Springsteen's "Born in the USA"

[tallydude]

This song has recently just been killing me. I had never really listened to it closely before, but last week in my Vietnam War class we listened to it together. The lyrics are just absolutely haunting. Powerful stuff.

[Tin]

I saw this on your FB and wondered why. Along with why Reagan used it in his 1984 campaign. I guess a lot of people only hear the chorus.

The other song that gets me is The Hurricane by Dylan.

[OHIO]

I saw this on your FB and wondered why. Along with why Reagan used it in his 1984 campaign. I guess a lot of people only hear the chorus.

The other song that gets me is The Hurricane by Dylan.

One of the best songs by him IMO. He really took a risk producing that and it paid off.

That Springsteen song is really meaningful, but I'm not a big fan of his.

[Tin]

Johnny Cash's redo of Hurt is depressing too, the music video is one of the best imo.

[South FLA]

Springsteen is right up there with Barbra Streisand in my book of favorites!! Yeah right! 

Here are the lyrics for you all to see:

Born down in a dead man town

The first kick I took was when I hit the ground

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

Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.

I was born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.

Got in a little hometown jam

So they put a rifle in my hand

Sent me off to a foreign land

To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A...

Come back home to the refinery

Hiring man said son if it was up to me

Went down to see my v.a. man

He said son, don't you understand

I had a brother at Khe Sahn

Fighting off the Viet Cong

They're still there, he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon

I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary

Out by the gas fires of the refinery

I'm ten years burning down the road

Nowhere to run aint got nowhere to go

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.

Born in the u.s.a., I'm a long gone daddy in the u.s.a.

Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.

Born in the u.s.a., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a.

[tallydude]

I think it's a very sobering reflection the experience of Vietnam vets after the war. Unfortunately, the jingoistic refrain of the chorus kinda kept people from hearing the message of the song (myself included).

[SDoolittle]

I think Springsteen's raspy voice was what kept people from hearing the message. My sister was in love with "The Boss", and I must have heard that song a thousand times back in '84, but I never understood what the heck he was saying. Nice use of the word jingoistic, by the way.