Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by rock singer-songwriter Br… Read Full Bio ↴Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. Often considered his most popular and commercial triumph, it saw Springsteen (in contrast to his previous album, the critical favorite Nebraska) experimenting with anthemic arrangements and a 1980s production incorporating a radio-friendly sound that was embraced warmly by both critics and the audience. Springsteen also delivered a new look to his public – he was reintroduced as a tougher and muscular rock star after two years of running and bodybuilding. These efforts and innovative strategies resulted in Springsteen's peak of commercial success – it was the best-selling album of 1985 in the United States, produced a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles (the most for a rock album in history) and became the best-selling album of Springsteen's career. In addition, it was supported with the highly successful two-year Born in the U.S.A. Tour. As part of its enduring popularity, the album impacted as a cultural phenomenon, with its title track often misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem and its cover (a close-up of a rear Springsteen in front of an American flag, as he was photographed by Annie Leibovitz) became one of the most recognizable images in American popular culture.
In 1981, Springsteen was asked to write some music for a film by Paul Schrader called Born in the U.S.A. Shortly after, when Springsteen was working on a song titled Vietnam, he glanced at the script and sang the title. The song, entitled as the work-in-progress movie, was already finished during the sessions of Springsteen's introspective album Nebraska, and Springsteen originally wanted to included on it. However, it was removed as it did not coincided with the dark feel of the rest of the songs. The same happened with other songs already cut around January or February 1982 – the energetic rocker "Cover Me" and the intimate "I'm on Fire". Then, between April and May, Springsteen composed and recorded a number of songs specifically intended for an album besides Nebraska at The Power Station in New York – "Born in the U.S.A.", "Darlington County", "Working on the Highway", "Downbound Train", "I'm Goin' Down" and "Glory Days". By mid-1982, most of the album was already recorded even over three months before the commercial release of Nebraska. In May 1983, Springsteen cut another song, "My Hometown" at The Hit Factory and around the end of the year he taped the two final tracks originally considered for the album – "No Surrender" and "Bobby Jean".
A last moment addition was "Dancing in the Dark", a song specifically commissioned by Springsteen's producer and manager Jon Landau, who was satisfied with the material recorded but wanted a blockbuster first single, one that was fresh and directly relevant to Springsteen's current state of mind. Landau and Springsteen got into an argument, but later on Springsteen wrote "Dancing in the Dark" with some trepidation. His irked mood from the day's argument combined with the frustrations at trying to complete the album quickly poured out into the lyrics. As he wrote on his 1998 book Songs, "It went as far in the direction of pop music as I wanted to go – and probably a little farther." However, Springsteen noted that "My heroes, from Hank Williams to Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan, were popular musicians. They had hits. There was value in trying to connect with a large audience."
One of the songs that was about to be left-off the album was No Surrender. Springsteen claimed that this was because "you don’t hold out and triumph all the time in life. You compromise, you suffer defeat; you slip into life’s gray areas." Steven Van Zandt, convinced Springsteen otherwise: "He argued that the portrait of friendship and the song’s expression of the inspirational power of rock music was an important part of the picture."
"Dancing in the Dark" was chosen as the first single for the album and it was released on May 4, 1984. The song surprised both critics and the public, as it showed the E Street Band using synthesizer for the first time. The track was enthusiastically received by both critics and the public, particularly pointing at Springsteen's change of sound on the wake of the blockbuster success of Michael Jackson's Thriller and the popularity of pop music in general in America. The song quickly climbed the charts, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #1 on the Cashbox singles charts for two weeks on June 30. "Dancing in the Dark" also provided Springsteen a Top 10 hit in several countries and the most successful single of his career. The album itself reached #1 on the Billboard 200 one week later, on July 7, spending the following three weeks also at the top. It came back to the #1 position on January 19, 1985 for three further weeks.
In late July, the next single, "Cover Me", was released, and reached at #7 on October. Then, the title track, a stinging tale of the hardships suffered by returning Vietnam veterans, was released immediately, eventually becoming one of Springsteen's best known songs, accumulating a considerable amount of folklore. The song's anthemic feel (and the music video, which featured scenes of waving flags and pastoral American communities reminiscent of a political campaign ad) led to widespread misinterpretation of the track's meaning. Springsteen was praised by US President Ronald Reagan as a great patriot. It was another Top 10 hit, reaching #9 in January 1985. Shortly, the follow-up, "I'm on Fire", released in February, was also a big hit, reaching #6 in May. The next month, "Glory Days" was also released, reaching #5 in August supported also with a music video. The last two singles, "I'm Goin' Down" and "My Hometown", released in September and November 1985 almost equaled the success of their predecessors, and even with no music videos and less airplay, they managed to reach #9 and #6.
Overall, then, Columbia released a total of seven singles for the album in the United States, a particularly strange feat for a rock album, especially coming from Springsteen, who was seen at the time essentially as an "albums artist". (There was some controversy surrounding the release of its latest singles, with Cliff Bernstein, as manager of Def Leppard and Dokken, considered that "a sixth single is a little bit of overkill.") Thanks to these singles, Springsteen was an almost constant presence on the Billboard Hot 100 between May 1984 and March 1986. All seven received extensive promotion, enjoyed respectable sales and gained considerable airplay, and four of them were supported with music videos. With this strong support, the album achieved a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 by an album (equaling the record achieved by Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) and later also equaled by Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). The constant presence of Springsteen in the music industry represented an invaluable support for the album, which enjoyed an impressive staying power on the charts, spending its 84 first weeks at the Top 10 (which included the whole calendar year of 1985) and a total of 139 weeks on the entire list. Despite being released as early as June 1984, it was the best-selling album of 1985 in the United States.
In terms of sales, Born in the U.S.A.'s were enourmous. In the U.S., on July 8, 1984, just one month after its release, it received a Platinum certification by the RIAA. Further certifications were awarded throughout the following year, and on November 1, 1985 (when the final single wasn't still even released and the album was still on the Top 10) it was certified Diamond (recognizing ten million copies sold only in America). It eventually reached a 15xPlatinum certification on April 19, 1995. In all, Born in the U.S.A. sold 15 million copies in the United States and at least other 10 million internationally. It still stands as the best-selling rock album by a solo artist.
Born in the U.S.A. was also notable for its production of music videos. In the wake of the success of Michael Jackson's Thriller, supported with creative, polished and high-budget music videos, Springsteen adopted the format for the first time in 1984 and recorded promotional videos for four out of the seven singles of Born in the U.S.A.. This videos were decisive for introducing Springsteen's music to a new, younger, and wider audience, as they received heavy rotation and support by the recently-launched MTV.
The video for "Dancing in the Dark" was directed by Brian DePalma. Set at a live performance, it's perhaps best remembered for the appearance of Courteney Cox as a fan who is invited on stage by Springsteen, and dances with him. (The video played a large role in launching Cox's career, which reached its heights when becoming one of the stars of NBC's sitcom Friends.) The video was filmed in June 1984 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, before and during the initial show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour and first aired on July 10, 1984 on MTV. The next video for the album was the one made for the title track. It was directed by noted filmmaker John Sayles and also consisted of video concert footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band performing the song, poorly synchronized with audio from the studio recording. Released in mid-December 1984, there supposedly had not been enough time to mix the audio from the concert. This footage was intermixed with compelling mid-1980s scenes of working-class America, emphasizing images that had some connection with the song, including Vietnam veterans, Amerasian children, assembly lines, oil refineries, cemeteries, and the like, finishing with a grizzled Springsteen posing in front of an American flag.
The other two videos for the album were more ambitious productions, as portrayed storylines that alluded to the emotions of the songs. The video for "I'm on Fire", shot in March 1985 in Los Angeles, and also directed by Sayles, featured Springsteen as a working class automobile mechanic and an attractive, married, very well-to-do, mostly unseen female customer who brings her vintage Ford Thunderbird in for frequent servicing, always requesting that he does the work. She gives him all her keys, not just the ones for the car. Later that night, he drives the T-Bird up to her mansion high in the hills above the city. He is about to ring the bell, when he thinks better of it, smiles wistfully, drops her keys in the mailbox next to the door and walks away down towards the lights below. It was the first video showing Springsteen's actoral side, it began airing in mid-April 1985 and, later in the year won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
The final video for the album was the one shot for "Glory Days". It was shot in late May 1985 in various locations in New Jersey, and also directed by Sailes. It featured a narrative story of Springsteen, playing the protagonist in the song, talking to his young son and pitching to a wooden backstop against an imaginary lineup (he eventually lost the game to Graig Nettles). Intercut with these were scenes of Springsteen and the E Street Band lip-synching the song in a bar. Although he had left the band more than two years earlier, Steven Van Zandt was invited back to perform in this video, along with his sometimes hysterical stage antics but the two new members of the band, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa, who had not been on the record at all, were also featured. Springsteen's then-wife Julianne Phillips made a cameo appearance at the baseball field at the end. The video began airing on MTV in mid-June 1985.
In an effort (a first for Springsteen) to gain dance and club play for his music, and more non-whites in his audience, remixes for the first singles from the album were executed by maestro Arthur Baker. He first created the 12-inch "Blaster Mix" of "Dancing in the Dark", wherein he completely reworked the album version. Overdubbed were tom-toms, dulcimers, glockenspiel, assorted backing vocals, bass and horn sythesizer parts, and gunshot sounds. Springsteen's vocal part was chopped up, double-tracked, echoed and repeated, with certain lines such as "You sit around getting older" and "Heeey, baby!" made even more prominent. The remix was released on July 2, 1984 and generated a lot of media buzz for Springsteen, as well as actual club play. It went to #7 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and had the most sales of any 12-inch single in the United States in 1984. However, many of Springsteen's hard-core rock fans, who had been suspicious of the new sound of "Dancing in the Dark" to begin with, despised the remix. Baker was subsequently quoted in angry response: "I got really offended. What is so different? It has a fucking glockenspiel, which Bruce has used before, background vocals ... it's no different. See, if any of those mixes had come out before, with no one knowing the other version, no one would have said a word."
Baker created the 12-inch "Undercover Mix" of "Cover Me" next, making a large-scale transformation: a new bass line was cut, an unused backing vocal by industry legend Jocelyn Brown was restored, and reggae and dub elements were introduced. Released on October 15, 1984, it also found displeasing from many fans, but managed to reached #11 on the Dance charts. Finally, on January 10, 1985, it was released the 12-inch "Freedom Mix" of "Born in the U.S.A.". It was a fairly radical remixing, even more so than those Baker had done for the album's previous singles. The mix removed any (possibly misleading) anthemic elements and pushed the song's mournfulness to the front. Synthesizer, glockenspiel, and drums were chopped up and isolated against Springsteen vocal fragments saying "Oh my God, no," and "U.S.A.—U.S.—U.S.—U.S.A." This remix was the least commercially successful of Baker's efforts, however, as unlike the prior two it failed to appear on Billboard's Dance chart.
As of 1984, was an American megastar for almost a decade. However, as Larry Rodgers interpreted it, "it was not until hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in Annie Leibovitz’s famous cover photo for Born in the U.S.A. that he became an American pop icon" , touching off a wave of Bossmania (as author Chris Smith described it ).
For the album, Springsteen reintroduced himself as a muscular and sexually-charged rocker after his addoption of constant wearing of tight blue jeans, white t-shirts and bandanas, and also an intensive physical training that included years of running, weightlifting and bodybuilding.
According to Bryan K. Garman, in his book A Race of Singers – Whitman's Working-Class Hero From Guthrie to Springsteen", these new image helped Springsteen to popularize his image on a new scale, but also brought him a decisive attachement to political and sociocultural issues, in the times when Ronald Reagan was reviving a patriotic pride by reaffirming the values of prosperity, expansion, and world domination of the United States "within a decidedly masculine framework".
For Garman, as Reagan's combination of masculinity and nationalism shaped a popular culture that "remasculinized" the country's image of, Americans found themselves reading and watching about the Vietnam War, trying to come to terms with the lost war and the soldiers who fought it. At the time, the huge popularity of Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" films demonstrated both the public's fascination with the Vietnam veteran and the symbiotic relationship that existed between the Reagan presidency and much of the popular culture of its era. According to the author, Springsteen found himself enmeshed in the ideologies and symbols that Rambo and Reagan represented. In August 1985, the Chicago Tribune, coining a slogan that would soon appear on novelty T-shirts and bumper stickers throughout the country, declared him the Rambo of rock and roll, and a national hero who, like Stallone's character, "only wants America to love him as much as he loves it." According to this editorial, Springsteen reprised "the defiant, good ol' boy, blue-collar skepticism of Merle Haggard".
At the time, it was a common thought that both Rambo and Springsteen shared the same politics. As Garman puts it, "Stallone and springsteen addressed questions of national identity, confronted the legacy of Vietnam, and, in some ways, physically resembled each other: they both had dark shoulder-length hair, wore bandanas as part of their costumes, and flaunted their muscular physiques. To be sure, the heroic and sexualized image that Springsteen cultivated was an important component of his popularity and in large part accounted for his appropiation by the Right." He also mentions that Springsteen began also to be characterized by a kind of stage performance that "(on one level) liberates his fans by presenting the possibility of sexual freedom. On another, it reaffirms the power of masculinity." Garman concluded his analysis with the sentence: "Like Reagan and Rambo, the apparently working-class Springsteen was for many American a white hard-bodied hero whose masculinity confirmed the values of patriarchy and patriotism, the work ethic and rugged individualism, and who clearly demarcated the boundaries between men and women, black and white, heterosexual and homosexual."
Throughout time, the album did not lose its cultural and social relevance and was re-introduced to succesive generations. As an example, even two decades after its original release, Rolling Stone published a celebrated cover showing Simpons's character Homer Simpson in a re-make of the cover of the album. Springsteen himself noted on his 1998 book Songs: "“For years after the release of the album, at Halloween, I had little kids in red bandanas knocking on at my door... singing, I was born in the U.S.A. They were not particularly well-versed in the Had a brother at Khe Sahn lyric.”
Born in the U.S.A. was received by music critics with mostly unniversal acclaim and praise. However, some argued its evident commercial edge and synthesized production, especially when compared to the obscure, introspective predecessor, the critical favourite Nebraska. That wasn't a problem for respected authors as Robert Christgau, who, at the time of release, gave an A+ to the album, recognizing it as his "most rhythmically propulsive, vocally incisive, lyrically balanced, and commercially undeniable album." He added that "the aural vibrancy of the thing reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn't that it was catchy or even vibrant but that it just plain sounded good." He finally stated that, "while Nebraska's one-note vision may be more left-correct, my instincts (not to mention my leftism) tell me that this uptempo worldview is truer." Rolling Stone also praised the album, giving it five out of five stars, highlighting the prevalecence of umptempo songs, and calling it an album of "rowdy, indomitable spirit" AllMusic also gave five stars to the album, with William Ruhlmann considering that it was the apotheosis of the E Street Band and a culmination of a road traced since their very beginning – "the place where they renewed their commitment and where Springsteen remembered that he was a rock & roll star, which is how a vastly increased public was happy to treat him."
In June 2009, the album confirmed its enduring popularity as many critics and journalists revisited the album with particularly enthusiasm as its theme coincided with the "new hope" bought in the wake of the Obama era. However, in July, author Charles A. Hohman spread controversy when criticized the album on Pop Matters for "stressing male sexuality as imperative to the American Dream" and leaving women out of the picture or, in any case, on a dominated position. According to him. "from the hypermasculine stance on the cover to Springsteen's forcefully vigorous vocals throughout, Born in the U.S.A. is an album about masculinity, clearly operating from a man's point of view. To Springsteen's credit, his women are seldom sex objects, and when they are, such as on "Darlington County", that objectification is punished. However, there is little subversion of assigned gender roles within Springsteen’s portraits. In fact, his women are largely powerless, kept firmly in the private sphere, functioning as trophies or even as entitlements for the male protagonists." Hohman also pointed that on the album, "just as women can protect from the storms raging in the cutthroat, rough-and-tumble working world, they can be the storm as well. The pursuit of women, like the pursuit of money and prosperity, can lead to danger, corruption, even punishment. And so after championing the safeguarding contentment that women can provide once attained, Born launches into two hard-luck delinquent tales, tragicomic and almost cinematic narratives of men chasing women as one more essential piece to their ideal American life. "Darlington County" and "Working on the Highway" are Born's most linear, and arguably most obscure, compositions, but both illustrate the troubles that can trap men in search of female companionship."
Born in the U.S.A. was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 2003, the album was ranked number 85 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 1989, it was rated #6 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. Chris Smith also included the album in his book 101 Albums that Changed Popular Music, stating that it was, lyrically, "as desperate as Nebraska, but the energy of the E Street Band brought the songs such power that many mistook the album–and the title track in particular– as a celebration of patriotism devoid of any critical commentary."
Despite the blockbuster success and critical acclaim of the album, Springsteen often expressed some mixed feelings about it. He often considered that Nebraska contains some of his strongest writing, while Born in the U.S.A. didn't necessarily follow suit. The title track, "more or less stood by itself,” he declared. "The rest of the album contains a group of songs about which I’ve always had some ambivalence." Even so, and despite calling it the "grab-bag nature" of the album, he acknowledged its powerful effect on his career, claiming: "Born in the U.S.A. changed my life and gave me my largest audience. It forced me to question the way I presented my music and made me think harder about what I was doing."
The title track inspired the celebrated Annie Leibowitz photo of Springsteen's butt against the backdrop of an American flag. Bruce had to be convinced to use it as the album's cover. Some people thought it depicted Springsteen urinating on the flag.
Born in the U.S.A. became the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release, when CBS Records opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984. Discs previously had been imported from Japan.
In 2004, Senator John Kerry used "No Surrender" as his campaign theme song during his 2004 presidential campaign. Springsteen performed the song at several Kerry rallies during the campaign.
As on Billboard, all seven Born in the U.S.A.'s singles reached the Top 10 on the Cashbox singles chart. They reached #1 ("Dancing in the Dark"), #7 ("My Hometown"), #8 ("I'm on Fire"), #9 ("Born in the U.S.A.", "Glory Days" and "I'm Goin' Down") and #10 ("Cover Me").
In 1981, Springsteen was asked to write some music for a film by Paul Schrader called Born in the U.S.A. Shortly after, when Springsteen was working on a song titled Vietnam, he glanced at the script and sang the title. The song, entitled as the work-in-progress movie, was already finished during the sessions of Springsteen's introspective album Nebraska, and Springsteen originally wanted to included on it. However, it was removed as it did not coincided with the dark feel of the rest of the songs. The same happened with other songs already cut around January or February 1982 – the energetic rocker "Cover Me" and the intimate "I'm on Fire". Then, between April and May, Springsteen composed and recorded a number of songs specifically intended for an album besides Nebraska at The Power Station in New York – "Born in the U.S.A.", "Darlington County", "Working on the Highway", "Downbound Train", "I'm Goin' Down" and "Glory Days". By mid-1982, most of the album was already recorded even over three months before the commercial release of Nebraska. In May 1983, Springsteen cut another song, "My Hometown" at The Hit Factory and around the end of the year he taped the two final tracks originally considered for the album – "No Surrender" and "Bobby Jean".
A last moment addition was "Dancing in the Dark", a song specifically commissioned by Springsteen's producer and manager Jon Landau, who was satisfied with the material recorded but wanted a blockbuster first single, one that was fresh and directly relevant to Springsteen's current state of mind. Landau and Springsteen got into an argument, but later on Springsteen wrote "Dancing in the Dark" with some trepidation. His irked mood from the day's argument combined with the frustrations at trying to complete the album quickly poured out into the lyrics. As he wrote on his 1998 book Songs, "It went as far in the direction of pop music as I wanted to go – and probably a little farther." However, Springsteen noted that "My heroes, from Hank Williams to Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan, were popular musicians. They had hits. There was value in trying to connect with a large audience."
One of the songs that was about to be left-off the album was No Surrender. Springsteen claimed that this was because "you don’t hold out and triumph all the time in life. You compromise, you suffer defeat; you slip into life’s gray areas." Steven Van Zandt, convinced Springsteen otherwise: "He argued that the portrait of friendship and the song’s expression of the inspirational power of rock music was an important part of the picture."
"Dancing in the Dark" was chosen as the first single for the album and it was released on May 4, 1984. The song surprised both critics and the public, as it showed the E Street Band using synthesizer for the first time. The track was enthusiastically received by both critics and the public, particularly pointing at Springsteen's change of sound on the wake of the blockbuster success of Michael Jackson's Thriller and the popularity of pop music in general in America. The song quickly climbed the charts, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #1 on the Cashbox singles charts for two weeks on June 30. "Dancing in the Dark" also provided Springsteen a Top 10 hit in several countries and the most successful single of his career. The album itself reached #1 on the Billboard 200 one week later, on July 7, spending the following three weeks also at the top. It came back to the #1 position on January 19, 1985 for three further weeks.
In late July, the next single, "Cover Me", was released, and reached at #7 on October. Then, the title track, a stinging tale of the hardships suffered by returning Vietnam veterans, was released immediately, eventually becoming one of Springsteen's best known songs, accumulating a considerable amount of folklore. The song's anthemic feel (and the music video, which featured scenes of waving flags and pastoral American communities reminiscent of a political campaign ad) led to widespread misinterpretation of the track's meaning. Springsteen was praised by US President Ronald Reagan as a great patriot. It was another Top 10 hit, reaching #9 in January 1985. Shortly, the follow-up, "I'm on Fire", released in February, was also a big hit, reaching #6 in May. The next month, "Glory Days" was also released, reaching #5 in August supported also with a music video. The last two singles, "I'm Goin' Down" and "My Hometown", released in September and November 1985 almost equaled the success of their predecessors, and even with no music videos and less airplay, they managed to reach #9 and #6.
Overall, then, Columbia released a total of seven singles for the album in the United States, a particularly strange feat for a rock album, especially coming from Springsteen, who was seen at the time essentially as an "albums artist". (There was some controversy surrounding the release of its latest singles, with Cliff Bernstein, as manager of Def Leppard and Dokken, considered that "a sixth single is a little bit of overkill.") Thanks to these singles, Springsteen was an almost constant presence on the Billboard Hot 100 between May 1984 and March 1986. All seven received extensive promotion, enjoyed respectable sales and gained considerable airplay, and four of them were supported with music videos. With this strong support, the album achieved a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 by an album (equaling the record achieved by Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) and later also equaled by Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). The constant presence of Springsteen in the music industry represented an invaluable support for the album, which enjoyed an impressive staying power on the charts, spending its 84 first weeks at the Top 10 (which included the whole calendar year of 1985) and a total of 139 weeks on the entire list. Despite being released as early as June 1984, it was the best-selling album of 1985 in the United States.
In terms of sales, Born in the U.S.A.'s were enourmous. In the U.S., on July 8, 1984, just one month after its release, it received a Platinum certification by the RIAA. Further certifications were awarded throughout the following year, and on November 1, 1985 (when the final single wasn't still even released and the album was still on the Top 10) it was certified Diamond (recognizing ten million copies sold only in America). It eventually reached a 15xPlatinum certification on April 19, 1995. In all, Born in the U.S.A. sold 15 million copies in the United States and at least other 10 million internationally. It still stands as the best-selling rock album by a solo artist.
Born in the U.S.A. was also notable for its production of music videos. In the wake of the success of Michael Jackson's Thriller, supported with creative, polished and high-budget music videos, Springsteen adopted the format for the first time in 1984 and recorded promotional videos for four out of the seven singles of Born in the U.S.A.. This videos were decisive for introducing Springsteen's music to a new, younger, and wider audience, as they received heavy rotation and support by the recently-launched MTV.
The video for "Dancing in the Dark" was directed by Brian DePalma. Set at a live performance, it's perhaps best remembered for the appearance of Courteney Cox as a fan who is invited on stage by Springsteen, and dances with him. (The video played a large role in launching Cox's career, which reached its heights when becoming one of the stars of NBC's sitcom Friends.) The video was filmed in June 1984 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, before and during the initial show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour and first aired on July 10, 1984 on MTV. The next video for the album was the one made for the title track. It was directed by noted filmmaker John Sayles and also consisted of video concert footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band performing the song, poorly synchronized with audio from the studio recording. Released in mid-December 1984, there supposedly had not been enough time to mix the audio from the concert. This footage was intermixed with compelling mid-1980s scenes of working-class America, emphasizing images that had some connection with the song, including Vietnam veterans, Amerasian children, assembly lines, oil refineries, cemeteries, and the like, finishing with a grizzled Springsteen posing in front of an American flag.
The other two videos for the album were more ambitious productions, as portrayed storylines that alluded to the emotions of the songs. The video for "I'm on Fire", shot in March 1985 in Los Angeles, and also directed by Sayles, featured Springsteen as a working class automobile mechanic and an attractive, married, very well-to-do, mostly unseen female customer who brings her vintage Ford Thunderbird in for frequent servicing, always requesting that he does the work. She gives him all her keys, not just the ones for the car. Later that night, he drives the T-Bird up to her mansion high in the hills above the city. He is about to ring the bell, when he thinks better of it, smiles wistfully, drops her keys in the mailbox next to the door and walks away down towards the lights below. It was the first video showing Springsteen's actoral side, it began airing in mid-April 1985 and, later in the year won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
The final video for the album was the one shot for "Glory Days". It was shot in late May 1985 in various locations in New Jersey, and also directed by Sailes. It featured a narrative story of Springsteen, playing the protagonist in the song, talking to his young son and pitching to a wooden backstop against an imaginary lineup (he eventually lost the game to Graig Nettles). Intercut with these were scenes of Springsteen and the E Street Band lip-synching the song in a bar. Although he had left the band more than two years earlier, Steven Van Zandt was invited back to perform in this video, along with his sometimes hysterical stage antics but the two new members of the band, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa, who had not been on the record at all, were also featured. Springsteen's then-wife Julianne Phillips made a cameo appearance at the baseball field at the end. The video began airing on MTV in mid-June 1985.
In an effort (a first for Springsteen) to gain dance and club play for his music, and more non-whites in his audience, remixes for the first singles from the album were executed by maestro Arthur Baker. He first created the 12-inch "Blaster Mix" of "Dancing in the Dark", wherein he completely reworked the album version. Overdubbed were tom-toms, dulcimers, glockenspiel, assorted backing vocals, bass and horn sythesizer parts, and gunshot sounds. Springsteen's vocal part was chopped up, double-tracked, echoed and repeated, with certain lines such as "You sit around getting older" and "Heeey, baby!" made even more prominent. The remix was released on July 2, 1984 and generated a lot of media buzz for Springsteen, as well as actual club play. It went to #7 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and had the most sales of any 12-inch single in the United States in 1984. However, many of Springsteen's hard-core rock fans, who had been suspicious of the new sound of "Dancing in the Dark" to begin with, despised the remix. Baker was subsequently quoted in angry response: "I got really offended. What is so different? It has a fucking glockenspiel, which Bruce has used before, background vocals ... it's no different. See, if any of those mixes had come out before, with no one knowing the other version, no one would have said a word."
Baker created the 12-inch "Undercover Mix" of "Cover Me" next, making a large-scale transformation: a new bass line was cut, an unused backing vocal by industry legend Jocelyn Brown was restored, and reggae and dub elements were introduced. Released on October 15, 1984, it also found displeasing from many fans, but managed to reached #11 on the Dance charts. Finally, on January 10, 1985, it was released the 12-inch "Freedom Mix" of "Born in the U.S.A.". It was a fairly radical remixing, even more so than those Baker had done for the album's previous singles. The mix removed any (possibly misleading) anthemic elements and pushed the song's mournfulness to the front. Synthesizer, glockenspiel, and drums were chopped up and isolated against Springsteen vocal fragments saying "Oh my God, no," and "U.S.A.—U.S.—U.S.—U.S.A." This remix was the least commercially successful of Baker's efforts, however, as unlike the prior two it failed to appear on Billboard's Dance chart.
As of 1984, was an American megastar for almost a decade. However, as Larry Rodgers interpreted it, "it was not until hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in Annie Leibovitz’s famous cover photo for Born in the U.S.A. that he became an American pop icon" , touching off a wave of Bossmania (as author Chris Smith described it ).
For the album, Springsteen reintroduced himself as a muscular and sexually-charged rocker after his addoption of constant wearing of tight blue jeans, white t-shirts and bandanas, and also an intensive physical training that included years of running, weightlifting and bodybuilding.
According to Bryan K. Garman, in his book A Race of Singers – Whitman's Working-Class Hero From Guthrie to Springsteen", these new image helped Springsteen to popularize his image on a new scale, but also brought him a decisive attachement to political and sociocultural issues, in the times when Ronald Reagan was reviving a patriotic pride by reaffirming the values of prosperity, expansion, and world domination of the United States "within a decidedly masculine framework".
For Garman, as Reagan's combination of masculinity and nationalism shaped a popular culture that "remasculinized" the country's image of, Americans found themselves reading and watching about the Vietnam War, trying to come to terms with the lost war and the soldiers who fought it. At the time, the huge popularity of Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" films demonstrated both the public's fascination with the Vietnam veteran and the symbiotic relationship that existed between the Reagan presidency and much of the popular culture of its era. According to the author, Springsteen found himself enmeshed in the ideologies and symbols that Rambo and Reagan represented. In August 1985, the Chicago Tribune, coining a slogan that would soon appear on novelty T-shirts and bumper stickers throughout the country, declared him the Rambo of rock and roll, and a national hero who, like Stallone's character, "only wants America to love him as much as he loves it." According to this editorial, Springsteen reprised "the defiant, good ol' boy, blue-collar skepticism of Merle Haggard".
At the time, it was a common thought that both Rambo and Springsteen shared the same politics. As Garman puts it, "Stallone and springsteen addressed questions of national identity, confronted the legacy of Vietnam, and, in some ways, physically resembled each other: they both had dark shoulder-length hair, wore bandanas as part of their costumes, and flaunted their muscular physiques. To be sure, the heroic and sexualized image that Springsteen cultivated was an important component of his popularity and in large part accounted for his appropiation by the Right." He also mentions that Springsteen began also to be characterized by a kind of stage performance that "(on one level) liberates his fans by presenting the possibility of sexual freedom. On another, it reaffirms the power of masculinity." Garman concluded his analysis with the sentence: "Like Reagan and Rambo, the apparently working-class Springsteen was for many American a white hard-bodied hero whose masculinity confirmed the values of patriarchy and patriotism, the work ethic and rugged individualism, and who clearly demarcated the boundaries between men and women, black and white, heterosexual and homosexual."
Throughout time, the album did not lose its cultural and social relevance and was re-introduced to succesive generations. As an example, even two decades after its original release, Rolling Stone published a celebrated cover showing Simpons's character Homer Simpson in a re-make of the cover of the album. Springsteen himself noted on his 1998 book Songs: "“For years after the release of the album, at Halloween, I had little kids in red bandanas knocking on at my door... singing, I was born in the U.S.A. They were not particularly well-versed in the Had a brother at Khe Sahn lyric.”
Born in the U.S.A. was received by music critics with mostly unniversal acclaim and praise. However, some argued its evident commercial edge and synthesized production, especially when compared to the obscure, introspective predecessor, the critical favourite Nebraska. That wasn't a problem for respected authors as Robert Christgau, who, at the time of release, gave an A+ to the album, recognizing it as his "most rhythmically propulsive, vocally incisive, lyrically balanced, and commercially undeniable album." He added that "the aural vibrancy of the thing reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn't that it was catchy or even vibrant but that it just plain sounded good." He finally stated that, "while Nebraska's one-note vision may be more left-correct, my instincts (not to mention my leftism) tell me that this uptempo worldview is truer." Rolling Stone also praised the album, giving it five out of five stars, highlighting the prevalecence of umptempo songs, and calling it an album of "rowdy, indomitable spirit" AllMusic also gave five stars to the album, with William Ruhlmann considering that it was the apotheosis of the E Street Band and a culmination of a road traced since their very beginning – "the place where they renewed their commitment and where Springsteen remembered that he was a rock & roll star, which is how a vastly increased public was happy to treat him."
In June 2009, the album confirmed its enduring popularity as many critics and journalists revisited the album with particularly enthusiasm as its theme coincided with the "new hope" bought in the wake of the Obama era. However, in July, author Charles A. Hohman spread controversy when criticized the album on Pop Matters for "stressing male sexuality as imperative to the American Dream" and leaving women out of the picture or, in any case, on a dominated position. According to him. "from the hypermasculine stance on the cover to Springsteen's forcefully vigorous vocals throughout, Born in the U.S.A. is an album about masculinity, clearly operating from a man's point of view. To Springsteen's credit, his women are seldom sex objects, and when they are, such as on "Darlington County", that objectification is punished. However, there is little subversion of assigned gender roles within Springsteen’s portraits. In fact, his women are largely powerless, kept firmly in the private sphere, functioning as trophies or even as entitlements for the male protagonists." Hohman also pointed that on the album, "just as women can protect from the storms raging in the cutthroat, rough-and-tumble working world, they can be the storm as well. The pursuit of women, like the pursuit of money and prosperity, can lead to danger, corruption, even punishment. And so after championing the safeguarding contentment that women can provide once attained, Born launches into two hard-luck delinquent tales, tragicomic and almost cinematic narratives of men chasing women as one more essential piece to their ideal American life. "Darlington County" and "Working on the Highway" are Born's most linear, and arguably most obscure, compositions, but both illustrate the troubles that can trap men in search of female companionship."
Born in the U.S.A. was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 2003, the album was ranked number 85 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 1989, it was rated #6 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. Chris Smith also included the album in his book 101 Albums that Changed Popular Music, stating that it was, lyrically, "as desperate as Nebraska, but the energy of the E Street Band brought the songs such power that many mistook the album–and the title track in particular– as a celebration of patriotism devoid of any critical commentary."
Despite the blockbuster success and critical acclaim of the album, Springsteen often expressed some mixed feelings about it. He often considered that Nebraska contains some of his strongest writing, while Born in the U.S.A. didn't necessarily follow suit. The title track, "more or less stood by itself,” he declared. "The rest of the album contains a group of songs about which I’ve always had some ambivalence." Even so, and despite calling it the "grab-bag nature" of the album, he acknowledged its powerful effect on his career, claiming: "Born in the U.S.A. changed my life and gave me my largest audience. It forced me to question the way I presented my music and made me think harder about what I was doing."
The title track inspired the celebrated Annie Leibowitz photo of Springsteen's butt against the backdrop of an American flag. Bruce had to be convinced to use it as the album's cover. Some people thought it depicted Springsteen urinating on the flag.
Born in the U.S.A. became the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release, when CBS Records opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984. Discs previously had been imported from Japan.
In 2004, Senator John Kerry used "No Surrender" as his campaign theme song during his 2004 presidential campaign. Springsteen performed the song at several Kerry rallies during the campaign.
As on Billboard, all seven Born in the U.S.A.'s singles reached the Top 10 on the Cashbox singles chart. They reached #1 ("Dancing in the Dark"), #7 ("My Hometown"), #8 ("I'm on Fire"), #9 ("Born in the U.S.A.", "Glory Days" and "I'm Goin' Down") and #10 ("Cover Me").
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Born in the U.S.A.
Bruce Springsteen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just to cover it up now
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Born in the USA now
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my VA man
He said, "Son, don't you understand now?"
(Ok)
(No, no)
(No, no, no)
I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off all the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA now
Born in the USA
I'm a long gone Daddy in the USA now
Born in the USA
Born in the USA
Born in the USA
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the USA now
(Oh, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
(Oh, no, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
Hey
(Oh, no, no)
Woo
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just to cover it up now
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Born in the USA now
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my VA man
He said, "Son, don't you understand now?"
(Ok)
(No, no)
(No, no, no)
I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off all the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA now
Born in the USA
I'm a long gone Daddy in the USA now
Born in the USA
Born in the USA
Born in the USA
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the USA now
(Oh, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
(Oh, no, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
Hey
(Oh, no, no)
Woo
"Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen was a hit song that represented the struggles of America's working class, particularly the life of the Vietnam War veterans. The song begins with the phrase "Born down in a dead man's town," which implies that the singer grew up in a poverty-stricken area. The phrase "The first kick I took was when I hit the ground" suggests that the singer was born into a difficult life that was filled with problems.
The singer of the song is a veteran who was sent to fight in the Vietnam War when he says "Got in a little hometown jam, So they put a rifle in my hands, Sent me off to a foreign land, To go and kill the yellow man." The lyrics of the song offer a powerful critique of the way the US handled its soldiers when they returned from the war. The chorus "Born in the USA" is often misinterpreted as a patriotic chant, while in reality, it is a cry of despair from the singer who feels trapped by his past; he cannot escape his experiences in Vietnam even though he has to live with them.
To sum up, "Born in the U.S.A." is not a patriotic song but a critique of the country's treatment of its working-class citizens and veterans. Springsteen's song speaks to the idea that the American dream can be a false promise, and that even when someone is born in the country, it does not necessarily guarantee them a brighter future.
Line by Line Meaning
Born down in a dead man's town
I was born in a place where there are no opportunities
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
My very existence was a struggle
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
I have been oppressed to the point of hopelessness
'Til you spend half your life just to cover it up now
The only way to survive is to numb out the pain
Born in the USA
I was born in America
Got in a little hometown jam
Got in some trouble without many options
So they put a rifle in my hands
I was forced into war
Sent me off to a foreign land
I was sent to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man
To fight against the Vietnamese people
Come back home to the refinery
After the war, I was not welcomed back with open arms
Hiring man said, 'Son if it was up to me'
I was not able to find work
Went down to see my VA man
I went to the Veterans Affairs office
He said, 'Son, don't you understand now?'
There is no help for me
(Ok)
(No, no)
(No, no, no)
I had a brother at Khe Sanh
I had a brother who fought at Khe Sanh
Fighting off all the Viet Cong
He fought against the Vietnamese army
They're still there, he's all gone
He lost his life in combat
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
He had a girlfriend in Vietnam
I got a picture of him in her arms now
I have a photo of my brother and his girlfriend
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
I am near a prison
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I am working in a harsh environment
I'm ten years burning down the road
I have been on this hard journey for a long time
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
I am stuck in this place
I'm a long gone Daddy in the USA now
I am a disengaged father
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the USA now
I am a detached father who copes with the pain through music
(Oh, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
(Oh, no, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
Hey
(Oh, no, no)
Woo
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Bruce Springsteen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind