Is there an American song as iconic and yet as easily misinterpreted as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”? The title alone sure sounds patriotic at first glance, especially when those words are sung in the raw, charismatic way that Springsteen renders it. There’s precious little distance between singer and listener. The rousing stomp of the drum and the uplifting synthesizer riff lift you off your seat, your fist suddenly pumping in the air. It’s sheer excitement to hear, attractive to sing along to, and—as with any good rock song—compelling to believe in. But Springsteen’s song presents many different reasons for wanting to pump your fist.
Despite the ostensible triumphalism of “Born in the U.S.A.,” the lyrics are hardly that, as even a quick scan reveals. The singer/narrator announces that he was “born down in a dead man’s town,” and compares himself to a beaten dog, admitting to spending half of his life trying to heal lifetime wounds. Harsh stuff. Referring both to his own and his dead brother’s service in Vietnam, and to the rampant unemployment and lack of support upon his return, the hopelessness seems to have settled deep into his bones: “nowhere to run/ ain’t got nowhere to go.” Hopefully, with every transition from the agonized verses to the exultant chorus, the listener thinks twice about the story and the sentiments that they’re really hearing—and stops to consider what’s actually being said about what life in this United States of America is really like.
Veteran music writer and author Steven Hyden explains something similar in his new book, There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland. The book is the product of a lifelong passion for the music of “The Boss.” Bruce Springsteen’s record first rearranged Hyden’s mental circuits in a situation he describes as being much like a Springsteen song: as a six-year-old kid sitting alone in his dad’s car, staring at a cassette tape of a guy in blue jeans with an American flag behind him, having an epiphany he’d think about for the rest of his life.
All these years later, I am still chasing the rush of hearing that titanic BOOM! in my father’s car. And I seek the version of America that Bruce is singing about …. a mythical heartland where people can set aside their differences and always have each other’s backs. The real, and also imaginary, America.
