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Born In The U.S.A. Tour

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The  Born in the U.S.A. Tour  was the supporting concert tour of  Bruce Springsteen 's  Born in the U.S.A.  album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen; after two years of bodybuilding, the singer had bulked up considerably. The tour was the first since the 1974 portions of the  Born to Run tours without guitarist  Steven Van Zandt , who decided to go solo after recording the album with the group. Van Zandt, who was replaced by  Nils Lofgren , would appear a few times throughout the tour and in some of the music videos to promote the album. It was also the first tour to feature Springsteen's future wife,  Patti Scialfa .

The tour started in June 1984 and went through the United States and to Canada. In March 1985 the tour went to Australia, Japan and Europe. It then headed back for a second leg of the U.S. tour in which Springsteen and the  E Street Band  played to sold-out professional football stadiums. The tour finished in October 1985 in Los Angeles.

The tour grossed $80–90 million overall. Of that, $34 million came from Springsteen's summer 1985 stadium dates in North America. [1]  The  Born in the U.S.A.  album was inside the top 10 of the  Billboard  200 during the entire tour. Springsteen also was enjoying a hit single from the album (there were seven in total) during any moment of the tour. The album along with Springsteen's previous album,  Nebraska , which he did not tour to promote, were performed in their entirety throughout the tour. Total attendance was 3.9 million.

• 1.1 Special guests
• 2 Broadcasts and Recordings
• 3 Postponed dates

Personnel [ ]

• Bruce Springsteen  – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica
• Clarence Clemons  – saxophone, congas, percussion, background vocals
• Garry Tallent  – bass guitar
• Danny Federici  – organ, glockenspiel, piano, synthesizer
• Roy Bittan  – piano, synthesizer, background vocals
• Max Weinberg  – drums
• Nils Lofgren  – guitars, background vocals
• Patti Scialfa  – background vocals, synthesizer, tambourine

Special guests [ ]

• Courteney Cox (6/29/84 – danced with Springsteen on " Dancing in the Dark " which was captured in the music video)
• J.T. Bowan (8/9/84)
• John Entwistle (8/11/84)
• Southside Johnny (8/12/84)
• Steven Van Zandt  (8/20/84, 12/14/84, 12/16/84, 12/17/84, 7/3/85, 7/4/85, 7/6/85, 7/7/85, 8/22/85)
• The Miami Horns  (8/19/84, 8/20/84, 9/14/84)
• Pamela Springsteen (10/22/84 – danced with Bruce on "Dancing in the Dark")
• Gary U.S. Bonds (1/18/85)
• Robbin Thompson (1/18/85)
• Eric Clapton (6/1/85)
• Pete Townshend (6/1/85)
• Jon Landau  (9/29/85, 10/2/85)
• Julianne Philips (10/2/85 – danced with Bruce on "Dancing in the Dark")

Broadcasts and Recordings [ ]

Nearly half of  Live/1975-85  consists of songs from the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, incorporating songs from the August 6, August 19, and August 20 shows in 1984, and the August 19, August 21, and September 30 shows in 1985.

Several shows have been released as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archives:

• Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984 , released May 13, 2015
• Brendan Byrne Arena, August 20, 1984 , released March 2, 2018
• Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Sept 27, 1985 , released April 5, 2019
• Brendan Byrne Arena, August 6, 1984 , released September 18, 2020
• Giants Stadium, August 22, 1985 released July 23, 2021

Postponed dates [ ]

• 1 Born In The U.S.A. Tour
• 2 The River Tour
• 3 Tom Morello

Die Setlists "Born in the USA" Tour 1985

• World Tour 2023 / 2024

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Born in the usa tour 1985 – zwei konzerte in deutschland.

Bild: flickr user dsearls / CC BY-SA 2.0

Die „Born in the USA Tour 1985“ führte Bruce Springsteen im März und April 1985 für 16 Konzerte nach Australien und Japan. Anschliessend gönnten sich die Musiker der E Street Band eine kleine Pause, um im Hochsommer achtzehn Auftritte in Europa – unter anderem in Frankfurt ( 15. Juni 1985 ) und München ( 18. Juni 1985 ) – zu bestreiten.

Setlist – 15.06.1985 Waldstadion, Frankfurt:

BORN IN THE USA / BADLANDS / OUT IN THE STREETS / JOHNNY 99 / ATLANTIC CITY / THE RIVER / WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY / TRAPPED / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / GLORY DAYS / PROMISED LAND / MY HOMETOWN / THUNDER ROAD / COVER ME / DANCING IN THE DARK / HUNGRY HEART / CADILLAC RANCH / DOWNBOUND TRAIN / I’M ON FIRE / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / ROSALITA / I CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE / BORN TO RUN / BOBBY JEAN / RAMROD / SHERRY DARLIN’ / TWIST AND SHOUT / DO YOU LOVE ME

Setlist – 18.06.1985 Olympiastadion, München:

BORN IN THE USA / BADLANDS / OUT IN THE STREET / JOHNNY 99 / ATLANTIC CITY / SHUT OUT THE LIGHT / THE RIVER / WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY / TRAPPED / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / GLORY DAYS / PROMISED LAND / MY HOMETOWN / THUNDER ROAD / DOES THIS BUS STOPS AT 82ND STREET / COVER ME / DANCING IN THE DARK / HUNGRY HEART / CADILLAC RANCH / DOWNBOUND TRAIN / I’M ON FIRE / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / ROSALITA / CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE / BORN TO RUN / BOBBY JEAN / RAMROD

Bruce Springsteen – Live in Paris (29. Juni 1985):

Die Highlights der „Born in the USA Tour 1985“ waren jedoch die sechs Konzerte, die Bruce Springsteen zwischen dem 18. August 1985 und dem 1. September 1985 im „Giants Stadium“ in East Rutherford, NJ spielte. Dem „Boss“ kam damals zum ersten Mal die Ehre zuteil, im 70.000 Zuschauer fassenden Sportstadion vor den Toren New York Citys aufzutreten.

CBS berichtete:

Die 400.000 Eintrittskarten für die sechs Shows waren innerhalb weniger Stunden vergriffen. Alle Auftritte wurden professionell mitgefilmt und aufgenommen. Sechs Songs wurden am 10. November 1986 auf der 5 LP-Box „Live 1975 -1985“ released.

Im Vorfeld orderten die Geschäfte knapp 1,5 Millionen Exemplare und sorgten dafür, dass die “Live Box” eine Woche später auf Platz 1 der “Billboard Charts” stand.

“Live 1975 – 1985″ war das zweit meistverkaufte Live Album aller Zeiten. Nur Garth Brooks “Double Live” aus dem Jahre 1998 wanderte in den Vereinigten Staaten öfter über die Ladentheken.

Es wird angenommen, dass seit 1986 ca. 13 Millionen Exemplare der „Bruce Springsteen Live 1975 – 1985″ Box weltweit verkauft wurden. Die “Recording Industry Association of America” (RIAA) bedachte das Live Album am Jahresende mit 13 Platinauszeichnungen.

Giants Stadium – Songs auf „Live 1975 – 1985“:

• Johnny 99 (18.8.1985, Giants Stadium)
• Reason to Believe (18.8.1985, Giants Stadium)
• Working on the Highway (19.8.1985, Giants Stadium)
• I’m on Fire (19.8.1985, Giants Stadium)
• Born to Run (19.8.1985, Giants Stadium)
• Bobby Jean (21.8.1985, Giants Stadium)

Ausserdem wurde das im Giants Stadium entstandene Filmmaterial für die BBC Dokumentation „Glory Days“ verwendet. Besagte Doku feierte im Frühjahr 1986 im englischen Fernsehen ihre Weltpremiere und wurde auch in Österreich und Deutschland gezeigt.

Mit dem Bau des „Giants Stadiums“ wurde 1972 begonnen. Die Arena wurde 1976 eröffnet und sollte bis 2009 die Heimspielstätte der „New York Giants“, „New York Jets“, „New York Cosmos“ und der „New York Red Bulls“ sein. Das Stadion verfügte über 8o.000 Sitzplätze und war unter anderem Schauplatz des weltweiten Benefiz-Konzerts „Live Earth“ und der Fussball WM 1994. Bruce Springsteen trat 24 Mal im „Giants Stadium“ auf.

„Wrecking Ball“ Weltpremiere am 30.09.2009:

Im Februar 2010 wurde das Stadion abgerissen. Bruce Springsteen durfte im Oktober 2009 als letzter Künstler im „Giants Stadium“ auftreten. Der „Boss“ steuerte zum Abschied den Song „Wrecking Ball“ bei.

I was raised out of Steel here in the Swamps of Jersey Some misty Years ago Through the mud in the beer and the blood in the cheers I’ve see champions come and go So if you got the guts, Mister I’ve you got the Balls I’ve you think it’s your Time let’s step to the Line and bring on your Wrecking Ball Bring on your Wrecking Ball …

Mehr Infos:

• Von den Castiles bis zur E Street Band
• Bruce Springsteen Setlists 1964 – 2014
• Bruce Springsteen – Alben und Lyrics

Tags: Bruce Springsteen , E Street Band , Rückblick , Worldtour

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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Born in the USA Tour

The Born in the USA Tour was Bruce Springsteen’s most successful tour to date, supporting his iconic album ‘Born in the USA.’ The tour included performances in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. It was also the first to feature the future wife of Springsteen, Patti Scialfa.

The tour grossed nearly 90 million dollars and the namesake album was inside the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart for the entirety of the tour. The final four shows of the tour, September 27, 29, 30 & October 2, were held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they performed crowd-tested classics and premiered new songs like Edwin Starr’s “War.” The cumulative attendance was of the four sold-out Coliseum shows was 322,900.

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Bruce Springsteen onstage during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1984. Shinko Music/Getty Images hide caption

Bruce Springsteen onstage during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1984.

This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Find more at NPR.org/Anthem .

If you're listening closely, the lyrics of " Born in the U.S.A. " make its subject pretty clear: The 1984 hit by Bruce Springsteen describes a Vietnam War veteran who returns home to desperate circumstances and few options. Listen only to its surging refrain, though, and you could mistake it for an uncomplicated celebration of patriotism. You wouldn't be the only one.

NPR's American Anthem series is about songs that Americans embrace in ways that reveal who we are — and of these songs, "Born in the U.S.A." may hold the title for the most historically misunderstood. But as NPR Music director Lauren Onkey explained to Morning Edition, it took time for Springsteen himself to figure out just what the song was meant to say.

"He did a big benefit in the summer of '81 for Vietnam veterans in Los Angeles and met with vets," Onkey says. "After that tour ends, there's a number of places where he's trying to write about the Vietnam veteran experience, so the song grows out of that moment. And it starts out as something just called 'Vietnam.' "

That early attempt at the concept survives as a rough demo . In "Vietnam," a veteran arrives home and tries to get back his old job, but the administrator who greets him can only shrug:

"Son, understand, if it was up to me ... 'Bout half the town's out of work Ain't nothin' for you here From the assembly line to the front line But I guess you didn't hear: You died in Vietnam."

The songwriter kept that scene as he set about writing a more haunting, but still muted version — which is where he first added the "Born in the U.S.A." refrain. In its story of one American, Onkey says, she hears the story of many.

"He says, 'I'm 10 years burning down the road / Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go.' Those lines, I think, describe so many of Springsteen's male characters — who are lost, who can't find a home. The systems around them of jobs and connection are unattainable."

But it still wasn't the song we know. In the version that became the title track on his 1984 smash album, Springsteen made one more change: turning up the volume and shouting out the lyrics almost as if for joy. Rarely has a man with nowhere to go sounded so triumphant.

As the musician later told WHYY's Fresh Air, he meant it that way. "The pride was in the chorus," Springsteen said to host Terry Gross in a 2005 interview . "In my songs, the spiritual part, the hope part, is in the choruses. The blues and your daily realities are in the details of the verses."

Springsteen fans will tell you the effect that big chorus had on crowds, whether or not the message of the verses was entirely understood. Take Chris Christie — yes, that one — who saw Springsteen at New Jersey's Giants Stadium decades before he became governor of that state.

"Bruce started every show with a really rousing, anthemic-type version of 'Born in the U.S.A.,' " Christie recalls. "With a bandanna on and a cutoff shirt and the fist-pumping, it felt like a celebration of being born in the USA — when really, it's a defiant song about 'I was born in the USA, and I deserve better than what I'm getting.' I think plenty of people didn't get what it was about, including the president of the United States."

That would be President Ronald Reagan, who referenced The Boss in a 1984 campaign speech , saying: "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man 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."

By playing on the hope, Reagan seemed to overlook the despair. He may have been influenced by a sometime adviser: The columnist George F. Will, noted for his bow ties and conservative politics, tells NPR he saw Springsteen in concert that year.

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"Max Weinberg, of whom I'd never heard, who was the drummer for the E Street Band, of which I'd never heard, called me up out of the blue and said who he worked for and would I like to come see The Boss sing," Will says. "I thought, 'This is a way to impress my children,' and I said yes."

After the show, Will penned a column praising the hardworking musicians onstage, albeit in political terms. "If all Americans — in labor and management, who make steel or cars or shoes or textiles — made their products with as much energy and confidence as Springsteen and his merry band make music, there would be no need for Congress to be thinking about protectionism," he wrote.

Springsteen's politics leaned well left of Reagan's. After the president praised him, the artist mused that if people misunderstood his music, that was fine — it only made him more popular.

"After it came out, I read all over the place that nobody knew what it was about," he said before performing "Born in the U.S.A" to a crowd in 1995. "I'm sure that everybody here tonight understood it. If not — if there were any misunderstandings out there — my mother thanks you, my father thanks you and my children thank you, because I've learned that that's where the money is."

After the applause and laughter died down, he added: "But the songwriter always gets another shot to get it right."

Over the years, Springsteen himself has been willing to tweak the song's meaning. Christie heard him play an acoustic version in the 1990s.

"Much different feeling, much different sound," Christie says. "I can remember, at the show I went to see at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, N.J., a couple of people started to try to sing with him. And he stopped in midsong and said, 'I can handle this myself.' "

At other times, Springsteen dropped the upbeat chorus — singing only the verses, forcing his audience to hear the dark story of the veteran. When the U.S. invasion of Iraq loomed in 2003, he told his audience the song was a prayer for peace.

Onkey says the complexity of "Born in the U.S.A." is why it endures: "It describes the ambiguities and challenges of the country that I have grown up in. And for me, it's a rock-and-roll anthem: This singer, this scream, the sound of the guitar and the scale of the song suggest that rock and roll is big enough and important enough to tell that story."

Maybe the meaning of "Born in the U.S.A." is the distance between the grim verses and the joyous chorus. It's the space between frustrating facts and fierce pride — the demand to push American reality a bit closer to our ideals.

Daoud Tyler-Ameen contributed to the digital version of this story.

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Springsteen 'Born in the U.S.A.' global tour's humble start at the Stone Pony

ASBURY PARK - The "Born in the U.S.A." album, and the lengthy world tour that followed its June 4, 1984 release, would make Bruce Springsteen an international superstar.

The Boss' seventh studio album spawned seven top 10 singles — including "Dancing in the Dark," "Cover Me," "Glory Days"  and "I'm on Fire" — and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 top album chart, and sold 15 million copies in the U.S. alone. 

The 156-date "Born in the U.S.A." tour was one of the top-grossing tours of the 1980s, taking Springsteen and the band all over the U.S. and Europe and into Australia and Asia. The 1985 stadium leg of the tour saw the band performing before supersized crowds.  

Now, official stats will tell you that the tour began on June 29, 1984, at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Springsteen famously pulled a very young Courteney Cox up for a rather awkward dance during "Dancing in the Dark" as part of a Brian DePalma video shoot (the song was actually played twice that night). 

But, in a way, the first gig of the "Born in the U.S.A." tour took place at a much, much smaller venue — the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

Are you a Bruce Springsteen fan? Please consider subscribing and you'll find lots of coverage of our hometown musical hero and other great music at the Jersey Shore.

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It was June 8, 1984, a Friday night. The "Born in the U.S.A." album had been released four days before.

John Eddie & The Front Street Runners were the headliner, with The Cruisers opening. Rumors had been flying around the Shore that Springsteen was going to play that night.

Of course, back in those days, Bruce Springsteen playing at the Stone Pony was not unusual; a week before, he had jumped onstage to play four songs with John Eddie. In 1982, Springsteen played 14 times at the Stone Pony as part of his "tour" of Jersey Shore clubs, as you can see in the video below. 

On May 26, 1984, The Boss had played "Dancing in the Dark" for the first time at Club Xanadu — located where Porta is now at the corner of Second Avenue and Kingsley Street — performing the song with the band "Bystander."

If there were rumors of a Bruce appearance June 8, Stone Pony disc jockey Lee Mrowicki had not heard them.

"Definitely it was a best-kept secret because even I was clueless that Bruce was going to play," Mrowicki recalled. I would usually check in at the office after getting to the Pony and then head to my DJ booth to get ready to work. Nothing was mentioned."

Neptune native Billy Smith figured it out as soon as he saw that John Eddie was playing first, and that the Cruisers had been bumped from the bill.

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"When we saw that John was playing first and The Cruisers were getting bumped, we knew that it was going to be an E Street Band show," Smith said.

Mrowicki realized it when the crew began setting up the E Street Band's equipment on the Pony's stage. 

"Once I saw Danny’s organ and glockenspiel was set up onstage, you realized something special was about to happen," Mrowicki said, referring to E Street Band organ player Danny Federici. "But I had to keep playing music like usual, except for one thing; I wasn't going to be playing any Bruce songs in that set like I usually did."

Mrowicki's sets filled with Springsteen songs were a staple of the club at that time.

It was a hot night, and the crowd pressed close against the stage.

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Then the band was ready to go on. Mrowicki prepared to do something he did for every other band that graced the Pony stage.

"I got to introduce Bruce and the E Street Band like any other band that played the Pony," he said. "It might have been the last introduction the band ever got because they really didn't need one anymore."

Bruce and the band took the stage: Clarence Clemons, Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, Danny Federici, Roy Bittan and a newcomer, Nils Lofgren. Lofgren joined the band for the "Born in the U.S.A." tour after Springsteen's long-time bandmate and blood brother Little Steven Van Zandt decided to leave.

Lofgren had been rehearsing with the E Streeters at the shuttered Big Man's West nightclub on Monmouth Street (owned by Clarence Clemons, it closed early in 1983), since early May.

Patti Scialfa had not yet joined the band; she would come on board only days before the band's St. Paul show.

The band's 12-song set on June 6 included four songs from "Born in the U.S.A.": "Glory Days," "My Hometown," "Darlington County," and the title track. 

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Photos from the night show on the indispensable Brucebase page show a sweaty, newly muscular Springsteen wearing a white T-shirt and a bandana, garb that would become standard Boss-wear during the Born in the U.S.A. tour.

Clemons, also drenched in sweat, wears dark sunglasses while blasting away on his saxophone near the front of the stage.

"Everyone jammed up near the stage and it was incredibly hot in there," Billy Smith said.  

In addition to the four new tracks, the band played favorites like "Thunder Road," "Out in the Street," "Born to Run." and "Promised Land."

Springsteen dedicated "The River" to The Cruisers, the band that was bumped that night by the E Street Band.

Mrowicki noticed that people were running to the phone booths on the boardwalk as soon as they knew Springsteen and the band were making a guest appearance.

"Then I noticed more people were coming in the front door," he said. "So I guess people were spreading the word."  

Two days after appearing with the band for the tour warmup, Springsteen and Nils Lofgren would be back at the Pony, performing five songs with Pony house band Cats on a Smooth Surface.

Bruce and band would play another impromptu rehearsal show before they headed out to conquer the world on the "Born in the U.S.A." tour, but this one would be at a small bar in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, The Village bar near Clair Brothers Audio, where Bruce and the E Streeters were trying out new sound and light systems for the tour.

The Boss returned to the Stone Pony on August 22 t to perform with La Bamba and the Hubcaps.

Springsteen was returning a favor, in a way, as The Miami Horns, including Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, Eddie Manion, Mark Pender and Stan Harrison (all also members of the Hubcaps) had guested with Springsteen and the E Street Band on August 20, at the last show of a sold-out, 10-night stand at Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford. 

By that time, "Born in the U.S.A." had been at the top of Billboard's album chart for four weeks, before being displaced by another smash hit album, Prince's "Purple Rain." Born in the U.S.A. would again top the charts in January 1985.

"Born in the U.S.A. went nuclear," Springsteen would write in his 2016 autobiography, "Born to Run." "....At 34, I decided to ride it out and enjoy it."

The beginning of that ride was on the Stone Pony stage. 

June 8, 1984 setlist courtesy of Brucebase :

THUNDER ROAD / OUT IN THE STREET / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / GLORY DAYS / THE RIVER / DARLINGTON COUNTY / DANCING IN THE DARK / THE PROMISED LAND / MY HOMETOWN / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / BADLANDS / BORN TO RUN.

Were you at the Stone Pony on June 8, 1984? If so I'd love to hear from you. And if you like reading stories about Asbury Park's storied music history, please consider a subscription to the Asbury Park Press.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 35 years. A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in public service, she's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, 732-643-4050, [email protected].

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FLASHBACK: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN KICKS OFF ‘BORN IN THE U.S.A.’ TOUR

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It was 38 years ago tonight (June 29th, 1984) that Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band launched their largest tour to date, kicking things off in June 29th, St. Paul, Minnesota's St. Paul Civic Center. The trek — which was the first to bring Springsteen to the largest stadiums around the road — featured the official tour debuts of new recruits, backing vocalist Patti Scialfa and Steve Van Zandt 's replacement, guitarist Nils Lofgren . It was during opening night show that the iconic video for Born In The U.S.A.'s lead single — and biggest hit — "Dancing In The Dark" was filmed with actress Courtney Cox and directed by Brian De Palma .

The massive Born In The U.S.A. tour spanned four legs, playing a total of 156 shows: 122 shows in North America, eight in Australia, eight in Asia, and 18 in Europe before wrapping on October 2nd, 1985 during the final night of a four-show-stand at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

On June 4th, 1984 Born In The U.S.A. was released and less than three weeks later on June 23rd, the album debuted at Number Nine on the Billboard 200 . It hit the Number One spot for the first of its seven-week run on July 7th.

The 12-track album spawned seven Top 10 hit singles — all with non-LP B-sides: "Dancing In The Dark" (#2); "Cover Me" (#7); "Born In The U.S.A." (#9); "I'm On Fire" (#6); "Glory Days" (#5); "I'm Goin' Down" (#9); and "My Hometown" (#6). In total, Born In The U.S.A. remained on the Billboard 200 for a whopping 143 weeks. To date, Born In The U.S.A. has been certified for sales of over 30 million copies worldwide.

Nils Lofgren, an old friend of Springsteen's by the time of the tour, told us that he was the first guitarist "The Boss" called for the position: ["I was just blown away, y'know, when Bruce needed a guitarist. I’d stayed in touch with him all through the years, and I, I managed to get the first call and after two days jamming with the band, um. . . it felt good to all of 'em, and he asked me to join. It was just a gift from heaven."] SOIUNDCUE (: 17 OC: . . . gift from heaven)

Patti Scialfa — now "Mrs. Bruce Springsteen "– joined the E Street Band only days before the tour's opening night. She recalled being white-knuckled at being thrown in the deep end on such short notice: ["It was overwhelming, because — I wanted to do it, I was excited about doing it; the overwhelming part was that I didn't have time to learn all the ( laughs ) material. So, I had to learn it in, y'know, a few days — and in front of people. I had to learn during the shows."] SOUNDCUE (:14 OC: . . . during the shows)

Drummer Max Weinberg reflected on the era-defining 1984-1985 Born In The U.S.A. tour, which spanned the globe over the course of 156 shows: ["The record was a big hit — the ('Dancing In The Dark') video had a lot to do with that. Suddenly, 75 percent of our audience at the concerts were guys — now, it was a preponderance of girls and women at our shows. And Bruce, certainly, turned into a video star; I'm not sure he altogether felt comfortable with that role, but we were on a tour and the tour took on a life of its own. We did about 170 shows all around the world. It was a fabulous experience because we had finally gotten to the place we always wanted to be — in terms of putting on a show, playing big places — it was quite a time."] SOUNDCUE (:31 OC: . . . quite a time)

In recent years Springsteen has performed the Born In The U.S.A. album in its entirety a handful of times within his E Street Band shows.

So far, in his ongoing archive collection, Bruce Springsteen has released a total of five shows from the Born In The U.S.A tour — including three from the 1984 North American leg all from East Rutherford's Brendan Byrne Area on August 5th, 6th, and 20th ; and two from '85 — August 22nd, 1985 at East Rutherford, New Jersey's Giants Stadium and September 27th at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum .

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Born In The U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

Songfacts®:

• Often misinterpreted as a full-throated patriotic anthem, "Born In The U.S.A." is about the problems Vietnam veterans faced when they returned to America. While veterans of other wars received heroes' welcomes, those who fought in Vietnam were mostly ignored when they returned to their homeland, and many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
• This song was inspired by a chance encounter with Ron Kovic, who was confined to a wheelchair after being shot while fighting in the Vietnam War. Kovic, who enlisted to fight in the war, later protested against it, becoming a leader in the anti-war movement. In 1976 he published a book called Born On The Fourth Of July that told his story. In 1989 it was made into a movie starring Tom Cruise as Kovic. Springsteen picked up a copy of the book in 1980 when he was on a cross-country road trip with a buddy. They were outside of Phoenix and Bruce found it at a drugstore. About two weeks later, Springsteen was in Los Angeles staying at the Sunset Marquis hotel, where remarkably, Kovacs was also staying. They met in the pool area and had a long conversation, with Kovacs inviting Springsteen to join him on a visit to the veterans center in nearby Venice. Bruce accepted the invitation and found the visit quite enlightening. "I'm usually pretty easy with people, but once we were at the center, I didn't know how to respond to what I was seeing," he said during his Springsteen On Broadway residency. "Talking about my own life to these guys seemed frivolous. There was homelessness and drug problems and post-traumatic stress - guys my age dealing with life-changing physical injuries." Springsteen used their stories as the basis for the song. "The verses are just an accounting of events," he said. "The chorus is a declaration of your birthplace, and the right to all the pride and confusion and shame and grace that comes with it."
• Springsteen started writing the song in 1981 with the title "Vietnam." He changed the title and the chorus when the director Paul Schrader sent him a script for a movie he was working on called Born In The U.S.A. , about a rock band struggling with life and religion. Schrader was hoping Springsteen would appear in the movie. Bruce didn't participate in the film, but he lifted the title for the song, which became "Born In The U.S.A." It went through lots of iterations before it was released as the title track to Springsteen's seventh album in 1984. Unfortunately for Schrader, when he was finally ready to make the movie in 1985, the title "Born In The U.S.A." was too associated with the song. Springsteen made it right by providing the song " Light Of Day ," which became the new title for Schrader's movie and the feature song in the film. The movie Light Of Day was released in 1987 with Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox in the lead roles. The song, as performed by Jett and credited to "The Barbusters" - the name of her group in the movie - was released as a single and charted at #33.
• The chorus comes off as a pure expression of American pride, but the verses cast a shameful eye on how America treated its Vietnam veterans. Springsteen addressed this dichotomy when we spoke with Barack Obama on the podcast Renegades. "It's a complex picture of the country," he said. "Our protagonist is someone who has been betrayed by his nation and yet still feels deeply connected to the country that he grew up in." "Its imagery was so fundamentally American, but it did demand of you to hold two contradictory ideas in your mind at one time," he added. "You can both be very critical of your nation and very prideful of your nation simultaneously."
• Springsteen worked up the demo of this song in 1982 at his home studio in a batch of songs that became his Nebraska album. Released later in 1982, Nebraska ended up being just those spare demos without his E Street Band. Bruce went in the opposite direction for the Born In The U.S.A. album, using the band to create a big sound with lots of textures. The result was a classic rock and roll album with seven Top 10 singles. In order: " Dancing In The Dark " - #2 " Cover Me " - #7 "Born In The U.S.A." - #9 " I'm On Fire " - #6 " Glory Days " - #5 " I'm Goin' Down " - #9 " My Hometown " - #6 These songs kept Springsteen on the charts for about a year and a half, from the summer of 1984 to early 1986. He dialed it back on his next album, Tunnel Of Love (1987), which is a lot more mellow and is mostly a Springsteen solo effort.
• This song got famously political when President Ronald Reagan evoked it while campaigning for re-election in New Jersey in 1984. Reagan said in his speech: "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." Springsteen talked about this in a 2005 interview with National Public Radio . Said Bruce: "This was when the Republicans first mastered the art of co-opting anything and everything that seemed fundamentally American, and if you were on the other side, you were somehow unpatriotic. I make American music, and I write about the place I live and who I am in my lifetime. Those are the things I'm going to struggle for and fight for." Speaking of how the song was misinterpreted, he added: "In my songs, the spiritual part, the hope part is in the choruses. The blues, and your daily realities are in the details of the verses. The spiritual comes out in the choruses, which I got from gospel music and the church."
• Chrysler offered Springsteen $12 million to star in an ad campaign featuring "Born In The U.S.A." He turned them down, so they used "The Pride Is Back" by Kenny Rogers instead. Springsteen has never let his music be used to sell products, although he did appear in a Jeep commercial in 2021. Jeep is a division of Chrysler.
• This song inspired the famous Annie Leibowitz photo of Springsteen's butt against the backdrop of an American flag. Bruce had to be convinced to use it as the album's cover. Some people thought it depicted Springsteen urinating on the flag. Looking back on the cover in a 1996 interview with NME , Springsteen said: "I was probably working out my own insecurities, y'know? That particular image is probably the only time I look back over pictures of the band and it feels like a caricature to me."
• The drum solo towards the end of the song was completely improvised. Drummer Max Weinberg said that the band was recording in an oval-shaped studio, with the musicians separated into different parts. Springsteen, at the front, suddenly turned towards Weinberg (at the back) after singing and waved his hands in the air frantically to signal drumming. Weinberg then nailed it.
• Springsteen included "Born In The U.S.A." on his solo acoustic tour in 1995. This was a surprising rendition of the song, making it much more somber but congruent with the message. Springsteen realized this arrangement was quite powerful and really drove home the meaning, so he did it the same way when he toured in 1999 after reuniting the E Street Band.
• The video was directed by John Sayles, who wrote the screenplay for the 1978 movie Piranha and later directed the films Lone Star , Honeydripper and Eight Men Out . Most of the video is footage of Springsteen performing the song in concert - he wore the same outfit for a few consecutive shows so Sayles could get the shots (Springsteen didn't want to lip-synch). Other footage came from a Vietnamese neighborhood in Los Angeles and Springsteen's old stomping ground, Asbury Park, New Jersey. The video stuck to the true meaning of the song, with shots of factory workers, regular folks walking the streets, soldiers training for combat, and a line of guys waiting for payday loans. Sayles said in the book I Want My MTV : "It was right around the time that Ronald Reagan had co-opted 'Born In The U.S.A.' and Reagan, his policies were everything that the song was complaining about. I think some of the energy of the performance came from Bruce deciding, 'I'm going to claim this song back from Reagan.'"
• Springsteen has often reflected on the Vietnam War in his work. He didn't serve because he dodged the draft, pretending to be a misfit high on LSD. He has expressed guilt, knowing someone else went in his place, and may not have returned. When Springsteen performed a spare, acoustic version of the song during his Springsteen On Broadway run from 2017-2018, he would introduce it with a story about Walter Cichon (pronounced sha-shone), leader of a New Jersey rock band called the Motifs, who seemed destined for stardom. Cichon got drafted and in 1968 went missing in action (Springsteen's 2014 song " The Wall " is about Cichon). Bruce got drafted the next year. "It was 1969 and thousands and thousands of young men to come would be called, simply sacrificed just to save face for the powers that be, who by then already knew it was a lost cause," he said. "I do sometimes wonder who went in my place, because somebody did." With this backdrop, "Born In The U.S.A." tells the tragic story not just of soldiers who were neglected when they returned to Vietnam, but also to those who never made it home.
• Springsteen allowed the notorious rap group The 2 Live Crew to sample this for their song "Banned In The U.S.A." in 1990 after the group was arrested for performing songs with obscene lyrics. Bruce felt they had a constitutional right to say whatever they wanted in their songs.
• In 1988, four years after this song was released, Sony bought Springsteen's label, Columbia Records, meaning "Born In The U.S.A." is now owned by a Japanese company.
• Born In The U.S.A. was the first CD manufactured in the United States for commercial release. It was pressed when CBS Records (parent of Columbia) opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1984. Discs previously had been imported from Japan.
• When the album took off, it was Springsteen's second go-around with staggering fame. His 1975 album Born To Run immensely popular and got him on the covers of Time and Newsweek - in the same week! Springsteen handles it better than most (no drugs) but still needed some time to retreat. After touring for the Tunnel Of Love album, he broke up the E Street Band in 1989. In 1992 he released two albums on the same day - Human Touch and Lucky Town - that didn't sell nearly as well as he expected. For the first time since the early '70s, Bruce had to seek out publicity. He started doing a lot more interviews and began performing on TV shows for the first time. In 1999 he reunited the E Street Band and got back to his happy place: on tour with his favorite musicians.
• The children's TV show Sesame Street reworked this as " Barn In The U.S.A. ," credited to Bruce Stringbean and the S. Street Band. >> Suggestion credit : Bertrand - Paris, France
• Springsteen's fist-pumping recitations of this lament for the plight of the Vietnam War veterans during his 1984-85 Born In The USA tour contributed to its misreading as a patriotic song by some listeners with a political agenda. Critic Greil Marcus wrote: "Clearly the key to the enormous explosion of Bruce's popularity is the misunderstanding... He is a tribute to the fact that people hear what they want to hear."
• This was not the first hit song to tell a story about a Vietnam veteran's return to America. In 1982, The Charlie Daniels Band took " Still in Saigon " to #22 in America. That song was written by Dan Daley, who felt that only two artists were right for it. "Since it was such a political song, the strategy was there were only two artists that it would make sense to give it to," Daley told Songfacts . "One was Bruce Springsteen and the other was Charlie Daniels. Because both had made public statements in support of Vietnam veterans."
• Richard "Cheech" Marin parodied this in the song " Born In East L.A. ," which came from his 1987 movie of the same name. Sample lyrics: Next thing I know, I'm in a foreign land People talkin' so fast, I couldn't understand
• Springsteen doesn't often license this song for movies or TV, but it does show up in a 1986 episode of ALF and a 2021 episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ("The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain"). It also appears in the movies Mask (1985) and Skins (2002).
• The opening line, "Born down in a dead man's town," is quoted in Stephen King's It (1986) to introduce "Part 1: The Shadow Before," which tells us all about the cursed town of Derry, Maine, and the children who came together to fight an evil clown.
• Jennifer Lopez incorporated a bit of this song into her set when she performed at halftime of the 2020 Super Bowl. Lopez honored both her homeland and her heritage by donning a feathered cape with the Puerto Rican flag on one side and the American flag on the other. When she revealed the Puerto Rican side, her daughter Emme sang the chorus of "Born In The U.S.A." Lopez was born in New York City. Springsteen left the song out of his set when he played the Super Bowl halftime show in 2009.
• More songs from Bruce Springsteen
• More songs with names of countries in the title
• More songs in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV
• More songs that are commonly misinterpreted
• More songs used by politicians
• More songs about war
• More songs used on Sesame Street
• More Fourth of July songs
• More songs about veterans
• More songs performed at the Super Bowl
• More songs from 1984
• Lyrics to Born In The U.S.A.
• Bruce Springsteen Artistfacts

Comments: 79

• Eaglesfanintn from Nashville, Tn Michael from Madison should know that, unlike his Mango Mussolini, Springsteen wasn't a DRAFT DODGER. He took his physical and was declared 4F due to a recent concussion. If you ever get out of your bubble and listen to his live album set (75-85) there's a great story he tells that leads into The River, about his relationship with his father and Bruce going for his physical. Also, this wasn't a number 1 song, and Bruce will never see your screed. He's out on tour now playing to tens of thousands of people a night while you're in your mommy's basement.
• Rattlin Bones We lost the war of 1812. Soundly.
• Maxime from Canada « Vietnam was the first war the US didn't win » I mean, yes, if you don’t count: - Red Cloud War against the Sioux - Russian Civil War against the Bolcheviks - Korean War against communists
• George from Vancouver, Canada Wow; I, like most, thoght it was meant to be a patriotic+celebratory song! *shivers* on reading the lyrics, especially the verses
• Patricia Mccall from 43229 Born in the USA should be sang everyday. Its a very true and good song. We the people live it.
• Brian from Ny "...most misinterpreted songs ever." "Most people thought it was a patriotic song about American pride". Ridiculous. Only mom and dad types who only listen to the main chorus would think it was a patriotic song. You don't have to be a deep, soul-wrenching person to understand the lyrics. I think it's obvious to most listeners. Please. Conversely, it's also not "anti-American". It's brings light to an overlooked facet of the Vietnam war in particular - the Country was torn as to being involved or not, so many disgusting people chose not to rally around or support the soldiers returning home.
• Michael E Brown from California George from Vancouver, Canada sez: "Springsteen has won zero Grammy's. Never even had a #1 hit -- I can't believe "Reflex" beat out "Born in the USA"! :P" While it's true that he never had a single top the Billboard chart, he's had ten albums top the Billboard album chart. And he's actually won twenty Grammys. Starting to wonder if your comment was intended seriously.
• Steven Larusso from Houston Always thought this song was repetitious. Never liked it.
• Phil from Earth Bruce was/is astute enough to know full well that Born In the USA was going to be a huge hit and used as a rallying cry for the USA First types. To imagine that in the sabre rattling, ultra jingoistic Reagan years a song such as Born in the USA wouldn't be used as a conservative theme song is to put it very mildly..bulls--t. He knew and protests of his to the contrary can't be taken seriously. I like Springsteen enough but he isn't fooling too many people with denials.
• Michael from Madison I can't believe a DRAFT DODGER wrote a song about coming home from Vietnam when he didn't even go. Bruce Springsteen dosen't deserve this to be a no.1 song this is disgusting and I hope he sees this.
• George from Vancouver, Canada Springsteen has won zero Grammy's. Never even had a #1 hit -- I can't believe "Reflex" beat out "Born in the USA"! :P
• Camille from Toronto, Oh No bridge in the middle of the song makes it sound more anthem-like. That, along with the accompanying album cover of Bruce's backside in jeans in front of a U.S. flag confused people into thinking this was an upbeat song. Yet, to dissent, as has been mentioned in the comments, is a right we have in this country. So an different twist on the patriotic theme.
• Camille from Toronto, Oh Ok, I gotta agree with this: Americans at their core are dissenters. It is in their blood, it's an inherited gene. Our forefathers shot, stabbed, and killed to get away from their government. Dissention is just as patriotic as saluting the flag. If you're waving your silly flags thinking that only flag wavers are patriotic, you are the least patriotic of all. It's the American way to be dissatisfied with being slaves to any one way of thinking. That is the number 1 reason why this song IS patriotic. American patriotism is very unique this way.
• Jules from Usa Please add the movie -The Rescue- to the history here. They used the song and a T-shirt of Springsteen as critical part of the movie's resolution.
• Larry from Cleveland The USA is more than the government, it is the people. And while the veterans returning from Viet Nam were not given the heroes welcome, it was not everyone that treated them that way. Ironically, the people that treated them the worst were the people who protested the war. But if you actually read the lyrics, they talk about a guy who is on the wrong side of the law, forced to go, and when he comes back is not handed everything on a silver platter. Bottom line is that no one is entitled, and we shouldn't put the US down because you didn't get a handout. I personally support all that our armed forces do for us, and think that only now are we starting as a whole to appreciate it. But most veterans I talk to don't want handouts, just respect. This song puts all of us down because some chose to treat the returning vets badly. Another example of "here's what I see, somebody should do something about it". Why is it always" somebody " should?
• Markantney from Biloxe Jun 2015, Larry you're correct in asking why they play that song (considering the lyrical content) but exactly how is the song putting the Country Down? It's only holding it/US up to a Mirror; now if the reflection isn't something you like,...not seeing how BITUSA is to blame? I don't have the lyrics in front of me but I don't recall them calling Us/Americans/Government Bad Names, just the story of dudes called to serve under less than favorable circumstances and when they got back, they weren't well received back home.
• Jarvis from London, Uk Those of you complaining about the lyrics - what is worse, sending 58,000 men to die in a totally futile war and not making proper provision for the millions who returned home, or writing a song complaining about it? And why is it more patriotic to ignore or accept the government's behaviour?
• Larry from Cleveland I never understand why every city that puts on a fireworks show on the Fourth of July plays this song. Let's celebrate our most patriotic holiday with a song that puts our country down. Shows the mentality of most Springsteen fans.
• Markantney from Biloxi, Ms July 2014, Actually BITUSA is a Patriotic Song; just not a Positive One. Compare it to today's charitable foundation commercials you/we see on the Iraq Vets, showing you their injuries (which was a direct result of Combat). This (GREAT) song is no different, except it's about the "Nam" Vets but,...our Country just didn't embrace them or their sacrifices the same. I for one understood what he meant the (micro) second I saw the video. And someone mentioned it earlier but that line, "You end up like a dog that's been beat too much Till you spend half your life just covering up." tells you it's not a positive song and it's the first verse. BTW, love that line.
• Barry from Sauquoit, Ny On June 4th 1984, Columbia Records released Bruce Springsteen's sixth studio album, "Born In The U.S.A."... And on July 1st it peaked at #1 (for 7 non-consecutive weeks) on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart... Seven tracks from the album made Billboard's Hot Top 100 Singles chart; "Dancing in the Dark" (#2), "Cover Me" (#7), "Born in the U.S.A." (#9), "I'm on Fire" (#6), "Glory Days" (#5), "I'm Goin' Down" (#9), and "My Hometown" (#6)... The album also reached #1 in Australia, Canada, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and West Germany.
• Randy from Houghton Lake, Mi The only lyrics most people hear are the chorus BORN IN THE USA. This will always be a misunderstood song.
• John from Auckland, - This song was parodied brilliantly by English comedy duo Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones, in their 1984 TV show, Alas Smith & Jones. It was Griff dressed in Springsteen like clothing, singing 'Lost in the USA". Unfortunately, no copy is yet available on YouTube.
• Ulysses from Dorrigo, Australia Top Gear had it on the Vietnam Special and like 20 different Vietnams came running down the street. I almost died laughing. So damn funny!
• Ulysses from Dorrigo, Australia Greatest American song ever! Perfect, just gold. Best Voice ever.
• Steve from Beechmont, Ky To Ken, in Lousville...... When the News does "Walkin'" live, they acknowledge that they were not in Viet Nam but they had friends who were. The song is for them, the Vets, as are the others you cited. Not being there does not mean they can't do songs for and about the ones who were.
• Cory Stoczynski from Lancaster, Ny The Sesame Street Version Of The Song Teaches About The Life And The Animals Of The Farm
• Dirk from Nashville, Tn This is a great message song. Springsteen was brave to put it out in the midst of the rah-rah Reagan era. ...But couldn't he have come up with a "middle 8," as they used to say? A little secondary part of the song just to break up the monotony? It is the same beat and melody from beginning to end.
• Jim from Long Beach, Ca This song is about how The US government screwed the Vietnam Vets when they came back from the war. No jobs waiting for them,shotty vet facilities,being called "baby killers' when they came back..the list goes on..I love this song and it's honesty..
• Tony from South Philly, Pa As a tribute to my New Jersyite...Bruce you nailed it!!!!
• Paul from San Angelo, Tx Americans at their core are dissenters. It is in their blood, it's an inherited gene. Our forefathers shot, stabbed, and killed to get away from their government. Dissention is just as patriotic as saluting the flag. If you're waving your silly flags thinking that only flag wavers are patriotic, you are the least patriotic of all. It's the American way to be dissatisfied with being slaves to any one way of thinking. That is the number 1 reason why this song IS patriotic. American patriotism is very unique this way.
• Brian from Kc, Mo I think the shame of this song comes from the fact that the way it's interpreted gets critiscism--I LOVE Springsteen's music-but you write a song and give it away and what it turns into isn't yours anymore-the other version paints a better picture of what he wanted it to--but this one has a patriotic feel to it (the drive of the beat)-like it or not--I think it says somethng more though--something about inheriting the life of our folks and owning it--even if it isn't the dream they had for us...just a thought
• Tessa from Washingtonville, Pa Me and my father always sing along to this song in the car. Great song!
• James from Fort Worth, Ga Khe Sanh is the district capital of Hướng Hoá District, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, located 63 km west of Đông Hà.. Khe Sanh Combat Base was a United States Marine Corps outpost in South Vietnam.
• Annabelle from Eugene, Or Where's Khe Sahn? Is that a part of Asia? The Middle East?
• G from Potomac, Md Talk about misinterpretation, Reagan asked Bruce if he could use this in his reelection campaign!!
• N.i. from Baltimore, Md Many songs have been misinterpreted, but what makes this one stand out is that it isn't subtle. The song's critical tone should have been obvious to everyone. Take the line "Sent me off to a foreign land, to go and kill the yellow man." What, did people actually think the point was, "Yippee, I killed Asian people"? Just goes to show that lots of people don't pay attention to lyrics.
• Joshua from La Crosse, Wi Considering how Springsteen closes the song with the out-of-place line "I'm a cool rockin' daddy in the USA", it's not so hard to understand why this song has been misinterpreted so much over the years.
• Colin from Guelph, On awesome song, with true lyrics about war. one of the best all time, i'd say :)
• Gene from San Diego, Ca This song was used in 2005 to torture prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Played it all night while the prisoners were forced to listen to it. Holds the honest glory of the American patriot. Fighting and being injured for the country you love, then coming home and getting shoved in a blue-collar job.
• Alexis from San Francisco, Ca I'm 17 and had to pick a song of my choice that protests a war. I didn't even know that this song was a protest song and like many others thought that it was a patriotic one. People suck and America sucks and I didn't realize that until I started this project. Thanks Bruce.
• Steve from Arnol, Md I don't understand the whole Springsteen phenomenon, least of all this song. The whole thing is built on a riff - and not even a good riff, but a boring one. There is no melody to speak of. The lyrics are depressing as well as politically and historically obtuse. And then there's Springsteen's voice, or shall I say lack of it. As Seinfeld would say, "....what's with Bruce Springsteen?!"
• Soutiman from Mumbai, India Quite a revelation to know that the song isn't patriotic. Well I never concentrated much on the lyrics of the song in first place. The chorus line is catchy.
• Musicmama from New York, Ny This is my second-favorite song about war/peace. ("Imagine" by John Lennon is first.)It's one of the most emotionally complex songs in all of rock'n'roll: It deftly weaves together grief, anger, sorrow and wistfulness. I think that the question of whether or not it or the song is patriotic or not (I think both are.)is beside the point. If I had to pick one word, it would be "elegiac." Bruce is really singing about loss. However, it's not about non-victory in battle; rather, it deals with the loss of honor and dignity. (To Chris from Gloucester, England: NOBODY wins a war. All any military confrontation has ever done is to set the stage for more of the same: hate and carnage and more hate and more carnage.) I can easily imagine song this in "The Spoon River Anthology." If you haven't read it, or "The New Spoon River Anthology," check them out: They contain the best monologes in the English language that weren't written by Shakespeare.
• Max from Laconia, Nh Bruce turned down 12 million because he didn't want this song to be on a commercial? 'Atta boy, Brucey! This song is sweetness
• Bob from Windsor, Ct The TRUTH is that Bruce conceived, & began writing "Born in the U.S.A." in 1975; while He was about to do a concert in Connecticut. I was Chief of Concert Security, a Vietnam Veteran ("long gone Daddy in the U.S.A."), & We were having a conversation: Bruce asked Me why I was wearing a military "U.S." marked item: I said "cause I was born in the U.S.A.",: We began talking about Vietnam Veterans, & the War. I asked Bruce if He could write a song for Vietnam Veterans; that's where it began, & where the Title came from. Bruce also conceived "Dancing in the Dark" ("this Gun is for Hire", "You can't start a Fire without a Spark") at that time: Summer of 1975 in Connecticut. Annie L. was there taking photos for Rolling Stone. Willie Nelson was there, too. I'm not taking credit for anything: just inspiration: Bruce has the Gift of astute observation, contemplation, composition, melody, & presentation! BOB K. in Connecticut
• Jazzz from Frankfurt I was actually born in the States but came to Germany when I was still a baby. My Mom never spoke English at home, so I didn`t learn English until I was 10 and in secondary school. But she must have translated the chorus to me, cause I remember that as a 4yr old, I would sing along frantically. I don´t know if patriotism is inborn, but even then, being the toddler I was, I sure felt proud of being born in a country I wouldn´t be visiting for another 12 yrs or so...The song still rocks me, although reading the lyrics now is quite disillusioning...
• Matthew from Milford, Ma This song was part of my "Voices of Vietnam" project during my sophomore year, along with others like "War" and "Masters of War".
• Sam from Portsmouth, Va Tim, I salute you. Also this song is pretty good. I like how people misunderstand it.
• Tim from Philadelphia, Pa And uhh here is some of your "over-patriotism"...America is always going to be the greatest country in the world and we can destroy any one in a fight...toughest people in the world are here in America...that's why we play football over soccer...and last time I checked, England and Canada always go to us for help so all you English/Canadians talking trash on America...just don't come to us for help next time you need it...Oh and uhh World War I and II, I believe the Americans were the main reason the allies won those wars.
• Tim from Philadelphia, Pa By the way that arguement about America not winning all their wars...well America may not have won all their wars but they sure as heck achieved their objective.
• Tim from Philadelphia, Pa This song is amazing and it attracted me to become a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen.
• Dave from San Jose, Ca the song can certainly be both patriotic and bitter. The lyrics are bitter as arsenic, but the fact that Bruce is angry at what happened to american soldiers, how they were treated by our government and by their fellow citizens, is a sign of a high-minded patriotism.
• Andrew from Dartmouth, Ma every war the U.S has entered was a stalemate....last time i checked World War I and World War II and the American Revolutionary War were not stalemates
• Dennis from Anchorage, Ak The song IS patriotic. It's about the fact that the treatment of the soldiers when they came back was UN-patriotic. They had given their all and deserved better. You can protest and be patriotic at the same time.
• Dirk from Nashville, Tn No, it's definitely not a patriotic song. Reagan was clueless about a lot of stuff. It's a song of emotional outpouring. What psychologists call "catharsis." Like wailing in grief at a funeral. Bruce created a song that let people put their arms around the entire Vietnam experience and weep out of love for those who endured it, veterans, families, protesters, even the smug people who spent 15 years just pushing it all away and refusing to deal with it. It's not "patriotic" and it's not "anti-American."
• John from Kirkland, Wa Ronald Reagen also praised Bruce for this "patriotic" song - Bruce said - "I don't think he (Regan) is listing.
• Sam from Provo, Ut a lot of americans are overpatriotic. i am patriotic and i love our country( so you people wont accuse me of being a "commie.") but anyway great protest song, compares with ohio by neal young and blowing in the wind by bob dylan. awesome song
• Dirk from Nashville, Tn How can all of you people talk about this song in terms of it being "anti-American"? It's not anti-American. It's about the frustration of the Vietnam War. It's about the destruction and misery that a confusing war brought onto well-meaning people and patriotic Americans. In the end, their efforts amounted to nothing. ("They're still there, he's all gone," he sings about his dead brother. People gave their lives and spirits for something that left them ruined and cynical. And then the country turned its back on them. This is a song that sort of puts its arms around the people who suffered in the name of the USA. It's a song that asks us to recognize the pain stand shoulder to shoulder with them and acknowledge what they did in our name--right or wrong. But this is not an anti-American song.
• Heather from Newark, Oh Well excuse us Americans for our "over patriotism", Steve in Markham, Canada. Why should we be ashamed to be proud of our country? Yes, the U.S. makes mistakes. Doesn't your country? If Canada needed help, the U.S. would help in a second. It seems that everyone is against us until they need our help.
• Iain from England, United States Springsteen is so angry when he sings this song, he shouts more than he sings. His voice seems angry and bitter starting and ending with his hopelessness.
• Pat from Las Vegas, Nv "Born in the USA" isn't an anti-American song. What it's against is two things: the way the Vietnam war was conducted (badly--Dubya needs to read some history books fast, and think about what happened), and the way vets were treated when they came back home. I'm a Vietnam-era vet. I got lucky and didn't get shipped over there, but I remember how the public treated us at the time, and the disillusionment of the Vietnam vets coming back home.
• Miles from Vancouver, Canada Forget that this an anti-America song. It's a groovy, well-written tune, just like "Every Breath You Take."
• Kevin from Sandy, Ut it's been said that the BOSS got denied from serving in the military during vietnam due to medical reasons.
• Matt from Mokena, Il I think Dan from Sydney is confused...listen to the song, there is no way you can say this is patriotic
• Nathan from Defiance, Oh Bravo Bruce, the instant you allow your music to be used by companies for ads, you lose credibility as an artist. Glad to see The Boss didn't tarnish his reputataion. And while on the subject wasn't the goal of the Vietnam War the same as the Korean War? Push back the commies, to protect the Democratic nations, not to liberate the Communist north? Why did no one protest that war? Becuase we didn't lose?
• Steve from Markham, Canada Defintely the most misunderstood song that I can remember. To this day, many people think this is a patriotic song and living in Canada, many Canadians think this is the usual American over-patriotism. I believe this is because of the way he sings the chorus and has his fist pumping during the video and his concerts. Too bad for those idiots. This is a great song.
• Todd from Sacramento, Ca Good lord, what was the GOP thinking?! You would think that SOMEONE that was working for the '84 Reagan campaign would actually listen to the song. Good for Bruce though.....there probably isn't anything more liberating than telling the leader of the free world "no, you can't use my song to drive up interest rates and increase the homeless rate." lol
• James from Bridgeport, Ct Chris from england, we have not been brainwashed that much. Even going back to the beginings of our country only 3 american wars have ended in stalemates or defeats. The majority were still victories. War for independence was a US victory, 1812 was a stalemate (but we owned at New Orleans afterwards), Mexican war was complete domination (we seized about half their country), Civil War was a union victory in that the union was preserved, we dominated the spanish american war (seized philipines, guam, puerto rico, and held cuba breifly), WW1 was a US victory, so was WW2, Korea we accomplished our goals but neither side decisively drove out the other so that will count as a stalemate, vietnam we lost, gulf war we completely dominated (ruined that whole republican guard in 3 days), and gulf war 2 is still yet to be decided. Thats 7-2-1 and one undecided. Not too shabby. Not "practically every war the U.S. has ever been in has ended in a stalemate." We've had 7 decisive victories, unless of course you consider us saving you guys in Britain during WW2 just another "stalemate." The US military still has reason to be proud of its history. Nam has been our only large blemish so far.
• Ekristheh from Halath, United States This song is part of what makes me keep dollar bills in my car and my window rolled down at freeway entrances and intersections.
• Eric from Cumberland, Ri Ronald Reagan used this song for his Campaign cause he thought that the "Born in the U.S.A." part mean the rest of it was patriotic. So much for that.
• Ken from Louisville, Ky This is considered as part of the early 80's "Vietnam triology", including Huey Lewis and the News' "Walking On A Thin Line" and Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon". Neither Springsteen, Lewis or Joel served in the military, much less in Vietnam.
• Madeline from Melbourne, Australia I always thought he was really patriotic bout America. Oh well i like this song, at least the chorus
• John from Island Park, Ny The United States of America won its freedom when the British Army was forced to surrender at Yorktown on October, 18th 1781. This conflict was necessary to free the people of America from the tyranny of England. Most wars are not justified, and are simply the failure of leaders to find a peaceful resolution to conflict. Bruce Springsteen is a man who understands that fact and has dedicated his life, as well as his music to glorifying peace, and to showing Americans (and all) what is wrong with war. What makes America great is that we are free...and that is something to be celebrated. But just as America has a lot to celebrate and be proud of, we also have many things to be ashamed of...and Bruce Springsteen is a great American for having the courage to give equal voice to the good and bad. What I love about this song is that it somehow finds a way to do both of those things with lyrics and music.
• Fred from Abilene, Tx It's the music of the song that makes it sound so much like an "anthem." Springsteen has a unique gift of mixing upbeat and downbeat elements together. I love the hard-hitting opening lyrics--shouted out with almost gleeful defiance: "Born down in a dead man's town/ The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/ End up like a dog that's been beat too much/ Till you spend half your life just a coverin' up." That describes a lot of people from my small hometown.
• Steve from Woodbridge, Va Bruce was born in Freehold, New Jersey. He was indeed perturbed by attempts by Reagan and others on the song to use the song for political purposes. It's astounding, actually, how the song could possibly be interpreted as a patriotic anthem. The song's actual message isn't at all subtle or cryptic; you almost have to purposefully avoid listenig to anything but the chorus to take it as a declaration of American pride.
• Trevor from Boring, Or I think it's less about the Vietnam war and more about how the working man gets shafted in the United States of America. Who does the working? Who does the fighting? Most importantly: who does the dying?
• Tyler from Hamilton, Canada If only the majority of people understood this wasn't a flag waving patriotic song. If people knew what the song meant, it more than likely wouldn't be considered the "rock anthem" it is today. Also, one of the very few times Springsteen has spoke out in public, promptly calling the press conference to say that he had been miss quoted by Regan
• Kelly from Farmington , Mi Ronald Regan mistakenly chose Born In The USA as the theme song for his presidential re-election campaign (1984). It's rumored that Springsteen was furious when he found out...
• Erik from Davis, Ca What's really great about this song is that it's honest.

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Average setlist for tour: Born in the U.S.A.

• Born in the U.S.A. Play Video
• Out in the Street Play Video
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• Darlington County Play Video
• Prove It All Night Play Video
• The River Play Video
• Badlands Play Video
• Trapped ( Jimmy Cliff  cover) Play Video
• Glory Days Play Video
• The Promised Land Play Video
• My Hometown Play Video
• Thunder Road Play Video
• Cover Me Play Video
• Dancing in the Dark Play Video
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Born In the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

Album Reviews 1984 Albums , 2014 Reviews , Album Reviews by Ric Albano , American Artists , Bruce Springsteen , Classic Rock Review Album of the Year , New Jersey Artists , Roy Bittan 1

Buy Born In the U.S.A.

Springsteen had experienced vast commercial success with the Top 5 double album The River in 1980. In 1981, Springsteen was asked to write music for a film originally called “Born In the U.S.A.” (but eventually released as Light of Day in 1987). While working on his solo, introspective, album Nebraska , Springsteen merged the melody for a song called “Vietnam” with the film’s title and originally wanted to include it on that 1982 album but eventually concluded that it was out of place.

Recording sessions for Born In the USA date back to January 1982, nearly two and a half years before the album’s release. These sessions predate the release of Nebraska , as Springsteen was composing and recording a number of songs specifically intended for an album besides that dark folk album. In fact, by mid-1982 most of Born In the USA was already recorded with a few more tracks added in 1983 and a final track added in early 1984. In total, Springsteen wrote an estimated 70 songs for the album, with 12 making the final cut and several more used for B-sides such as “Shut Out the Light”, “Johnny Bye-Bye”, “Stand On It”, “Janey Don’t You Lose Heart”, and “Pink Cadillac”, which became a minor radio hit on its own.

After a new CD manufacturing plant was opened in Indiana, Born In the USA was the first compact disc manufactured in the United States (actually “born in the USA”!) All previous CDs had been manufactured in Japan.

The title track kicks off the album with spacey synths by Roy Bittan and a sanitized drum snare by Max Weinberg , world’s away from the folk of the past album. These intro sounds are nicely contrasted by Springsteen’s rough and strained rock vocals which belt out lyrics that deal with the cruel mistreatment of Vietnam veterans on their arrival back home. “Cover Me” is a bright pop song , albeit warmer than the opener and with some real bass presence by Garry Tallent . Springsteen originally wrote the song for Donna Summer but was urged by his manager, Jon Landau, to include it on the album and it peaked at #7 on the pop charts as a result.

“Darlington County” is a down-home track which seems to be slightly influenced by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was recorded in the spring of 1982 and gets its title from an actual county in South Carolina. “Working on the Highway” is the weakest song on the first side, almost a cheap attempt at rockabilly. In contrast, “Downbound Train” is an excellent dark, folk song with the added bonus of an eerie synth organ in the background. One of the more legitimate Springsteen songs on the first side, the song is a melancholy lament to a lost spouse with vivid imagery throughout.

  “I’m On Fire” is a short but potent ballad with great production techniques on the voice, synths, picked guitar, and brushed drums, making it an overall masterpiece of arrangement. One of the earliest songs recorded for the album, the song came together in an impromptu jam between Springsteen, Bittan, and Weinberg. The second side is more solid throughout than the first and starts with a couple of songs which would’ve fit perfectly on Springsteen’s late seventies albums. “No Surrender” is an upbeat song of youth that was originally cut from the album but was reinstated at the insistence of guitarist Steven Van Zandt , who was very keen of the song. “Bobby Jean” is the most underrated Springsteen song, well constructed with a piano riff, a driving bass, great melody and romantic lyrics. The vocals are delivered masterfully with lyrics that are pure Jersey and the bonus of being the first song to include a sax solo by Clarence Clemens . Some have interpreted the lyrics to be a goodbye tribute to Van Zandt, who had decided to leave the E Street Band by the time of its recording. “I’m Goin’ Down” contains Clemons’ second sax solo and, like “Working on the Highway”, this is totally retro (but done much better here).

The album’s stretch run has three of its most popular hits. “Glory Days” is an infectious pop song with a great hook and story-telling lyrics. There is a cool mandolin track buried deep in the mix and a unique, improvised ending that helped fuel interest in this otherwise simple song. “Dancing In the Dark” was the last song recorded for the album and the first released as a single. This is a pure 80’s synth pop song, but so unlike anything Springsteen had done before, that it has got to be respected. The melody and arrangement is masterful (with the possible exception of the mind-numbing drums), making this experiment deep into the realm of radio-friendly an overall success. The album concludes with the folk ballad “My Hometown”, which is a darker look at the scenes and characters in “Born to Run”, a decade earlier. While talking about riots and unemployment in a very Wood-Guthrie-like approach, the serene backing vocal chorus through the final verse gives a sense of hope through the despair. This last song was also the last Top 10 single from the album, reaching #6 in late 1985.

Born In the USA was nominated for three Grammy Awards and won one for Best Rock Vocal Performance. With this unprecedented level of success, Springsteen went on a major tour which helped spawn a five-record box set called Live/1975–85 . Springsteen has continued to record and tour through the present day, but has not again reached the level of success or overall quality in the intervening three decades.

Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1984 albums.

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[…] and pop-oriented album concludes with a rather traditional, Springsteen-esque folk ballad to close Born In the USA. “My Hometown” actually was written as a darker look at the scenes and characters in […]

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• Born in the U.S.A.
• Bruce Springsteen
• Latest News

Listen: Unreleased Outtakes of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A”

by Catherine Walthall April 11, 2022, 3:21 pm

Bruce Springsteen is a cornerstone of heartland rock. His music defined an era of feeling in the United States and continues to do so today. But with such a storied career that spans several decades, there are bound to be things that get left out of the story.

Videos by American Songwriter

One forgotten tidbit is the alternate versions of Springsteen’s well-known song, “Born in the U.S.A.”

Recently, Springsteen’s longtime collaborator and audio engineer Toby Scott brought these alternate versions to light. In a presentation at the SoundCheck Xpo held in Mexico City, Scott played a few different takes of “Born in the U.S.A.” One of these versions includes a bluesy take on the famous track, reportedly unheard before now.

Listen to different versions of “Born in the U.S.A.” below, starting at the 23:49 mark.

Other Springsteen headlines of late include the singer/songwriter’s appearance in the Stand Up For Ukraine livestream by Global Citizen. The live stream was put on to raise money for those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

“Refugees in Ukraine and around the world need our help now,” Springsteen said in promoting the event. “Join all of us on E Street, and Global Citizen, as we stand up for Ukraine and stand up for those displaced globally because everyone deserves safe and humane living conditions.”

Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for SUFH

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