Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ turns 40. Inside the new book examining the massive album.

Updated: May. 22, 2024, 7:05 a.m.
Published: May. 22, 2024, 7:00 a.m.

Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ examined in new book

Cultural critic Steven Hyden writes that this "album's incredible success made him the rock 'n' roll equivalent of Steven Spielberg."Courtesy Hachette Books

You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much

Till you spend half your life just covering up”

There’s no way you read that without singing along.

People have been doing so – often misunderstanding the song’s meaning – since the album debuted June 4, 1984. Tied to its 40th anniversary, veteran music critic Steven Hyden’s “There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A.”

Hyden notes, for example, how determined Springsteen was in those days not to endorse a presidential candidate.

“In the mid-eighties, a pop star could still position himself ‘above’ politics and exist as a common touchstone that people with opposing ideologies could enjoy,” Hyden writes. “Although Bruce did not bridge the racial divide with the Born in the U.S.A. tour, he did appeal to both liberals and conservatives. … His music stood for American concepts that nobody could disagree with at face value; each person has dignity, your bonds to family and community are vital, and our country can and must do better.”

This album, written largely in Colts Neck, launched him into international superstardom. The album’s seven singles all charted in the Top 10, including “Glory Days,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “My Hometown.”

Hyden, now a critic for Uproxx and author of five other books about music, writes about discovering the tape in his dad’s car in the summer of 1984 when he was six.

“By the time the tape ends, I am officially a Bruce Springsteen fan,” Hyden writes. “Though most of what I have just heard has gone over my head. For instance, one of my favorite songs is about a guy who works at a car wash where it rains all the time. When I’m older, I will recognize that the weather is a metaphor for a fatalistic worldview in which romantic liaisons, like childhood dreams and unfettered capitalism, are doomed to fail. At age six, however, I am only focused on the guitar and keyboard parts. And that is enough.”

(Hachette, 250 pages, $32) takes a deep dive into the iconic work, examining it in its cultural and historical context. The book will be released May 28.

Speaking from his home in Minneapolis, Hyden, 46, talks with NJ Advance about his love of Springsteen and his latest book. What follows has been edited for clarity.

Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ examined in new book

Why did you, a Midwestern little boy, instantly connect with Springsteen?

“It’s kind of weird for a kid to be into a record like that because there’s a lot of grown-up stuff on it. But at the same time, he was a pop star at that moment in the mid-’80s, more than any other time early in his career. He was in the middle of the pop mainstream, on MTV constantly, which was another thing that exposed me to him at the time. One of the theses of the book is how I feel like his career was building up to that moment. And then, in a lot of ways, his career afterward was suddenly reacting to that, running away from it for a long time and then also, at some point, living up to the stature.”

Why did this album resonate with you enough to write a book?

“This is an album you could write a lot about and also use as a framework to talk about a lot of other things. And in particular for me, it was really interesting to talk about how America has changed in the 40 years since this record came out and how rock music has changed. The big thing being that, in 1984, it was possible for a record like this to sort of capture the public’s imagination and do it in a cross-demographic, cross-ideological way. That seems very difficult to do now for a variety of reasons. And Bruce, in a lot of ways, is still trying to exist in the middle of America. He’s always been this figure that’s like wanting to unite different kinds of people. And ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ I think, was an example where he succeeded to the highest degree.”

Given his profound memoirand the many other books to him, why add to the already substantial Bruce library?

“It’s something I asked myself. If you look at my other books, Bruce shows up in three of them, so I’ve been building to doing this for a while. I just felt like this book, to me, is different because it’s not just about Bruce. I just felt like this was a good opportunity to put Bruce in a larger context.”

The title track may be the most misunderstood song. Why do you think that is so?

“In 1984, there was the famous instance of Reagan tying himself to Bruce Springsteen and saying something like the dreams of millions of Americans are communicated by Bruce Springsteen, and Reagan really grabbing onto that song like this simple-minded patriotic number. In that instance, there was cynicism, really, just political opportunism, like, I’m going to take this popular cultural figure, and I’m going to exploit him in his home state; you know, he’s popular that he will vote for me. So there’s that sort of deliberate misunderstanding that was going on. Like, millions of people listen to that song, and they don’t really think about what the lyrics are, they just think of the chorus. And I don’t think that that’s a crazy take on the song. It’s obviously incorrect, but the music is so triumphant; it’s so uplifting. The chorus is made to be shouted along with and you feel like you have to pump your fists every time you sing it.”

Forty years later, why does the song still have that hold?

“I think the power of ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ just like the power of a song like “This Land is Your Land,” is that there’s a critique and a celebration that coexist. It’s about this disaffected Vietnam veteran that’s been thrown away by his country. But the veteran is also claiming his citizenship. And, you know, he’s not disavowing America. He’s saying I was born in the U.S.A., like, I’m still a part of this country, like you’re not going to forget. And that duality of the song, which I think also exists on the album, makes it a more complicated and powerful work.”

Jacqueline Cutler may be reached at jacqueline.cutler@gmail.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

https://www.nj.com/entertainme...1mY3J43eyNRdJX5ukhPk

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