After learning that no Bruce Springsteen records made it to my top 10 non-Beatles, non-Stones album list, I received a request from my cousin to review my favorite Bruce Springsteen record.
Make no mistake, I do enjoy the Boss’ music and have been a fan since the Born to Run album. At one time, I am sure I owned every one of his records. The primary reason none made it to my list, however, is that I never obsessed over any one specific album. Every album has some filler in my opinion. Also, Bruce’s albums are best appreciated in large groups where beer is plentiful and hearing is strained as opposed to pensive listening thru headphones late at night.
No doubt, from time to time, I did drink beer on the hood of a dodge (more likely a Chevy but that’s not important), I grew up believing in the Promised Land, one summer I did spend many Friday nights at either South, New Dorp, or Midland Beach(es)…but other than that, Mary’s dress never waved on my porch, I never had a job at the oil refinery, Wendy never strapped her hands across my engines, I was never frozen out on 10th Avenue, and I had no real need to hide out on the Backstreets.
Notwithstanding the above, songs like Badlands, Thunder Road, Jungle Land, Candy’s Room, Promised Land, and Rosalita are phenomenal party/beer drinking/”white- people” dancing rock and roll tunes played by State University college kids all across the land. I think the royalties just from my college dormitory helped with the down payment on Bruce’s Jersey mansion.
For me, however, the standout Bruce album is Born in the USA. Amazingly, the album produced 7 top 10 hits, has been certified platinum 15 times, and as of 2012, sold 30 million copies. The album cover shows Bruce standing in front of the American Flag. Make no mistake, this record is not a soundtrack to the movie “Team America: World Peace”. Rather, it is a caustic vignette of American life during the rust belt recession of the early 1980’s, and Bruce went “ka-ching”.
The album opens with the title song. Bruce says he wrote the song “… about the working-class man, who in Springsteen’s words was facing “a spiritual crisis, in which man is left lost. It’s like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore. He’s isolated from the government. Isolated from his job. Isolated from his family … to the point where nothing makes sense”. There was a brief moment when listeners thought it was a patriotic song but after one listen, you really had to be dull and dim to think that was the case (even the Gipper figured it out after just one campaign speech).
The song is a raucous rocker made contemporary at that time with classic 1980’s arena-rock synthesizers. It opens with Danny Federici’s electric piano accompanied by Max Weinberg hitting the snare in what feels like a cross between John Philips Souza and Steppenwolf. Bruce spits “Born down in a dead man’s town, the first kick I took was when I hit the ground. You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much, til you spend half your life just coverin’ up.” And then Weinberg bashes the tom-toms, the band is off and running. It’s a song about the combat trauma Vietnam veterans and the equally unacceptable treatment upon their return home.
The next song is a funky 4 bar rocker called “Cover Me”. It’s a hip-mover but a little generic for my taste. Bruce’s telecaster features with some nice background fills but nothing extraordinary.
“Darlington County” is a wonderful toe-tapper that opens with a classic rock riff courtesy of Bruce’s Telecaster (the Telecaster is widely considered to be the most versatile of your electric ax’s…the single coil lipstick pickup is iconic and gives the guitar it’s versatility. Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Steve Cropper are just some of the famous devotees). Federici’s organ follows the riff and Weinberg’s expert drumming keeps the infectious beat.
“Downbound Train” starts again with a classic Fender riff and the Boss singing “I had a job, I had a girl, I had something going mister in this world”. The character gets laid off from the lumberyard and takes a job at a car wash “where all it ever does is rain”. Naturally, he feels he is on a down bound train. The song has a haunting arrangement and Weinberg’s drums are reverbed which varnishes the song in sepia. It’s a gutsy ballad with teeth.
“I’m On Fire” is another haunting tune with staccato guitar picking straight off of a Police record. “Hey little girl is your daddy home, did he go and leave you all alone ?” Great lyric. The song fades with Bruce howling in the dark (later into the album, he’ll be Dancing in the Dark).
“No Surrender” is an outright rocker with a killer bass line (Gary Tallent) and a sweet piano courtesy of Roy Bittan (Roy Bittan is to Bruce what Nicky Hopkins was to the Rolling Stones). Weinberg’s power 4/4 beat makes this instant rock and roll gold. Bruce’s vocal is powerful and confident “We learned more from a 3 minute record than we ever learned in school”. This is certified Springsteen angus.
“Bobby Jean” keeps the romp going and Bittan’s piano and Bruce’s strumming are iconic Jersey shore. Tallent and Weinberg keep the head bopping package tight and together. “…We told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things we’d ever seen. Now I wished you would have told me, I wished I could have talked to you, just to say “Goodbye, Bobby Jean”. I hear this song and I am instantly back on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights or Asbury Park.
“I’m Going Down” and “Glory Days” are dive bar staples and, in the right circumstance and frame of mind, will have you confessing that all you need is Bud.
Jon Landau, the producer of the album, told Bruce the album needed a single. Bruce reportedly told him “Look, I’ve written 70 songs for the record, if you think we need another, you write it”. The next day, Bruce delivered Dancing in the Dark. It turned out to be the album’s best selling single and the video literally thrusted Courteney Cox onto fame’s stage.
“Dancing” is a wonderful power pop tune incorporating a drum machine and pop synthesizers, major departures for Springsteen’s straight ahead “heartland” rock format. The chorus stays with you for days giving us the killer tag lines “You can’t start a fire, sitting ’round crying over a broken heart. This gun’s for hire even if we’re just dancing in the dark. You can’t start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart this gun’s for hire even if we’re just dancing in the dark.
Bruce and his E-Street Band gel effortlessly together in the final track “Hometown”. It is a well-crafted ballad and a fitting conclusion to this expertly written and produced album. The song itself paints a poignant picture “Last night me and Kate, we laid in bed talking about getting out, packing up our bags maybe heading south”.
As a rock and roll album, Born in the USA excels on many levels. As a recorded history of recessionary Americana, meh. Speaking of Hometowns, Bruce lives in Colts Neck New Jersey but can be spotted during the “season” in Wellington Florida where he, Patty, and their daughter spend their days jumping multi-million dollar show- horses over six foot hurdles. It’s good to be the Boss.