The 30 Day Song Challenge, Day 29

Two more to go!  For day 29, I have to pick a song from my childhood.  While I'd love to say my mom sang Springsteen songs as lullabies to me, that sadly is not the case.  However, as I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, Springsteen was everywhere and unavoidable.

"Born In The U.S.A." doesn't seem to get much play on the radio nowadays, but I swear, back 25-30 years ago, it was everywhere.  While my memory may be fuzzy, I'm willing to bet it's the first song that I knew was sung by a guy named "Bruce Springsteen".  The entire Born In The USA  album was probably the soundtrack for a lot of 80s babies.

What Springsteen song reminds you of your childhood?

The Great Albums - Born In The USA Podcast

The Great Albums is a music podcast that has been running for a little under two years, and I've been a fan since close to the beginning.  It is run by two dudes in their early 30s from New Jersey, where their goal is to discuss music as fans would, rather than critics.  Sound familiar?  Having Born To Run as one of their earliest episodes also helped hook me.  Since then, I've tuned into nearly every episode.  Not only does it help me discover new music, but I find their analysis helps me articulate my own musical opinions better.

This month, they are celebrating "Massive Album November", tackling extremely popular albums by extremely popular artists - Madonna, Pink Floyd, The Who, and, now, Bruce.  If you've got two hours, check out their Born In The USA podcast, and, if you are jonesing for more, they have a bonus episode featuring "Streets of Philadelphia".

Cover Spotlight: "Born In The U.S.A." by Dirk Nowitzki

Tomorrow is the start of the NBA Playoffs.  While many bemoan the playoffs for legitimate reasons, such as it having too many teams or being too long, I will always love the opening weekend.  This Saturday and Sunday, we will be inundated with basketball from noon to midnight.  There will be overtimes, blow-outs, controversial calls, and piles upon piles of overreactions based on a one-game sample size.  To me, it's always one of the best weekends of the spring.

So, to get us all in the mood, please watch the above video of the great Dirk Nowitzki singing the great Bruce Springsteen.  He sounds like an extra from "Sing-Along With The Drunken Asses", and throws in an attempt at the "Dancing In The Dark" dance.  It might not be the best 51 seconds of your life, but it's up there.

Great Moments In Springsteen Unexpected DVD Inserts History - The Simpsons Season 9 DVD Set

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this post will dive into the oft-discussed topic of DVD inserts.  You see, the other day, I was in a Simpsons-watching mood.  So, I pulled out The Simpsons season nine DVD box set.

While many Simpsons purists will say that this season is where the series started to show its cracks, I feel there are many essential episodes in here, such as "Lisa's Sax", "Lisa the Simpson", and "The Joy of Sect".  But, that's a topic for LegendsOfSimpsons.com. 

Since season six, the Simpsons' DVDs have been "themed", where the DVD package, discs, and menu screens are all tied together.  For season nine, they went with a musical theme.  And, to tie in with this theme, they included five postcards:

Apparently, these postcards were reprints of a series of November 2002 Rolling Stone covers.  Each cover parodies a famous album, but you can see which one immediately caught my eye:

Yup, it's Homer doing his best Springsteen impression.

And, um, that's it, I guess.  I mean, what more do you want me to say?  The Simpsons parodied the Born In The USA cover.

Thanks for reading!

Rock and Roll, Rebellion, and Bruce Springsteen

As always, when it comes to my political rants, these views are mine alone.  They do not reflect the other posters, or LegendsOfSpringsteen.com as a whole.  You know the deal, by this point...

Earlier this year Macklemore and Ryan Lewis made headlines when he did a mass marriage of same-sex couples at the Grammy awards.  The next day the mainstream media praised this huge step forward for same-sex couples and talked about how "brave" Macklemore was.  Brave?  Really?  After years of being against same-sex marriage, I am happy to say that I now support what really seems like a no-brainer.  But is it really brave for a celebrity to support same-sex marriage?  Especially in front of a liberal-Hollywood crowd.  Everyone there supported it is as well, so how is it brave?  Ten years ago, it would be brave.  Now it's not only safe, it's downright predictable.

It got me to thinking about the sorry state of rock music today.  The genre has basically died.  It's a shame because I still love it so much, and I would love to see it make it comeback.  But I don't even know where to hear new bands anymore.  But, back in it's hey-day, rock music was all about rebellion.  It was about stating what you believe, no matter how unpopular it is.  I remember Guns N' Roses getting in all sorts of trouble for their song "One In A Million".  It was deemed racist, homophobic, insulting to cops and immigrants.  Axl Rose simply defended it by saying it was how he felt.  They had plenty of other incidents where their lyrics and content would cause trouble.  In the late 80's when Bono was trying to help AIDS research, Skid Row's Sebastian Bach infamously wore a shirt that said "AIDS Kills Fags Dead".  Bodycount got in trouble for their song "Cop Killer".  2 Live Crew's album was deemed too offensive to even sell!  Now I don't really support any of those ideas, but I absolutely support their right to express it.  My point is, even though most of these bands would probably say now that they wouldn't do it, at the time that's how they felt.  That's bravery.  That's what made rock and roll music.  I would love to a return to this.  It would be so cool to see someone support the second amendment, come out supporting fracking, or something else totally radical.  But in today's corporate sponsored environment, I just don't see it happening.  I'm sure we will just get the same hypocritical comments from musicians who try to support laws that deny citizens their right to guns while being followed by armed security guards.  Perform concerts for "climate change awareness", while touring with a monstrosity stage set up that is putting forth an enormous carbon footprint.  Predictability is what killed rock and roll.  And just so I don't sound completely like a right-winged nutjob, Ted Nugent's conservative predictability is every bit as tiresome as its liberal counterpart.

It got me thinking about Bruce Sprinsteen and his Born In The USA era, expertly covered by this blog last month.  After President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan brought the country back to conservative values.  While some tend to look back at this era with rose colored glasses, the truth is, for many, this was when the gap between the haves and the have-nots got larger.  Bruce Springsteen didn't like what he saw and wrote albums like Nebraska and Born In The USA to highlight the struggles of the American dream that Bruce thought Reagan was ignoring.  That's true rebellion.  When Reagan campaigned in New Jersey in September of 1984 he said "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."  A few days later Bruce responded "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one."  Now that's a rebel!  Bruce would later return to these rebellious roots, 20 years later when George W. Bush was president.  But by that point, it wasn't rebellion, it was simply the norm in rock music, and therefore it didn't carry the same weight.  But as long as their is someone out there fed up with what they see in the world, and willing to pick up a guitar and fight against it, rock and roll will never die.  For now though, it's just very very quiet.

Springsteen Reflections: Born in the U.S.A. (Guest Post)

To close out Born in the U.S.A. month, we're highlighting a post from the Legends of Springsteen archives. Below is a guest post from friend of the blog James Layman detailing his reflections on Born in the U.S.A., first published February 24, 2012.

Anyone familiar with the 1990 Dodge Dynasty can share with its hallmark characteristic: the engine was too powerful for the chassis, the handling, and indeed, the entire car. Any significant pressure on the gas would produce a vibrato so commanding that the steering wheel would shake. By the time you hit 80, the entire frame was trembling, threatening to self-destruct into a thousand smoldering pieces on the freeway.

I drove one in the spring of 2004, delivering pizza in North Jersey. I was seventeen.

While iTunes and digital downloads revolutionized music in the latter part of the last decade, something was lost in the subversion. Single hits now exist on their own, outside the context of an album, like single chapters in a book. Digital downloads may have ushered in the death of the narrative, so I feel privileged to have been part of the last generation of listeners to appreciate an album as a story. And “back then,” we all had a story - something encapsulating an age, a season, a mood, or a place. A freeze frame of a halcyon era we could never return to, but never really escape.

In the spring of 2004, my story was Born in the U.S.A. The album was a 12-track epic about making peace with the love, loss, disillusionment, and despair of a stark American era. I’ll admit I couldn’t relate to all of Springsteen’s characters - the plight of a Vietnam Veteran returning home or the deterioration of a young man’s hometown were foreign to me, especially at seventeen. But beneath Springsteen’s earnest and painfully wrought portrait of American life was the constant need to escape. Characters stayed awake at night talking about “getting out.” They drank too much, chased old flames, and raised hell in Darlington County - always dreaming of an open highway to greener pastures somewhere far beyond. The theme wasn’t just definitive of Born in the U.S.A., but of Springsteen’s entire catalogue.

I used to get out of work sometime around midnight, and drive the Dynasty down my block to where it met Route 17, a highway that ran from East Rutherford up through New York State. I traced the road back to where it met the horizon, clinging to a romantic notion of where it might lead. I had four wheels beneath my feet, nowhere specific to go, and all the time in the world to get there.

Come graduation I left, like most of us did. Many to college, some to the military, and others to God knows where. At long last, honoring the relentless pursuit of our own stories and our own endless roads. It’s a natural part of growing up I suppose - rumbling forward with a purpose too big for your hometown and a heart too powerful for your body, into the great and wonderful beyond.

Song Spotlight - "My Hometown"

Key Live Performance



This performance is taken from Bruce’s visit to the TODAY Show while promoting the Magic tour. It’s always fun to watch videos from Rockefeller Center and marvel over those lucky attendees getting to see such an intimate show. This video includes several inadvertently funny shots of crowd members singing along soulfully to the lyrics. I can only imagine that I look as silly as they do when I’m doing the same thing at a concert. It also features Bruce blatantly reading from the teleprompter around the 3:00 minute mark. But hey, he’s only human after all (even if it usually doesn’t seem so!). What I like most about this live performance is the way it conveys the solemnity of the song and then builds into an audience sing-a-long where Bruce compels the crowd to claim their own hometown ownership.

Key Lyrics

“I'm thirty-five, we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel
and said son take a good look around,
this is your hometown”

The final lyrics of the song position it as one about ownership and loyalty, as the possessive attached to the hometown changes between the choruses. Prior to writing this post, I’d always associated the song with the third verse, never giving much consideration to the others. The third verse describes shuttered stores and lost jobs. It’s the verse you expect from Springsteen: an elegy for a small town that’s rotted away and the lament over a lost way of life. But that’s a reductive look at this song. “My Hometown” actually progresses smoothly through four distinct chapters. It begins with the narrator’s rose-tinted recollection of an idyllic small town. It then takes a turn into the socially conscious when racial turmoil arises in the mid-60s, leading to violence. In the third section, the hometown appears broken, and beyond repair. In the end, the narrator contemplates giving up on the town and moving away. But ultimately, he takes his son on the same drive that his father took him on, and tells his son, “this is your hometown.” For better or for worse, this is your hometown.

Overall

“My Hometown” may be the Born in the U.S.A. song I’ve listened to the least over the years. I frequently skip it when it comes on at random, and have never given it much attention. This has been my great discovery from revisiting the Born in the U.S.A. album for its anniversary. I can’t say “My Hometown” will make my must-listen list, but it will make it into rotation more frequently than it had before.

Song Spotlight - "I'm on Fire"

Key Video



For this song, I eschewed the live performances in favor of the official music video. I’ve always wanted a reason to highlight this video, which in some ways is my favorite Bruce Springsteen music video. As far as I know, it’s the only video of his that doesn’t contain any instruments or lip-synching. Instead we see Bruce A-C-T-I-N-G! With the exception of his on-stage theatrics and storytelling, this is likely the closest we’ll ever get to see Bruce Springsteen act. Yes, he has a cameo in High Fidelity, but it’s more of a direct address. This video features facial expressions that are meant to convey inner emotions. In the end, he’s not doing that much. But for what it’s worth, I think he’s pretty good in it. It’s also worth noting that celebrated indie filmmaker John Sayles directs the video. He shoots it almost like a David Lynch movie, with mysterious lighting and shadowy set design that perfectly complement the song’s uneasy feel.

Key Lyrics

“Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go away and leave you all alone
I got a bad desire
I'm on fire”

There are very few lyrics in this song, but each one is incredibly powerful and instantly memorable. But if you have to isolate one set of lyrics, it’s hard not to go with this bold opening. The song grabs you by the throat and lets its intentions known with no ambiguity. I remember one time asking my Mom what she thought was the most memorable Springsteen song. She quickly responded, “I’m on Fire”. I was surprised to hear this and when I asked her why, she referenced the song’s fierce sexuality. That was quickly the end of that conversation. But I can see what she means.

Overall

This is one of Bruce’s most beautiful sounding songs, and simultaneously also one of his creepiest. It sounds so haunting, like the feverish dream the narrator references. It’s the kind of song that appears deceptively simple on the surface, but burrows into your psyche and never leaves. I have to side with my Mom, this is one of his most memorable songs.

Song Spotlight - "Darlington County"

Key Live Performance



This is one performance I am very excited to say that I saw first-hand. I remember observing the audience’s enthusiasm for this song and feeling like I was witnessing a resurgence in appreciation for the Born in the U.S.A. album. At a Springsteen concert, you’ll frequently see the audience become jubilant when a less frequently heard track from Born to Run or Darkness on the Edge of Town is dealt out. For a while, it felt much more rare for a Born in the U.S.A. b-side to make it into the rotation.

What makes this performance for me is the parade of girls in pink hats that take the stage around the four-minute mark. The girls coming on stage always feels like the natural materialization of the song narrator’s horn dog agenda. I’m always amazed that when fans get pulled on stage, and they some how have a general sense of how to behave and how to dance.

Key Lyrics

“We drove down from New York City
Where the girls are pretty but they just want to know your name”

I’ve previously compared this song to a Raymond Carver short story (http://www.legendsofspringsteen.com/2013/04/lyrics-spotlight-darlington-county.html), and that’s what I love so much about the song - the lascivious undercurrent and the sinister sting at the end (Wayne being handcuffed while the narrator drives away).

Overall

I consider “Darlington County” the hidden gem on Born in the U.S.A. There is so much of this song to enjoy, and so many layers to the story it tells.

The Promise of Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Look Back at Born in the U.S.A.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Born in the U.S.A., Legends of Springsteen will be looking back at this landmark album, dissecting it track by track all month. But first, a few thoughts on the album as a whole.

Marc Dolan’s 2011 Bruce Springsteen biography boasts the fantastic title “Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. I must confess that I haven’t actually read the book, but I’ve admired the title ever since I heard it. To me, the album Born in the U.S.A. exemplifies what the promise of rock ‘n’ roll truly means: the power to connect billions of people through music, and in doing so, create something that can question society, inspire with words of hope, and rock out like no one is watching.

Critics would likely point to Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town as the superior albums artistically, but Born in the U.S.A. operates in the upper echelon of commercial success, unrivaled by any of Springsteen’s other work. The album’s popularity (it’s one of the biggest albums in the entire history of music) makes it hard not to consider this his most important work. After all, this is the album that cemented his legacy as a music icon, ensured that his past albums would be revisited and paved the way for 30 years of more music. It also gave eternal fodder to the smaller group of naysayers who might dismiss his songs as “roller rink music.”

Listening to the album 30 years later, even a diehard Springsteen fan can see both sides of the coin: why it was popular, and why it might come to be derided. As someone who favors the former side, the one complaint that I would concede to is that the music and lyrics don’t always mesh together. On most occasions, the music is far more upbeat and buoyant than the gritty, sobering lyrics. I think it’s fair to cite a tonal dissonance on tracks like “Born in the U.S.A.”, “Dancing in the Dark” and, perhaps most flagrantly, “I’m Goin’ Down”. Is this representative of an artist who can’t fully calculate his feelings? Or an artist who isn’t talented enough to reconcile both sides of the song writing process?

On the other hand, doesn’t this album represent the pinnacle of what pop music can achieve? A blend of art and commerce. Yes, the songs disguise jagged commentary in top 40 friendly sounds. But isn’t that a good thing? Infiltrating the populous to tell stories about the spoils of war or the folly of lingering on one’s youth, isn’t that the definition of pop music in its most excellent form? Born in the U.S.A. is equal parts confectionary and commentary. Like The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and Kanye West’s Yeezus, Born in the U.S.A. feels equally at home at the top of the charts as it does in a scholarly journal.

The fact that Born in the U.S.A. is perceived as Springsteen’s most pop-friendly album is an amazing feat in itself when you consider the dense, lyric-heavy songs like “Working on the Highway” and “Darlington County”, the sobering recollections of “My Hometown” or – famously – the political outrage of “Born in the U.S.A.”

Despite Bruce’s best efforts to make sure the album’s titular song didn’t define him, “Born in the U.S.A.” still packs a wallop. Listening to the song afresh in the context of the album, from the second you hear the fury of Max Weinberg’s drums, you realize that time hasn’t dulled its immediacy and that this banner track retains its indelible, raw power.

Bruce has seemed more comfortable extending the popularity of “Dancing in the Dark” by turning it into an encore staple, but it’s received its fair amount of derision as well. Often the song is dismissed as too poppy, but for my money it has some of the best lyrics Springsteen has ever written, delivered in a vehicle for mass consumption.

The fact that the songs on this album have been so misunderstood and misappropriated seems at least partly by design when you contrast the album version of “Born in the U.S.A.” with the Nebraska version eventually released on Tracks. You can’t blame the American public for missing the mark on some of these tracks. I concede that it took me years – if not decades – to fully grasp some of these tracks. Like all good art, there’s room for misinterpretation here. But the album is not just an effort in theoretical inquiry. It’s also a hard rocking album ripe for blasting at full volume. Born in the U.S.A. may have been made for mass consumption, but it wasn’t made for the lowest common denominator.