Bruce Springsteen had become increasingly downcast as a songwriter during his recording career, and his pessimism bottomed out with Nebraska. But Born in the U.S.A., his popular triumph, which threw off seven Top Ten hits and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, trafficked in much the same struggle, albeit set to galloping rhythms and set off by chiming guitars. That the witless wonders of the Reagan regime attempted to co-opt the title track as an election-year campaign song wasn't so surprising: the verses described the disenfranchisement of a lower-class Vietnam vet, and the chorus was intended to be angry, but it came off as anthemic. Then, too, Springsteen had softened his message with nostalgia and sentimentality, and those are always crowd-pleasers. "Glory Days" may have employed Springsteen's trademark disaffection, yet it came across as a couch potato's drunken lament. But more than anything else, Born in the U.S.A. marked the first time that Springsteen's characters really seemed to relish the fight and to have something to fight for. They were not defeated ("No Surrender"), and they had friendship ("Bobby Jean") and family ("My Hometown") to defend. The restless hero of "Dancing in the Dark" even pledged himself in the face of futility, and for Springsteen, that was a step. The "romantic young boys" of his first two albums, chastened by "the working life" encountered on his third, fourth, and fifth albums and having faced the despair of his sixth, were still alive on this, his seventh, with their sense of humor and their determination intact. Born in the U.S.A. was their apotheosis, the place where they renewed their commitment and where Springsteen remembered that he was a ock & roll star, which is how a vastly increased public was happy to treat him.
...I've had cuts from this LP on me for years on cassette and burned on CDS, when I got my shite digitized I scooped some of it's tunage in that Greatest Hits joint but it was just until a couple of days ago that I realized the import of what this, Bruce Springsteen's 7th LP at that point, meant when it dropped back in the summer of 1984...hard to believe it's been 23 years......this was the j...
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...I've had cuts from this LP on me for years on cassette and burned on CDS, when I got my shite digitized I scooped some of it's tunage in that Greatest Hits joint but it was just until a couple of days ago that I realized the import of what this, Bruce Springsteen's 7th LP at that point, meant when it dropped back in the summer of 1984...hard to believe it's been 23 years......this was the j...
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Last night during my drive home I'm on Fire came on the radio. I love this song. I'm on Fire reminds me of when I was a teenager living in Tejas. My parents bought me the cassette of Born in the U.S.A. for Navidad. I had this little mini boombox that I would bring everywhere and play Born in the U.S.A. I would sit in the back seat with mis hermanos and sing to them out loud. The funny thing was...
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...has been stuck in my head all day long. don't know why i was all of a sudden humming bruce springsteen or why i chose this song in particular, but it's been on repeat in my brain for the last 7 hours. o well, there could be worse songs...
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i know hes been around forever.. my dad for years has told me "son, if you want real rock n roll, get some Bruce Springsteen..."well it took long enough, but i finally bought the Born in the USA LP about a year ago for like 50 cents... i forgot about the album, left the country for a year, came back only a few months ago to find the album in my closet gathering dust next to my phill collins Fac...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Born in the U.S.A. |
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| 2 Cover Me |
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| 3 Darlington County |
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| 4 Working on the Highway |
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| 5 Downbound Train |
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| 6 I'm on Fire |
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| 7 No Surrender |
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| 8 Bobby Jean |
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| 9 I'm Goin' Down |
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| 10 Glory Days |
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| 11 Dancing in the Dark |
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| 12 My Hometown |
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 "Born in the U.S.A.")
