Drive In's, Drive Thru's And Drop Outs... (Born In The Usa - Bruce Springsteen)

Member Name: sam1942

Product:	Born In The Usa - Bruce Springsteen
Date:	05/04/06 (217 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The American dream through the eyes of Bruce Springsteen

Disadvantages: Three of the tracks are best skipped

The gritty voice of the man we can only remember as having dirty finger nails kicked Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ off the top slot and nestled his way into a very fashionable seat and stayed around in the album charts for an over familiar 129 weeks. All American arrogance played a over indulged part in the making of this album. Sitting on the top job at the time in the good old U. S of A, was the Spitting image household name of Ronald Reagan. America was flying high above the world’s cloud system and with The Boss at number one, the future couldn’t have looked more bright.

In the glory days of Brucie, he brain washed the singles charts with four tracks from this album, and surprisingly, not one of them was the title track venturing into the British charts. ‘Born In The USA’ only appeared as a B side to ‘I’m On Fire,’ released in June 1985, however, it was release as a single in the U.S in November 1984, but failed to do anything.. The same happened with the final track of the album, ‘My Hometown,’ which featured as a B side on another cheesy Springsteen hit, ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town,’ in December the same year.

Throwing his newly formed career to the Mid American wind, he toured with the truck driver gathering called the E Street Band in the mid seventies. Parading his style of ripped shirts and denim clad, musically thighs, he learnt how to engage in a wider audience calling on old rockers to join him in a mass of all American blues versus folk and hard rock. Disliked by heavy metal fans and swooned over by millions of bored housewives, he took the world by the balls and showed them that he was the true living and breathing American dream.

Taking his passionate inspiration from love, motorbikes and babes, he fused his annoying rock pop and became a legend of everything American; be it cheeseburgers, Pepsi and loud obnoxious truckers, he was the rough side of something that was clean, home loving and inoffensive. Whilst grazing on the good green Mid West fields of life and fame, he trod the path of goodliness offering help and support to the very causes he believed and thought every one else should believe in if they wanted to called themselves American citizens. These were civil rights groups and played countless gigs for the supporting benefits of Vietnam veterans.

Born, not on the fourth of July but on the 23rd of September, 1949, he has become a veteran himself, but still loved and admired by many of our U.S cousins rather than us over here. Using his beloved E Street Band for the recording of this album, (he parted company with them for a while before reuniting with them at the turn of this century), this motley crew consisted of (according to the inside sleeve,) Roy Bittan on synthesiser and piano. Clarence Clemons on sax and percussion. Danny Federici on organ, glockenspiel and piano on the featured, ‘Born In The USA.’ Garry Tallent on bass. Steve Van Zandt (who also co produced the album) on acoustic guitar and mandolin. Max Weinberg on drums and Bruce on guitar who was the entire lead vocal. All musicians took a hand at shouting the backing vocals from the tops of their heads and a young lady by the name of Ruth Jackson helped out on the backing vocals on ‘My Hometown.’

The middle page of the inside sleeve features a rough black and white photograph of The Boss and the band. This unkempt mix of middle aged ex school teachers seem the most unlikely lot to hang out with Springsteen who appears in the picture looking incredibly young and naïve. After only seeing his rear end on the front cover of the album with mucky white tee shirt sleeves rolled up the shoulder, and probably housing a packet of Camel ciggies, the patriotic symbol of the content of this album is hard to ignore. Before embarking on the music within, we can see plainly an image of what we can expect. Time to don the old faithful baseball jacket and sneakers and with right hand hovering with in trepidation over the volume knob, we dare ourselves to take a glimpse at the American rock and roll dream. Perhaps having a traditional Gerry and The Pacemakers album on the side for an emergency landing back to dark, monochrome Britain just in case we get too swept away with the idea of calling the U.S Embassy for our one way ticket out of depression, Terry Wogan and cold weather.

Not that we feel this could be a wet knickers adventure, but just to make sure, we must prepare ourselves for the voice of a man who sounds similar to a railroad worker after having swallowed someone’s gravel driveway, as the stadium, free wheelin’ experience might just set our teeth on edge. We will be mesmerised by the very cheek of this guy who looks awful, thuggish and can’t sing a note, so what was the appeal for heaven’s sake? It certainly wasn’t the intro to ’Born In The USA,’ that did it for us. A fairly lousy track for anyone who hasn’t stepped out of a U.S helicopter in the mist of a conflict. A dirge track based on the same three chords that sounds as though their could do with a walk in some fresh air. It’s predominately a military theme and has been done to death in many a war film where the Americans justify themselves which they try ever so hard at doing most of the time. Best left to the people who this means something to, it’s very patriotic in its theme and the very nearest they got to our own, ’God Save The Queen.’ Americans answer to ’Land Of Hope And Glory,’ I think, I feel proud to be British after hearing this record over the last twenty years. Head bangingly thumpy with a mass of noise for backing, it is difficult to pick out any specific instrument.… Trashy, probably expensive to produce and probably, on the other hand, worth the damage to speakers and the first five rows of ear drums. If need be, then it might be effective to go out and buy a seven foot stars and stripes flag and move any breakables out of harms reach…

‘Cover Me,’ opens with an element of tune to it and sounds strangely quieter than the previous track. With a slanted air of romance to it through the backing vocals, we feel the softer side sneak through from this heavy, unshaven brute. A foot tapping anthem with lots of ’oos’s and ‘arh’s’ from the backing vocals and perhaps we can even hear a hint of Springsteen actually singing in key. A theme full of sex and lots of hugging from a nice, leggy, long haired babe who’s prepared to go all the way on the back of his greasy motorbike. There’s a good, strong piano based backing that gives it a touch of the rough romantic edge. A nice guitar intro that doesn’t actually go on long enough but soon allows us to hear lyrics inside of a lot of meaningless shouting. ’..well, I’m looking for a lover who’ll come in and cover me..,.’ okay Brucie, baby, I get the picture, but don’t you think you better offer to buy me a drink first, or at least ask me what I do for a living… Even so, with whining guitar breaks and nifty drums rolls, I am dying inside for that organ fresh out of a Bingo hall. It’s certainly doing it for me…Released on October 1984, us English lasses were obviously not bought by his dirty, blunt approach, hence the failing number 16 position we promptly gave him and his sweaty armpits.

Okay, we further subject ourselves to ’Darlington County’ and we are really dragged this time kicking and screaming to the greenish hills full of cowboys and smelly cattle. ’…me and Wayne on the fourth of July…’ and we guessed it wasn’t going to be long before we had the date mentioned, but the lyrics really have us sinking for that home loving Mersey beat sound…..’little girl you’re so young and pretty, walk with me and you can have your way…’(so long as you have a shower first.) With our tatty chorus of a tonne of ’shalalalal’s’ its enough for that hand to move across to the very short, smiley man who gave us, ’Ferry Cross The Mersey,’ but we persevere… We also get a taste of how bad the singing is from that infamous E Street Band, and my goodness, they really can’t sing, dangerously drunk and with benefits spend on the landlord they sound so helpless that you wouldn’t in a millions years give them a job let alone an instrument and let them lose in a recording studio, but there is something so appealing about this album for someone who is sturdy in being very English. It’s a funny record to listen to in a sense when it its time, we had the joys of Spitting Image and all we could do was take the Mickey out of the Americans. It was on the release of this album that help that joke go down even smoother like a warm pint of oil in a engine on a very British frozen morning…

Take you partners please for a bit of jolly swinging up over the strip lighting of some dead end bar, or if you don’t fancy that, sit back, enjoy your warm Cokes and fried chicken in a basket and see if you can eat and drink without some big booted weekend cowboy kick it our of your mouth whilst over eagerly trying to line dance too close to your table. This organ swallowed, speedy rock and roll, country anthem is as much rock and roll as ‘Crocodile Rock,’ or something even more forgotten by B.A Robertson. ‘Working On The Highway,’ is probably what us Brits thought Springsteen did for a living before he was a rock star. You’ll be knocking over vases and yelping like something out of Brokeback Mountain by the time this short, hair raising piece finishes. If you hadn’t caught the taste of American in the back of your throat by now, then this track will choke you on the stars and stripes till you find listening to this album is as difficult as holding your breath. Better practise some hand jive if you really don’t want to get up a sweat. However, there is something so incredibly catchy to this track, that you will reach for the lumberjack shirt and grab yourself a ‘gal.’ The organ jangles irritably in between vocal lines and through to the chorus, our host sounds out of breath and on the verge of a heart attack. So before, you trade in that Escort for a 55’ Mercury, you may want to think twice about how it will effect your street credibility.

‘Downbound Train,’ suddenly will leave a lump in your tight throat where the daze of the last track finished. Sombre and thoughtful, Springsteen is leaving in the dusty sunset on a train. (Was it something we said?) Pensive and somewhat heart broken, his mood swings gently into a love lost note. I have to admit, the band holds the theme of the song well and it is hard to imagine it is the same manic musicians, drunk of whiskey from the previous tracks. The scene swamps our minds of something felt from the heart just when we thought that this rough headed singer couldn’t manage anything deeper than his empty pockets. A well defined track by its strong drum backing and acoustic that sounds just prominent enough to be noticed easily. Well downtrodden and hopeless, our host deepens his voice to a ‘down on his luck’ tone, so much so, that we feel like throwing the stereo some spare change. The break features his unemployed voice and a soft, moody keyboard. The echo plays around Bruce’s voice as the subject takes on ever further depression. The opening lines to this track are; ‘…I had a job, I had a girl, I had something going mister in this world, I got laid off down at the lumber yard….’ I think we get the picture. It appears another railroad track towards the end. An album I feel is very much essential if you are planning a life on the inside. We may joke, but I think what we have to remember here is that there was no other artist around at that time to could point to a certain section of the community in America and make an album out of their hardship, daily lives and the way they feel the need to go out and drink their week’s work away. What we do find ourselves doing on hearing this track is actually listen to what he sings of, and probably for the first time in this album we feel the jokes of the good ole boys drift away.

What we don’t prepare ourselves for is the next track titled ‘I’m On Fire,’ which takes the mood away into the clouds even further. A strong shuffle on the drums and an incidental guitar with atmospheric keyboards, there seems little need for anything else in this track. It practically speaks for itself. Out into the middle distance from the window, we can almost feel his voice clear, out into the setting sky. A powerful piece, I felt. It is a point in the album when the lights fade, the mood becomes pensive and provokes all sorts of imagery in the mind. This gruff voice becomes an angel in the night, calling out to its listener. A moving piece of composition that I don’t believe has been matched before or after its recording. Many have tried to copy this entrancing piece of mastership from a singer who, I firmly believe should have stuck to this variety of music and left the wild, messiness for the stage. Released in June 1985, it reached number 5.

The idyllic interlude of that silent piece is shattered by that same old ‘here comes the boys on bikes,’ theme and we plunge depressingly back into the drunken bar out in the Mid West. Too much guitar that we can’t detect any genre, too much piano that we are swamped by the American dream, that by now feels more like a nightmare. I don’t dislike Springsteen. When hearing a single track on the radio, it sparks a ‘yeah, let’s rock!’ feel in you and that hand doesn’t hesitate to lift the volume knob off its place, but for an entire album of one cheesy, hard rocking,’ ‘America in your face’ style song after another, we yearn for the days of Meatloaf and Cher shouting dodgy duets. ’No Surrender’ is the title, and I feel that this could well be what we will ourselves, cry out, towards the end of the album.

‘Bobby Jean,’ was inspired by great pal and co producer Steve Van Zandt. Another track on the very same theme as the previous, but perhaps more sax felt in this record just to remind us that we are very much stuck in the eighties here and there’s no going forward. What we mustn’t do here and that’s judge Springsteen’s career on just this album. The very darkly recognised ’Nebraska’ released in 1982 is advised to be listened to as it is a great surprise after hearing this album and in all honestly, a better album if the cheeseburger and large fries is getting to you too much.

‘I’m Going Down,’ as with the two previous tracks blend into one as the mood still stays the same and for those who are not prepared for the last three tracks from this album, would probably feel the need to switch off now. The only difference in this track is the ’Grease’ hand clapping and the durgey repeated lyrics.

Suddenly, the band decided to turn their music scripts up the right way and they gave us ’Glory Days,’ which feels that it doesn’t have a place on this album at all. The story to this track goes as follows; the inspiration for the lyrics on this track are such that the first verse actually happened, the second probably happened and the third probably will happen! Whether that is true or not is debatable, but with this little anecdote of this fine, happy clappy tune, the track adds a smile to the listeners face and life doesn’t sound so bad after all. It’s all about looking back on your younger years and wondering how your fellow pupils are, the girls you dated, and wondering how it would be if you went back and was it that good after all? A track lyrically that will strike a definite chord in the mind of any listener and it is a subject that effects us all. What doesn’t effect us, but perhaps some of us if we are lucky is the theme to the next track… This track, however, was released in August 1985, it reached number 17.

‘Dancing In The Dark,’ is fundamentally about trying to write a song. A track, that he may well be only ever remembered for other than ’Born In The USA.’ The video featured a very young and short haired Courtney Cox (of Friends fame.) She leaps onto the stage at the end from being in the front of the jumping, giggly audience and has a little wiggle with the sweaty boss, no wonder she keeps moving away from him in a coy way… A dance track and very danceable although the drum beat doesn’t change and that very familiar four chord theme makes another entrance on this album. Released in May 1984, it reached number 4. I my mind, the best dance record from this man. Electrifying and compulsive listening if just for that continuous chord loop.

Solemn and thought provoking ’My Hometown,’ is a reflective ending to a wildly messed album of drunken highs and banged up lows. This is the track where Springsteen looks back on the album it would seem. A silent track in its backing, careful drums and not enough percussion floods in, but just the right amount of guitar and gentle keyboard. An over all acoustic feel that could have been even better unplugged. It doesn’t open into o a thrashy finale and nor does it force on an encore or a thunderous drum roll or even a roll of honour around the musicians who have probably just about had enough by the end of this album. Thinking back over the energy and the wildness of this album it really wasn’t as painful as we would have thought at the beginning of listening to it. It threw us out of our chairs at some points before wanting to throw the album out of the window, but on the entrance of this special piece at the end, it feels that Bruce’s could have just as well retired at the very ending of this album. He didn’t really need to do anything else, he mark on the world had been made, Miss America had turned her crown over to Brucie, now Captain America could boldly go where no other thug in ripped jeans has gone before….

Perhaps, just for the record, what was that right hand doing on the front cover?



From the country that gave us Be Bop-a-lula…. I forgive them.


Thank you Bruce for the reminder of how the world once was….






All songs written by Bruce Springsteen
Produced by Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Jon Landau and Chuck Plotkin.
Bought on CD for nine pounds around ten years ago but is still very much available in record shops for less than that today.
©sam1942 2006

Summary: We step into the concept of what it was to be an American in the mid eighties...