Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA re-enters charts for 40th anniversary and Fourth of July
Image: Bruce Springsteen
On July 4, 2024, we commemorate the 40th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's best-selling album, "Born in the U.S.A."
As the album reaches this significant milestone, critics and fans are revisiting discussions about the real meaning behind the lyrics.
What do the lyrics of Born in the USA really mean?
The misunderstanding surrounding "Born in the U.S.A." is clear when you examine the album's cover art.
In the cover, Springsteen is depicted from behind, standing in front of a large American flag. The flag's red and white stripes, along with Springsteen's attire—white T-shirt, blue jeans, and red baseball cap—clearly convey a message of ‘America.’
Why choose a rear view of the denim-clad rocker whose posture exudes youth, sex appeal, and swagger?
The photograph serves as a Rorschach test, deliberately conveying a mixed message.
Springsteen referred to the album's self-titled song as “one of my greatest and most misunderstood pieces of music.”
The song features powerful, pounding drums and a haunting synthesizer melody. Springsteen's rough voice sometimes obscures the lyrics, which depict the pain of a Vietnam veteran who regrets joining the military and struggles with unemployment upon returning home.
However, the song's chorus, which Springsteen sings with pride and vigor, fist raised in the air, repeatedly declares, “Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.”
Springsteen was accomplishing two objectives: critiquing the war and the way veterans were treated afterward, while also affirming his American heritage. According to him, the song was a call for a "critical" patriotic voice alongside pride in being American-born.
Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA’s connection to Donald Tump and 2024 politics
In May 2024, Donald Trump, the expected GOP presidential candidate, brought up Springsteen during a rally in New Jersey. However, the candidate did not speak favorably of the Garden State troubadour.
He labeled Springsteen as a "wacko," asserting that despite this, the Boss and other "liberal singers" had supposedly voted for him in 2020. Trump then inaccurately stated that his rally crowds surpassed Springsteen's.
In a 2020 interview during Trump's reelection campaign, Springsteen expressed his clear opinion on the candidate: “I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship,” he said.