The lasting impact of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’

There’s a reason for that “Bruce Springsteen” The Halloween costume is still usable 2024And this is why “born in the USA”.

This remarkable album, which turns 40 next month, capped a twelve-year rise to stardom that transformed a much-loved, contradictory singer-songwriter into a pop icon on a scale only inhabited today. Taylor Swift And Beyonce.

Boss stage for the red bandana and sleeveless flannel shirt It was just a blip in an acting career that lasted more than half a century. More than ten albums Springsteen It was accompanied by pictures of the face he always wore; Just “born in the USA” It was accompanied by a close-up of Annie Leibovitz From a boss wearing jeans.

But this was the heavy age of the boat that was made Springsteen To a permanent celebrity outside the circle of music fans, which has enabled him, at the age of seventy-four, to continue filling stadiums to this day, Despite how profoundly the United States has changed.

The disappearance of that metaphorical barn, where the workaholic is Springsteen He briefly became an unlikely figure of national consensus, and is the subject of a new fan book Springsteen Stephen Haydn, “There Was Nothing That Could Be Done: Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen and the End of Heartland“.

If the book cannot explain the slow decline of a country that at least seemed to want consensus – which it notes Hiddenalso confuses the podcast co-host Springsteen, Barack Obama– is, at the very least, an intelligently written and agile look at the circumstances and legacy of an album whose extreme popularity has paradoxically divided people. Brats like us.

As Hayden pointed out in his introductionalmost no serious fan of Booooooooow States “born in the USA” Be your favorite. It was very contemporary, very accessible, and represented the only time Springsteen He directed his hopeful, but fundamentally fatalistic, view at fickle listeners who would never sit still for the program’s relatively slow 43 minutes. “Darkness on the edge of town” Or dark-eyed introspection “Nebraska”.

This final album was published in 1982 during marathon recording sessions “born in the USA” They continued like shooting a movie. Stanley Kubrick, the two LPs are inextricably linked. (The book of the musician and writer Warren Zanes About investigation “Nebraska”, “Save me from nowhere”It’s good, but one Hidden is more broadly curious).

The song that would give birth to the title “Born in the USA” with its patriotic chorus and cannon drumsfirst appeared as an off-rhythmic vocal lament during the bedroom sessions leading up to Emergence “Nebraska”. Like many excerpts from “born in the USA”this dark version will not be officially released until the box is set. “tracks” 1998, almost at the end of the decade Springsteen He more or less accepted that the time for changing the unit had passed.

His solo acoustic tour after his 1995 album Folklore, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”covered a longer time period than a tour “born in the USA”although in more welcoming places. Springsteen He opened these concerts by asking attendees to remain silent so he could listen to the songs, behavior that was not typical of an aging rocker concerned about his market share.

Hidden He came of age in an age of brutality Springsteen In the 1990s, and had already dedicated books to Pearl jam And RadioheadAnd groups that became enormous during the decade that influence Springsteen It was at its lowest point. But this perspective helps him understand the long phase of the leader’s career.

He opens the book, remembering the first time he heard it “born in the USA” When I was a kid, there was a little-discussed but important group of multi-platinum albums This era. Such as the contemporary bestsellers “Thriller” and “Purple Rain.”great production and ubiquitous presence “born in the USA” They have made it a powerful gateway for music nerds.

I’m like Hidden In this sense: a man who first decided that he liked him Bruce In elementary school, years before self-loathing and political disillusionment set in “Dancing in the Dark” and “My Hometown” It made some rational sense to me.

Hayden is an imagined cultural animal, which means that his critical examination sometimes takes the form of something resembling fan fiction. What if, for example, President She decided to continue flirting with acting – something we would later sample in her music videos “Glory days” And “I’m burning”led by John Sayles– And he would have agreed to act in the melodrama “born in the USA”From the screenwriter “taxi driver” Paul Schraderin 1979?

In our world, Springsteen He simply got the title of the screenplay Schrader He rewarded him by composing a song for the film which was finally released as “daylight”Championship Michael J Fox And Joan Jett.

but Hidden Build this alternate timeline, which Springsteenno Richard Gereplays the main role in “American gigolo” to Schraderand then Springsteenno David Bowiewrites and performs the theme song for the 1982 deviant version of Schrader From a 1940s horror movie “Cat lovers”. Maybe it’s not that profound, but it’s fun to think about.

Or what would have happened if Springsteen had followed “Born in the USA” with a follow-up album made from leftovers from the same sessions? Hidden Provides a list of suggested songs for “The man at the top”album Springsteen from 1985’s Never Existed (although all its songs are real), giving it four out of five stars in a fictional review by Rolling Stone.

What’s even more interesting is that it suggests a future past featuring stars like the early 1990s. Billy Ray Cyrus And Garth Brooks He convinces Springsteen That heartfelt rock has become country, and he’s repositioning himself accordingly.

Your appetite for these types of fan thought experiments is a reliable indicator of whether or not this book is for you. If the incarnation of Springsteen with the red-headed ribbon and dangling arms is the only one you’ll recognize at a costume party, he might not be. But if the sight of a bejeweled, tortured man with slicked-back hair and a goatee makes your mind say, “Tom Joad-era Bruce,” then it certainly is.

(c) 2024, The Washington Post