Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band started a fire and found their glory days in the serious storytelling of this brawny blockbuster. Although he had broken though into the pop charts on his own with 'Hungry Heart' from 'The River', Springsteen followed that album up with the sparse 'Nebraska', which was basically a demo tape he had produced at his house. He had attempted to record some of the songs with the E Street Band; but eventually decided that the original recordings had a power that could not be denied. Some of the dark character studies written during this time period were revisited when it came time to record his next album. The sessions for 'Born in the U.S.A.' began before 'Nebraska' was even released. The recording took place at The Power Station and The Hit Factory in New York City with Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen, and Steven Van Zandt producing. 'Born in the U.S.A.' features Bruce Springsteen on lead vocals, lead guitar, and acoustic guitar; Roy Bittan on piano, synthesizer, and background vocals; Clarence Clemons on saxophone, percussion, and background vocals; Danny Federici on organ, glockenspiel, and piano on "Born in the U.S.A."; Garry Tallent on bass guitar and background vocals; Steven Van Zandt on acoustic guitar, mandolin, and harmony vocals; and Max Weinberg on drums and background vocals; with Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg on background vocals on "Cover Me" and "No Surrender"; and Ruth Davis on background vocals on "My Hometown".
Springsteen reflected at the time: "I think there's always been a nostalgia for a mythical America, for some period in the past when everything was just right...I guess my view of America is of a real bighearted country, real compassionate. But the difficult thing out there right now is that the social consciousness that was a part of the Sixties has become, like, old-fashioned or something. You go out, you get your job, and you try to make as much money as you can and have a good time on the weekend. And that's considered okay....I guess what I was always interested in was doing a body of work – albums that would relate to and play off of each other. And I was always concerned with doin' albums, instead of, like, collections of songs. I guess I started with 'The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle', in a funny way – particularly the second side, which kind of syncs together. I was very concerned about gettin' a group of characters and followin' them through their lives a little bit. And so, on 'Born to Run', 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' and 'The River', I tried to hook things up. I guess in Born to Run, there's that searchin' thing; that record to me is like religiously based, in a funny kind of way. Not like orthodox religion, but it's about basic things, you know? That searchin', and faith, and the idea of hope. And then on 'Darkness', it was kind of like a collision that happens between this guy and the real world. He ends up very alone and real stripped down. Then, on 'The River', there was always that thing of the guy attemptin' to come back, to find some sort of community. It had more songs about relationships – "Stolen Car," "The River," "I Wanna Marry You," "Drive All Night," even "Wreck on the Highway" – people tryin' to find some sort of consolation, some sort of comfort in each other. Before 'The River', there's almost no songs about relationships. Very few. Then, on 'Nebraska'...I don't know what happened on that one. That kinda came out of the blue...I think you can get to a point where nihilism, if that's the right word, is overwhelming, and the basic laws that society has set up – either religious or social laws – become meaningless. Things just get really dark. You lose those constraints, and then anything goes. The forces that set that in motion, I don't know exactly what they'd be. I think just a lot of frustration, lack of findin' somethin' that you can hold on to, lack of contact with people, you know? That's one of the most dangerous things, I think – isolation. 'Nebraska' was about that American isolation: what happens to people when they're alienated from their friends and their community and their government and their job. Because those are the things that keep you sane, that give meaning to life in some fashion. And if they slip away, and you start to exist in some void where the basic constraints of society are a joke, then life becomes kind of a joke. And anything can happen...Half of the 'Born in the U.S.A.' album was recorded at the time of Nebraska. When we initially went in the studio to try to record 'Nebraska' with the band, we recorded the first side of 'Born in the U.S.A.', and the rest of the time I spent tryin' to come up with the second side – "Bobby Jean," "My Hometown," almost all those songs. So if you look at the material, particularly on the first side, it's actually written very much like 'Nebraska' – the characters and the stories, the style of writing – except it's just in the rock-band setting...Most of the songs on 'Born in the U.S.A.' are under five takes, and "Darlington County" is live, "Working on the Highway" is live, "Down-bound Train," "I'm on Fire," "Bobby Jean," "My Hometown," "Glory Days" – almost the whole album is done live. Our basic style of recording now is not real tedious. The band is playing really well together, and in five or six takes of a song, they're gonna get it. 'Born to Run' was the only album I really did extensive overdubbing on; it's also the only album where I wrote only one more song than we recorded. For 'Born in the U.S.A.', we recorded maybe fifty songs. The recording is not what took the time; it was the writing – and waiting till I felt, 'Well, there's an album here; there's some story being told.' We record a lot of material, but we just don't release it all."
'Born in the U.S.A.' became the biggest album of Springsteen's career and catapulted him into worldwide superstardom, going to number eleven in Ireland; six in Japan; two in France, Italy, and Spain; and number one in Australia, Austria, Canada, (West) Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. 'Born in the U.S.A.' was the best selling album of 1984 in the US with over fifteen million copies sold. It has sold over twice that worldwide. It produced seven top ten singles, putting in a tie with Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation 1814' for the record. Springsteen spent two years touring the world for the album. The iconic cover photo was shot by Annie Leibovitz.
http://brucespringsteen.net/
"Dancing in the Dark" was written near the end of the sessions as a concession to producer Jon Landeau, who wanted a powerful hit single for the album. The lyrics reveal Springsteen wrestling with the process. It became the biggest hit of Springsteen's career (apart from Manfred Mann's chart-topping cover of his 'Blinded By the Light' from 'Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ' album), going to number seven in Norway: five in Australia; four in the UK; three in Canada; number two in Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and on the US pop chart; and number one on the US hot mainstream rock tracks chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs
"Cover Me" was originally written for Donna Summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sejk6EI7rpA
"Born in the U.S.A." was conceived as a song for a film by Paul Schrader called 'Born in the U.S.A.' (which would become 'Light of Day', featuring Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett, the title song of which was penned by Springsteen). The working title of the song was 'Vietnam'. Springsteen admits: "I don't know if anybody could imagine what their particular experience is like. I don't think I could, you know? I think you had to live through it. But when you think about all the young men and women that died in Vietnam, and how many died since they've been back – surviving the war and coming back and not surviving – you have to think that, at the time, the country took advantage of their selflessness. There was a moment when they were just really generous with their lives."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRxAs3YZjcc
"I'm On Fire"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrpXArn3hII
"Glory Days"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQpW9XRiyM
"I'm Goin' Down"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fdZWbIsrFk
"My Hometown"
'Born in the U.S.A.'
full album:
Side one
1. "Born in the U.S.A." 4:39
2. "Cover Me" 3:27
3. "Darlington County" 4:48
4. "Working on the Highway" 3:11
5. "Downbound Train" 3:35
6. "I'm on Fire" 2:37
Side two
1. "No Surrender" 4:00
2. "Bobby Jean" 3:46
3. "I'm Goin' Down" 3:29
4. "Glory Days" 4:15
5. "Dancing in the Dark" 4:00
6. "My Hometown" 4:34
'Born in the U.S.A.'
outtakes:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF1DB7C11C23BDA14
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