Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the U.S.A' (40th Anniversary) - Track by Track

by Julian Spivey

Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen, his seventh studio album and the last he would record with the E Street Band for nearly 20 years. The best-selling album of his career, Born in the U.S.A. would turn Springsteen from a critical darling with a loyal fanbase to one of the biggest musical acts in both the U.S. and the World with all seven of its singles reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 
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Photo: Columbia Records

Born in the U.S.A.
“Born in the U.S.A.,” the title track from Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album, is the most misunderstood song of his entire career and has been from the very beginning back when President Ronald Reagan felt it was a patriotic anthem, not a song partially built out of his policies that helped to separate the classes of American citizens. The easy-to-chant chorus makes the song feel anthemic and that was a smart way to try to bring listeners into the plight of Vietnam vets struggling to return home, find work and make a living. It’s just that some of the casual listeners of the song didn’t want to pay enough attention to the verses in between that sing-along chorus. Springsteen rarely performs the song live anymore. I wonder if it’s potentially due to people misunderstanding it.  

Cover Me
There was a period when Springsteen was a sought-after songwriter for others – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band had a No. 1 hit with his wordy “Blinded By the Light,” the Pointer Sisters had a soulful hit with his romantic “Fire” and Patti Smith drew all of the emotion out of “Because the Night.” So, when R&B singer Donna Summer came calling in the early ‘80s Springsteen felt he had the right song for her with “Cover Me.” But like “Hungry Heart” before it – which had been intended to give to The Ramones – Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau heard the potential for a hit with “Cover Me” and told “The Boss” to keep it. The steamy rocker about “looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me,” was the second single off Born in the U.S.A., and while it wouldn’t become the biggest hit off the album it would peak at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.  

Darlington County
I don’t know how things were in Darlington County, South Carolina in the early ‘80s but I’ve been to Darlington County within the last few years and there’s not much there but a kickass NASCAR track. Anyway, that’s where the two guys in Springsteen’s “Darlington County” head off to from New York City looking for a good union job. It sounds like they had a good ol’ time there too in one of Springsteen’s Heartland rockiest tunes off Born in the U.S.A.

Working on the Highway
Bruce Springsteen first wrote and recorded “Working on the Highway” during the stripped-down sessions in early 1982 that would turn into the Nebraska album. That version was originally titled “Child Bride” and didn’t include what would become the rock melody on Born in the U.S.A. or the title refrain. On Born in the U.S.A. it pairs terrifically with “Darlington County” before it as you can imagine the guys from New York are hard at work in the hot Southern heat.

Downbound Train
Some of the lyrics in songs that precede “Downbound Train” on Born in the U.S.A. certainly have melancholia behind them but this is the first track in which the band’s music truly fits with the melancholy of the lyrics. The song sees the narrator lamenting about being laid off and losing his wife as a result with her catching the “downbound train” out of town.  

I’m On Fire
“I’m On Fire” is about as short and sweet as Bruce Springsteen gets. It’s also the sexiest Springsteen gets – although some fools misinterpret the “hey little girl is your daddy home” line to mean something much more nefarious than is meant and screw those folks for doing so. The track off Born in the U.S.A. just oozes sensuality from the very beginning with Max Weinberg’s snare cross stick hits and the softly sensual twang of Springsteen’s guitar with the two together giving off the old Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two “boom-chicka-boom.” It’s simplistic, but shouldn’t a song about urges and sexual feelings be succinct and to the point? There is so much tension in this vocal and then the ending release of the “whoo-whoo-whoos” at the end. It’s the type of desire you don’t get a whole lot out of Springsteen’s discography but it’s a slam dunk here.

No Surrender
“No Surrender,” off 1984’s Born in the U.S.A., has one of my all-time favorite song lyrics in it: “We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school.” Now, I was a fairly good student and I believe in education and gaining as much knowledge as one can but dammit if I don’t feel that line deep down in my soul. This quick, two-and-a-half-minute rocker just absolutely gets the feeling down pat of a kid breaking out of his small-town bubble with his buddies on the way to make something more of himself.

Bobby Jean
When I saw Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band perform in Oklahoma City, Okla. in the spring of 2015 they finished their epic show that night with a performance of “Bobby Jean.” It was a bit surprising to me that Springsteen would end his show with the song but it’s clearly one that has great meaning for him. It was one of the last songs recorded for Born in the U.S.A. and came during a time when his longtime bandmate and more importantly best friend Steven Van Zandt was leaving the E Street Band for his own music career. The song tells the story of two friends saying goodbye after a long-time friendship with the gender of the titular Bobby Jean perhaps intentionally being ambiguous so that the song could work as one about friends or lovers.

I’m Goin’ Down
“I’m Goin’ Down” is fairly similar to “Cover Me” in being a fun, short rocker about just wanting to find someone to love, though it is my favorite of the two – even with its simplistic chorus of simply repeating “I’m Goin’ Down.” This is the Springsteen and E Street Band that must’ve been a kickass bar band before the songs got more lyrical and storyteller - which I usually prefer, so don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you just want something energetic about sexual frustration, especially on a steamy summer night. “I’m Goin’ Down” was the sixth single off the album and went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.

Glory Days
“Glory Days,” a No. 5 hit in the summer of 1985 a year after the album’s release, is the comic rendering of how small-town folks spend so much time reminiscing on the “glory days” of the past that they can forget to do their living in the now. The song, inspired by an encounter Springsteen had with a former Little League teammate some 10 or so years prior, sees old friends and schoolmates reminiscing on their old ball skills, good looks, etc. while wishing they could go back and live those days again. The nostalgic tale is one of Springsteen’s most accessible heartland rockers and finds itself in frequent play as one of his ”greatest hits.” And, folks, let’s let the “speedball” reference go already. It simply sounds cooler than “fastball.”

Dancing in the Dark
“Dancing in the Dark,” off 1984’s Born in the U.S.A., is the closest “The Boss” ever got to a No. 1 Billboard hit as a recording artist when it topped out at No. 2 for four weeks and was kept off the top spot by Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” (Boo!) and Prince’s “When Doves Cry” (OK, that’s understandable). “Dancing in the Dark” would, however, win Springsteen his first Grammy Award in 1985 for Best Rock Vocal Performance. The song is one of Springsteen’s poppier-sounding tunes of his career but just taking a listen at the lyrics lets you know it’s still the same old Springsteen ready to bust loose from a dead-end job or town and who can’t identify with lines like: “I check my look in the mirror/wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face/Man, I ain’t getting’ nowhere/I’m just livin’ in a dump like this/There’s somethin’ happenin’ somewhere/Baby, I just know that there is.”

My Hometown
This might have me on the outskirts of many Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band fans but my favorite track off the epic Born in the U.S.A. album has always been the album-ender, “My Hometown.” It might be unusual because it’s an anthemic album that sent Springsteen from critical rock God to one seemingly everybody in the United States loved overnight and this track is more in line with something like the title track off The River – which now that I think about it was a great deal different than most of that album, as well. “My Hometown” sees Springsteen’s narrator both waxing nostalgia about his hometown and feeling all the dark times that have always bubbled under and now are about to breach the surface and knowing he needs to get out for the benefit of his family. It’s a mixture of beauty and pain and you can feel every bit of it via Springsteen’s almost pained vocal. 
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​Portions of this article were previously published on The Word on Pop Culture.

What is your favorite track on Born in the U.S.A.?