{"id":5587,"date":"2024-06-06T16:57:53","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T21:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=5587"},"modified":"2024-07-05T15:25:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T20:25:28","slug":"one-of-bruce-springsteens-most-misunderstood-songs-born-in-the-usa-turns-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=5587","title":{"rendered":"One Of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Most Misunderstood Songs \u2014 \u2018Born In The USA\u2019 Turns 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Born in the USA\u2019 turns 40 \u2212 and still remains one of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s most misunderstood songs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Elton John, Adele and R.E.M. did it<\/a>. So did Rihanna<\/a> and the Rolling Stones. If Donald Trump tried to use her music, Taylor Swift would likely do it, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many musicians have said \u201cno\u201d when politicians try using their music for campaigning. But Bruce Springsteen may be the most famous naysayer of all.<\/p>\n

In September 1984, Springsteen\u2019s \u201cBorn in the U.S.A.\u201d was atop the charts, and Ronald Reagan, running for reelection against Walter Mondale, told a New Jersey audience that he and the singer-songwriter shared the same American dream.<\/p>\n

Springsteen disagreed.<\/p>\n

Three days later, performing in Pittsburgh, Springsteen spoke<\/a> about his version of that dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, the idea was we all live here a little bit like a family where the strong can help the weak ones, the rich can help the poor ones. You know, the American dream,\u201d he said in between songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was that everybody was going to make a billion dollars but that everybody was going to have an opportunity and a chance to live a life with some decency and some dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

June 4, 2024, marks the 40th anniversary of \u201cBorn in the U.S.A.,\u201d Springsteen\u2019s top-selling album<\/a>. In my recent book, \u201cRighting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan\u2019s Evangelical Vision<\/a>,\u201d I describe the president\u2019s attempt to use Springsteen\u2019s lyrics to support that vision, which included cutting welfare, boosting the military and ending abortion \u2013 all positions dear to the religious right.<\/p>\n

Springsteen had a different vision, and Reagan\u2019s attempt to co-opt it spurred the singer to be more explicitly political in his words and actions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image Courtesy Of Ticketnetwork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEE THE ‘BOSS’ BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN LIVE IN CONCERT<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

‘<\/p>\n

\n

Blinded by the light<\/h2>\n

The confusion over \u201cBorn in the U.S.A.\u201d is easy to understand. Just look at the album\u2019s cover art<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shot from the rear, Springsteen is facing a huge American flag. The flag\u2019s red and white stripes, along with Springsteen\u2019s white T-shirt, blue jeans and red baseball cap, all telegraph, \u201cAmerica.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why a butt shot of the blue-jeaned rocker whose pose screams youth, sex and swagger?<\/p>\n

The photo is a Rorschach test, a purposeful mixed message<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Man
The album art for \u2018Born in the U.S.A.\u2019 <\/span>Lawren\/flickr<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spingsteen called\u00a0<\/a>the album\u2019s eponymous title song \u201cone of my greatest and most misunderstood pieces of music.\u201d It\u2019s driven by forceful, pummeling drums and a synthesizer\u2019s haunting refrain. Springsteen\u2019s gruff rasp can make it difficult to hear the lyrics, which express the anguish of a Vietnam vet who regrets enlisting and faces unemployment at home.<\/p>\n

Yet the song\u2019s chorus, which Springsteen sings proudly and loudly, fist in the air, repeats \u201cBorn in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springsteen was doing two things: criticizing the war and subsequent treatment of veterans and affirming his American birthright. The song was, in his words<\/a>, \u201ca demand for a \u2018critical\u2019 patriotic voice along with pride of birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image Courtesy Of Ticketnetwork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEE THE ‘BOSS’ BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN LIVE IN CONCERT<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

Human touch<\/h2>\n

But its message eluded many listeners, including conservative columnist George Will, whose wife had been given two tickets to a concert.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Will told his Washington Post readers<\/a> that Springsteen \u201cis no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: \u2018Born in the U.S.A.!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Will, a favorite of the Reagan\u2019s inner circle, was the likely source for the president\u2019s mistaken view that he and Springsteen shared the same American dream.<\/p>\n

Springsteen wrote about everyday people: bus drivers, factory workers, waitresses and cops. Reagan needed their votes, but not all of them were his people. His fiscal policies benefited wealthy Americans and corporations but did little<\/a> for working families and the poor.<\/p>\n

Springsteen said as much in a Rolling Stone interview<\/a> at the end of 1984: \u201cAnd you see the Reagan reelection ads on TV \u2013 you know: \u2018It\u2019s morning in America.\u2019 And you say, well, it\u2019s not morning in Pittsburgh. It\u2019s not morning above 125th Street in New York. It\u2019s midnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that same interview, Springsteen admitted that he last voted in 1972, when his candidate, George McGovern, lost to Republican incumbent Richard Nixon<\/a>. His preference, he said, was \u201chuman politics\u201d \u2013 concrete action with a direct effect on local communities.<\/p>\n

He put that into practice at the Pittsburgh concert following Reagan\u2019s shout-out. Making a US$10,000 donation<\/a> to a food bank for unemployed steelworkers, he urged his audience to also support the cause. His pitches for local food banks have been a concert staple ever since.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image Courtesy Of Ticketnetwork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEE THE ‘BOSS’ BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN LIVE IN CONCERT<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

The promised land<\/h2>\n

Reagan articulated his American dream in speeches and interviews.<\/p>\n

He believed God had blessed America with freedom \u2013 a freedom embodied in free markets, limited government and the freedom to live according to your religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

Ronald Reagan\u2019s \u2018Morning in America\u2019 TV ad from 1984 reflected a sunny optimism despite ongoing deindustrialization and a sluggish economy.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Springsteen has made his American dream the subject of his music: a nation that welcomes immigrants, condemns racism and opposes economic inequality. Its people stand together even \u2013 especially \u2013 amid tragedy.<\/p>\n

Before Reagan cited him as a Republican muse, Springsteen was content to let his music convey his politics.<\/p>\n

Afterward, he was more candid, often riffing on a favorite phrase<\/a>, \u201cNobody wins, unless everybody wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2004, he jumped into electoral politics, supporting John Kerry\u2019s presidential bid. At a large Midwest rally<\/a>, he warned that the ideals championed in his music were at risk, \u201c\u2018United We Stand\u2019 \u2026 and \u2018one nation indivisible\u2019 aren\u2019t just slogans. They need to remain the guiding principles of our public life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years later, Springsteen campaigned for Barack Obama and again in 2012. He supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, and in 2020 he restyled \u201cMy Hometown\u201d for a Biden campaign ad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image Courtesy Of Ticketnetwork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEE THE ‘BOSS’ BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN LIVE IN CONCERT<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n

No surrender<\/h2>\n

In May 2024, things came full circle when Donald Trump, the putative GOP presidential candidate, name-checked Springsteen at a New Jersey rally. But this time, the candidate wasn\u2019t praising the Garden State troubadour.<\/p>\n

He called Springsteen a \u201cwacko<\/a>,\u201d before claiming that the Boss and other \u201cliberal singers\u201d had nonetheless voted for him in 2020. Then Trump falsely added that his crowds outnumbered Springsteen\u2019s.<\/p>\n

But Springsteen made his opinion on the candidate clear in a 2020 interview<\/a>, when Trump was running for reelection: \u201cI don\u2019t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springsteen\u2019s recent collection of R&B standards is titled \u201cOnly the Strong Survive<\/a>,\u201d and on the cover, the rocker is dressed in black, grizzled but game, looking directly at the viewer.<\/p>\n

With the title, is he hinting that Reagan\u2019s evangelical vision and Darwinian approach to economics had crushed Springsteen\u2019s own American dream?<\/p>\n

Or does his assured pose convey his belief that there\u2019s still<\/a> \u201ctreasure for the taking, for any hard working man, who\u2019ll make his home in the American land\u201d?\"The<\/p>\n

Diane Winston<\/a>, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Diane Winston<\/a>, Professor and Knight Center Chair in Media & Religion, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every product\/service is selected by editors. Things you buy through these links may earn “Alliance Media Group and “Streamapse Magazine” a commission or revenue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Born in the USA\u2019 turns 40 \u2212 and still remains one of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s most misunderstood songs. Elton John, Adele and R.E.M. did it. So did Rihanna and the Rolling Stones. If Donald Trump tried to use her music, Taylor Swift would likely do it, too. Many musicians have said \u201cno\u201d when politicians try using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5593,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions\/5593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}