No Surrender: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. Turns 40
Looking back on The Boss’s most successful album
Four decades after its release on June 4, 1984, it’s still kind of mind-boggling to consider the ridiculous level of success Born in the U.S.A. enjoyed.
Springsteen’s seventh studio album was, at the time, only his fifth best album. Would anyone argue that it’s better than Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River or Nebraska? Maybe, but they’d be in the very, very slim minority.
But holy crap, was it a monster: Seven top 10 singles, five of which were transformed into videos, with “Dancing in the Dark” leading the way directed by none other than Brian DePalma (Carrie, Scarface) and featuring a then-unknown Courteney Cox being pulled up onstage to dance with the squeaky-clean and remarkably ripped Boss.
Notably, Springsteen wrote “Dancing in the Dark” overnight after his manager, Jon Landau, told him the new album needed a hit single. As recounted in Dave Marsh’s book, Glory Days, Springsteen responded, “I’ve written 70 songs. You want another one, you write it.” Nevertheless, he went back to his hotel room and wrote the song in one night, expressing his frustration about trying to write a hit single and his feelings of isolation after the success of The River.
VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen “Dancing in the Dark”
The song climbed to number two, where it remained for four weeks (it was denied the top spot by Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” and Prince’s “When Doves Cry”), introducing Springsteen to the massive MTV audience and catapulting the album barely a month after its release to the number one-spot. It remained in the top 10 for 84 straight weeks, was the first compact disc released commercially, is certified 17x platinum in the U.S., and has sold about 30 million albums worldwide.
“Born in the U.S.A. went nuclear,” Springsteen wrote in his autobiography, Born to Run. “I knew I had a real runner in the title cut, but I didn’t expect the massive wave of response we received. Was it timing? The music? The muscles? I dunno, it’s always a bit of a mystery when something breaks that big. At 34, I decided to ride it out and enjoy it.”
VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen “Born in the U.S.A.”
The title cut was, indeed, a “real runner,” even if it’s one of his most misunderstood tracks. Originally part of the home demo tapes that wound up becoming Nebraska, it’s arguably one of the greatest arena/stadium rockers ever put to vinyl. And anyone who thinks it’s a patriotic anthem probably also thinks “41 Shots” is anti-police and getting shitfaced drunk and throwing up during “Rosalita” is the greatest moment they’ve ever experienced at one of Bruce’s concerts.
Try listening to all the lyrics, you nitwits, not just the chorus.
In 2018, Rolling Stone ranked Springsteen’s 100 greatest songs. The title track, “I’m on Fire” (a tale of smoldering lust that gave all the girlfriends of his fratboy fans something to think about beyond the Annie Leibovitz cover photo of his ass) and “Dancing in the Dark” all cracked the Top 25 at 9, 21 and 22 respectively.
VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen “I’m On Fire”
Two other tracks made it into their top 50: “No Surrender” at 37 and “Downbound Train” at 44. The latter contains my all-time favorite Bruce mumble: I defy anyone to realize he’s singing “Now I swing a sledgehammer on a railroad gang / Knocking down them cross ties, working in the rain” without checking the lyrics.
Some of Springsteen’s greatest lyrical tidbits appear on this album: “We learned more from a three-minute record, baby / Than we ever learned in school” (“No Surrender”) and “You can’t start a fire without a spark” (“Dancing in the Dark”) are certainly among his very best. And there are the “sha-la-las” of “Darlington County” that makes for one of those glorious community singalong moments when he busts it out in concert.
“I’m Goin’ Down” feels a little silly, but there’s no denying that “My Hometown” is a terrific song, as is “Bobby Jean,” often heard as his tribute to Stevie Van Zandt. Or at least one of them, as “No Surrender” is the other Van Zandt tribute on this record.
VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days”
Speaking of Van Zandt, in his book Unrequited Infatuations, he describes the meeting where Springsteen played the album for Columbia executives for the first time. “I imagine the two executives [label heads Walter Yetnikoff and Bruce Lundvall] lit up like Christmas trees, cash registers ringing in their heads.”
But according to Stevie, Jon Landau explained to them that before the label got to release Born in the U.S.A., they had to release Nebraska, “among the most uncompromising and uncommercial records any major artist has ever released. It would keep his dignity forever protected and would ensure his credibility would remain forever bulletproof.”
VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform “Cover Me” in London 2013
I suspect Springsteen himself doesn’t think much of his most successful album. Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town both received lavish box set treatments on their 30th anniversaries, while The River received an ornate boxed set treatment — and even a tour — on its 35th. Those sets were must-have items for fans, packed with outtakes, video material, and (in the case of Darkness) a spiral-bound reproduction of Springsteen’s own notebooks.
On June 14 of this year, Born in the U.S.A. is being celebrated with … checks notes … an LP version on red translucent vinyl and a 12-page booklet with some new liner notes. Way to go all-out.
Truth is, though, while many of the dozen tracks on Born in the U.S.A. are favorites among casual and hardcore Springsteen fans alike, the album is less than the sum of its parts. Forty years later, with 22 studio albums under the Boss’ belt, his biggest success doesn’t come close to cracking his top five: To those four albums mentioned at the top of this article, add Tunnel of Love and The Rising, and probably Ghost of Tom Joad and Magic.
It’s a testament to Springsteen’s talent and artistic integrity that his career never devolved into mining Born in the U.S.A. over and over again for decades, and that he continues to release four-star albums into his 60s and 70s.
The album sure paid a hell of a lot of bills over the years, though. He may have ridden it out and enjoyed it in his 30s, but clearly it’s a phase of his career he’d rather keep on the back burner.
- No Surrender: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. Turns 40 - June 4, 2024
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