushecky told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he wrote the song around the time Trump took office in January 2017. "I had this song, and Bruce and I had been talking. I sent it to him and he liked it. I said, 'What do you think about singing on it?' He gave it the Bruce treatment."

Bruce Springsteen recorded his parts at his home studio in Colts Neck, NJ. 
 
The song debuted on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel on 19 Apr 2017 at 10 a.m. 
 
 
 
 
  

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

Bruce co-wrote some songs with Joe Grushecky
 
He also contributed to other albums with vocals, guitar, harmonica or mandolin
 
Bruce contributed on three albums of Joe Grushecky

1995 : AMERICAN BABYLON 
 
 
 
 
 
2006 : A GOOD LIFE 
 
Is a studio album by Joe Grushecky released on 15 Aug 2006 on Schoolhouse Records. It features Bruce Springsteen on four tracks. He shares vocals and plays guitar with Grushecky on Code of Silence, Is she the one and A Good life, and only plays guitar on Searching for my soul. The primary recording sessions for the album took place at studios in West Virginia. However Springsteen, with Toby Scott engineering, worked only from his New Jersey home studio and overdubbed onto Gruschecky's already completed basic tracks.
 
 
 
2009 : EAST CARSON STREET

is a studio album by Joe Grushecky released in 2009. Bruce Springsteen participated in the recording of three of the album's tracks; he plays guitar on East Carson Street, sings duet vocals and plays lead guitar on Another thin line, and plays lead guitar on Broken wheel.
 
 

Lyrics

They come from everywhere all longing to be free
They come to join us here from sea to shining sea
And they all have a dream as people always will
To be safe and warm in that shining city on the hill

Some wanna slam the door instead of opening the gate
Ah let's turn this thing around now before it gets too late
It's up to me and you, love can conquer hate
I know this to be true, 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 going 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

I won't follow down that path and tempt the hands of fate
Ah let's turn this thing around before it gets too late
It's up to me and you, love can conquer hate
I know this to be true, that's what makes us great

In the quiet of the night I lie here wide awake
And I ask myself is there a difference I can make

Is there a difference I can make
It's up to me and you, love can conquer hate
It's up to me and you, love can conquer hate
It's up to me and you, love can conquer hate
I know this to be true and that's what makes us great
That's what makes us great
That's what makes us great
That's what makes us great