Sometimes an album becomes so bound up in the context from which
\nit emerged that it’s tough to view it accurately through the prism
\nof passing time. Take, for example,
\nBorn In The USA<\/i>, the album that catapulted Bruce Springsteen
\nfrom cult-favorite critics’ darling to stadium-rocking global
\nsuperstar. It’s an album whose context informs every inch of its
\ncontent.<\/p>\n
That context includes: the splintering of popular music into an
\never-expanding list of subgenres and niche markets, leaving
\nold-time rock and roll — particularly mature, thoughtful, literate
\nold-time rock and roll — on the outs, and sheeny, over-produced
\npop at the top of the charts; and a conservative Republican
\nadministration that, while presiding over a disastrous economy,
\nmassive budget deficits and a militaristic foreign policy that
\nleaves even our erstwhile allies questioning our motives, uses a
\nmixture of propaganda and bald-faced lies to undermine any real
\ndebate over issues while questioning the patriotism of anyone with
\nthe courage to dissent.<\/p>\n
Oh, wait. (I guess it’s true — the more things change, the more
\nthey stay the same.)<\/p>\n
While 1974’s
\nBorn To Run<\/i> was Springsteen’s artistic breakthrough, with
\nits expansive tales of youth on the run from encroaching adulthood,<\/p>\n
Born In The USA<\/i>, his commercial breakthrough, is a
\nbittersweet and often despairing look at what happens when maturity
\neventually sets in. The characters are no longer scruffy hoods with
\ncolorful names like the Magic Rat, they’re nameless working stiffs
\nbrooding over unfulfilled dreams (“Downbound Train”) and
\nunfulfilling relationships (“I’m Going Down”), or indulging in
\npremature nostalgia over old times (“Glory Days”) and old friends
\n(“Bobby Jean”).<\/p>\n
This dark vision is often obscured by the album’s production and
\narrangements, which are also very much of the moment. Although the
\ninstrumentation is the same as on previous Springsteen albums —
\ntwin guitars, piano, organ, sax and rhythm section — the guitars
\nand drums are a little punchier, the organ moodier, and for the
\nfirst time, synthesizers are featured prominently on several
\ntracks. Springsteen — sometimes derided as being musically
\ntrend-proof — gives “Working On The Highway” a tight, frenetic
\nElvis Costello arrangement, layers “Dancing In The Dark” with poppy
\nsynths, and includes a song he initially wrote for Donna Summer
\n(!), the heavy-guitars-over-a-disco-beat “Cover Me.”<\/p>\n
This experimentation has the contradictory effect of giving the
\nmusic greater bounce and sheen even as the lyrics grow darker and
\ngloomier, leaving the songs more open to misinterpretation than
\nanything Springsteen has ever recorded. Amazing as it seems if you
\nactually paid attention to its brutally downbeat
\nVietnam-vet-on-the-skids lyric, the ringing\/stinging “Born In The
\nUSA” was heard as a patriotic anthem by some
\nlistening-comprehension-challenged moron inside the Reagan
\nre-election campaign. And while Springsteen made sure to correct
\nthe record there — to this day, he rarely plays the song in its
\nfull-band arrangement, preferring the stark,
\nimpossible-to-misinterpret acoustic version — he played along when
\nit came to the second most misunderstood song on this album.
\n“Dancing In The Dark” is as unlikely a lyric for a hit single as
\nthe world might ever see, a bitter self-interrogation whose catchy
\nsynth melody and cheesy Hollywood video amounted to an exercise in
\npost-modern surrealism.<\/p>\n
Some longtime Springsteen fans remain grumpy about this album
\ntwenty years later. It’s a phenomenon I’ve witnessed with numerous
\npopular acts — the initial fan base resents “their” artist
\nreaching out for a wider audience and reacts negatively to anything
\nthat dilutes their status as the quote-unquote “real fans.” The
\nproblem with applying that logic to
\nBorn In The USA<\/i> is simple: how could you call yourself a fan
\nand not want songs this good to find the widest possible audience?
\n“No Surrender” is a friendship anthem for the ages, one of the best
\ntunes the man has ever written. “Darlington County” is a classic
\nbuddy\/road song, “I’m On Fire” a smoldering look at unrequited
\npassion. And the title track, despite its unfortunate entanglement
\nin ’80s politics, retains unquestionable musical potency; Max
\nWeinberg’s thundering drum fills at the climax of the song still
\ngive me chills after hundreds of listens.<\/p>\n
It’s true that
\nBorn In The USA<\/i> is an album very much of its time, and some
\nof the keyboard tones may sound a little dated now, but that’s true
\nof just about any ’80s rock album that mattered. It’s also become
\niconic, an album that captured the imagination of both a listening
\naudience tired of being force-fed slick, pre-digested, insincere
\nmusic, and a dumbass political operative looking for a quick media
\nhit with the youth demographic. The real question, though, is do
\nthe songs hold up? The answer is a resounding yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5832],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37663","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bruce-springsteen","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37663"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}