The Boss wants you to Kiss His Ass.
Continuing my 100 favorite CD list is Number 40 - you know, when I started this list I imagined getting through it much faster. Guess I'm just a little slow...but anyway here's the latest entry:
Number 40 - Bruce Springsteen Born In The USA (1984)
Remember back when single albums were like greatest hits packages because MTV would promote 8 or 9 songs off a hit album? Prince Purple Rain, Wham Make it Big, Michael Jackson Thriller all fall in this category. After years of being called Rock's future, Springsteen decided it was time to cash in and become the demigod everyone wanted him to be. Thus, Born in the USA came to be.
This album was so omnipresent at the time of its release that I really didn't care much for Springsteen. His music was everywhere on the radio, tv, the movies, print media (no internet back then) to the point that there was no escape. It wasn't until things cooled down a little with the next album that I became a fan and developed an appreciation for his music.
Born is an album where muscially I hear the bright shiny sheen of 80's prosperity collide with a dark lefty underpinning of disillusion in the lyrics. "Dancing in the Dark" won the pop audience over with it's big beat and anthemic synthesizers becoming a radio and MTV classic (and launched the career of Courtney Cox!) while it tackled the issue of selling out. "My Hometown" illustrated the devestating effects of trickle down economics and race clashes cushioned by soft, hazy synths. "Glory Days" took a good humored look at the aging process from a midlife perspective to a jaunty bar band groove.
The song most people know from the album is the title track. "Born in the USA", with it's hooky synth (again with the synths! They were all over this record.) and fist pumping back beat became the anthem for anyone with the slightest nationalistic urge. Republican's tried to claim the song as their own, not realizing the lyrics were more sarcastic than patriotic. Yet, despite Springsteen's own efforts to reduce the flag waving instinct the song triggers (lending the song to Luther Campbell definitely helped) the image will always be The Boss with his fist in the air while wearing a denim vest and a black bandana.
This was the peak of Springsteen's career and it carried him to temporary Sainthood in the public's eye until a scandalous affair tore it all down. That may have been for the better, career wise at least, Springsteen no longer had to live up the expectations set by this disc. For me, Born In The USA is an album both tied distinctly to it's mid 80's time and also removed from it because I wasn't a fan until after the fact. As such, it stands as a piece of music to me and a great set of songs from a superior artist.
4 comments:
Springsteen owned the mid 80s. I remember freshman year in college watching him at the LA Coliseum with 90,000 other people. The energy was amazing. Born in the USA was my first exposure to the Boss. Not my overall favorite - that goes to Tunnel of Love - but it opened my eyes up to his incredible catalog.
That LA show sounds like it was a great show to see! Tunnel of Love was the album that made me a fan, definitely a great album. I caught him live at the Amnesty International concert in Oakland that year, "The River" was amazing.
Thats funny. You picked up on Springsteen after this album and I got turned off of Springsteen after this album came out. (God, remember when they used to make actual albums? I should someday tell you about the time I tried to explain to my son what an album was. The look on his face was priceless.)
It's funny how what seemed high tech at one point is like spears and bearskins the next. To younger people, thinking of a time when you had to actually go inside a bank to get money or that someone would willingly wear stonewash jeans seems crazy. My wife once told a group of teenagers that the phrase "Daisy Dukes" came from the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard. They didn't believe her.
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