Born In The USA is 25 today

Sometimes I forget what day my anniversary is (Oct. 17 or 18?) but for some reason I have always remembered that Born In The USA came out on June 4, 1984.

No online presales, streaming or leaks in those days. You actually had to go to a record store and pick it up! I raced to Sam The Record Man (RIP) at the local mall after work where the guy who ran the place had kept a copy for me, one of his best customers.

Went home taped it immediately and man, we played the hell out of that album that summer. It's tough to imagone now how huge that album was that summer (admittedly a great, great one for music). Wasn't sure what to expect after the release of "Dancing In The Dark", after all how jarring was it to go from his previous album, Nebraska, to hear the Boss using synths?

I haven't listened to it in its entirety in ages (hmmm, maybe I'll do that during my commute to the Jays-Angels game today) and I don't care if I ever hear "Glory Days" or "Dancing In The Dark" again.

"I'm Goin' Down" remains one of my fave Springsteen songs and "Working On The Highway" is still a great throwaway rocker. "My Hometown" might be as relevant today as it was 25 years ago. I loved "No Surrender" on the albumn but the acoustic version he performed on that tour (at least the shows I saw) was incredible.

There's loads of Boss freaks here. There must be plenty of great memories of that time for you guys and gals, no?

 

I'm not a huge Bruce fan, but Born in the USA is one of my all-time favorite albums. Also, good call on I'm Goin' Down".

 

One of my all-time faves, too. "Goodbye, Bobbie Jean," is my favorite song on the album.

 

"Now I work down at the car wash, where all it ever does is rain."

Wore out my cassette, which I recorded as soon as the record started turning when I got home.

Good memories of it.

 

I graduated from high school that year and will always look back on that summer as a special one. "Born in the USA" is a big part of the soundtrack of my memories from that time.

I was in the Twin Cities for college orientation the weekend they filmed the video for "Dancing in the Dark" at the old St. Paul Civic Center.

 

I have mixed feelings about that album as a Bruce fan. It was annoying to see the righties leap on the title song without a clue about what it was about.

Also a lot of bandwagon fans joined the Bruce bus during that tour.

It's about my sixth favorite Bruce album, but they're all good.

 

Bought the album. Saw the tour at Giants Stadium. Haven't seen him since, or cared.

 

April 3, 2009

 

It's the album I became a fan with.
It was toward the end of my freshman year in high school. I remember going to the Crazy Eddie with my dad and my younger brother. My dad was picking up a new record needle and I saw that Born in the USA was onsale for some insane price (I think it was $3.99 or $4.99 for the cassette). I had heard Dancing in the Dark and liked it, I knew Born to Run, and Bruce's version of Santa Claus.. so I figured it's cheap enough let me take a chance and buy the cassette.
Played Side 1 and really liked it, loving Darlington County. Then I flipped the tape and the start of Side 2 blew me away, fully converting me. That opening three song salvo to that side of No Surrender, Bobby Jean and I'm Goin' Down just floored me. No Surrender remains among my Top 10 (possibly Top 5) Bruce songs.
A week or two later I got Born to Run and was fully converted from fan to fanatic. By the end of the summer I had every album and had started buying bootlegs. Unfortunately tickets for the 10-night Meadowlands Arena stand had gone onsale a week or two earlier so I was unable to go.

 

Ace - just for you:

I had a friend was a big Wall Street trader
After grad school
He could throw stock options by you
Make you look like a fool, boy
Saw him the other night at the WalMart store
I was walking in, he was hiding out
Had to give up the Mercedes and the house in Vail
When Lehman Brothers threw him out…

Glory Days, well they’ll pass you by
Glory Days, when Madoff was the guy
Glory Days, glory days

Well, there’s a girl that lives up the block
Back in school she’d give all the boys head
Married a hedge fund guy and got a big house,
By being really good in bed
Then Merrill Lynch folded, he lost all their cash
And she told her poor husband goodbye now,
Now she and the kids are with her parents down in Boca
She says when she feels like spending
she starts crying thinking about

Glory Days, can't afford to buy,
Glory Days, everyone in a yellow tie,
Glory Days, glory days

Think I’m going down to the bank today
And I’m going to pray til I pay my bills
And I hope when I get done I have a little cash left over
But I doubt that I will
Yeah, just sitting back, trying to recapture
A little of my 401K
Well, the Dow slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of…

Glory days, private planes to fly
Glory days, driving my 740i
Glory days, glory days...

 

It made me a fan which then turned me into a fanatic. If not for this album, I would have never discovered Winterland or Main Point. I wouldn't have debated why Jungleland is so vastly superior to Backstreets. I wouldn't have spent hours inside and outside the Asbury Convention Center and the Pony.

Some underrated writing on the album, which was lost in all of the glock and the videos. Not his best work and he clearly wanted to "sell out" and be popular, but it is too fashionable among the hard core fans to rip the album as fluff. Dancing in the Dark is a very well written song, as is Downbound Train. I love, love No Surrender live. Darlington County and Working on the Highway are fun concert songs if not super deep.

I loved the b-sides back when there were singles. Shut Out the Light -- one of the top 15 Bruce songs ever was the flip side (in more than one way) of BITUSA. Pink Cadillac was the b side of DITD. Other b-sides were Stand on It, Jersey Girl, Santa Claus, Johnny Bye Bye.

 

When I was living in Yuma, AZ, I made a point to play "Downbound Train" as often as I could on the jukebox when I'd go out to the local waterholing. It was my anthem for that town, and you can make of that what you wil.

"Bobby Jean" and "No Surrender" are top songs on the album. And as over-played as "Born in the USA" is, it's still a damn strong rock song. I'm still amused at how the Reaganites could play it at rallies with a straight face. Did they just desperately loop the chorus so no one would hear the verses?