This past June marked the 40th Anniversary of the release of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. It was Springsteen’s seventh LP, and the commercial breakthrough that propelled him to superstardom. While some critics and fans bristle at Born in the U.S.A. as a calculated move to make mainstream Springsteen a star, the album was the result of a great deal of soul searching and could have been much darker.
Springsteen began writing many of the songs for this album soon after he and the E Street Band completed their world tour for his 1981 double album, The River. Confused about his place in the world, and dealing with serious depression, Springsteen secluded himself in a remote Jersey house and recorded a series of brooding demos that were a harsh reflection of his mind and America at that time. The intent of those demos was to bring them to the E Street Band and record them for the next album. Sessions for Born in the U.S.A. began in 1982. Some of the songs on Born in the U.S.A. came from those early sessions. However, Springsteen wasn't happy with how the band versions of the other demos sounded. He and his producer/manager, Jon Landau, took a risk (as did Columbia Records) and released most of the demos, as is. That release was Nebraska, one of Springsteen's landmark records. In the meantime, Springsteen wrote new songs and the recording sessions carried on. The recording and decision-making process for Born in the U.S.A. became tense between Springsteen, Landau and Little Steven Van Zandt, then Springsteen's co-producer, guitarist, and consigliere. Van Zandt would quit the E Street Band before Born in the U.S.A. hit record store shelves.
That’s a lot of backstory, but I wanted to give the details to refute the claims that Born in the U.S.A. was some kind of overly calculated production. Do the record’s synths and the great Bob Clearmountain’s mix give the album a pop sheen? Absolutely. Is the story true that Landau sent Bruce back home before the album was released because he didn't hear "the hit single" and Bruce, frustrated with Landau, wrote "Dancing in the Dark?" Yep. Did Springsteen work on his physique to look rock solid for the videos from Born in the U.S.A.? Probably. But there was a real struggle to complete this album and the overall tone reflects Springsteen's state of mind from those Nebraska sessions. The often wildly misinterpreted title track, "Cover Me," "Working on a Highway," "Downbound Train," and yes, "Dancing in the Dark," all cover dark terrain. The narrator of “I’m on Fire,” Springsteen’s smoldering homage to the songs of Johnny Cash, doesn’t wind up with the girl. He just lays there fantasizing about her.Even the album closer, "My Hometown," a song that I once debated ended on an optimistic note, is not the cheery, patriotic song some people consider it. Born in the U.S.A. is no happy affair. People leave, people reminisce, and no one seems to win, really.
But damn this album sounds fantastic.
Every song on Born in the U.S.A. leaps from your speakers and fill you with the passion and soul and conviction of Springsteen and the E Street Band. I'd argue that it's Springsteen's most listenable album. It's an easy entry point into the career of the Boss. Because of that, and the role it plays as a gateway to his more introspective and socially conscious work, I definitely place it his my personal top five of Springsteen's many albums.
Honestly, there are times I have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to the bleakness of Nebraska, the isolation of Tunnel of Love, the starkness of Darkness on the Edge of Town, or the sadness of The Rising, but I could put on Born in the U.S.A. anytime and listen to it straight through. The music itself uplifts you, even if the lyrics have a deeper meaning. It’s a masterpiece in the vein of Spielberg’s E.T. – a work of popular art that works on a deeper level if you’re willing to scratch below the surface.
I was gifted a piece of artwork called "My 90's Tapes" by an artist named Jeff Klarin (https://www.bughouse.com/wall-of-sounds/choose-a-tape-collection-print. It looks like one of my own collections at that time, a mix of rock/classic rock, pop, new wave, punk, dance, heavy metal and soundtracks. I decided to use this artwork as a writing prompt to review all 115 albums pictured and share some personal anecdotes along the way. Consider this me dipping my toe back into the Basement Songs pool.
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