News item from Associated Press out of Ft. Campbell, Ky.: “Before leaving for a fundraiser in nearby Herndon, [Vice President Dick] Cheney shook hands with soldiers while Bruce Springsteen’s `Born in the U.S.A.’ blared throughout the hangar.”
It was in 1984 that Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band set down the tracks that would ultimately become “Born in the U.S.A.,” which, for politicians of all stripes, is a piece of rock music with a dangerously seductive title.
What could be better than big guitar chords and Bruce himself shouting “Born in the U.S.A.” so loud you can just imagine the sweat and those veins in his forehead and neck a-poppin’?
Someone somewhere in government should set up a “Committee to Figure Out What Born in the U.S.A. Is All About” before anyone else grafts it onto an event as an anthem or grabs it for a political campaign. It’s a great song, but not a happy song at all.
Undoubtedly, it’s the drive that sells it to the rock audience, which may be unaware of its real message.
For those who are too overwhelmed by the sheer volume to listen to the message, here’s what Springsteen wrote:
Born down in a dead man’s 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 .
I was 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 VA man
He said “Son, you don’t 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 10 years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t 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.
