![]() A week after “Born in the U.S.A.” was released as a single, Ronald Reagan was re-elected in a landslide. He probably assumed that all those out-of-work jamokes would gravitate to the party of FDR and JFK, just like his parents and grandparents. Springsteen has never been shy about sharing his liberal politics. It takes a heap of time to sing from A (aviator) to Z (zincographer).” No wonder this guy’s concerts run on to half-past never. Springsteen, wrote Hamper, “has made untold zillions hoppin’ to and fro in his house of hallucinations, always emerging on release date as either a construction worker ( The River), a garage mechanic ( I’m on Fire), a minor league batting instructor ( Glory Days), the kindred spirit of Charlie Starkweather ( Nebraska) or some other pockmarked casualty of Crud Corners. Hamper singled out Joel, Seger, Cougar, and Springsteen as “goddamn millionaires mewin’ all over the dial about how bad the grind was.” In his book Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line, Flint autoworker Ben Hamper revealed that he and one of his linemates were writing a rock opera about life in the shop, because they were tired of hearing “these flimflam rock ‘n’ roll mongers pluggin’ up the airwaves with their detached meanderings of ‘da average man, man.’ When? Where? How? They should have all been forced to write songs about cocaine orgies and tax shelters and beluga caviar. (Indeed, Springsteen later released an album called The Ghost of Tom Joad, which includes his ode to Youngstown.)Įven then, some of Springsteen’s subjects were skeptical. Born in the U.S.A., which was released in 1984, transformed him from overachieving East Coast bar rocker to a sort of musical John Steinbeck, his fanfares for the common man doing for the recession what The Grapes of Wrath had done for the Depression. No one rode that wave higher than Springsteen. Billy Joel sang about livin’ here in Allentown, Bob Seger sang about makin’ Thunderbirds, Johnny Cougar gave us two American kids growin’ up in the heartland. Those factory layoffs inspired a uniquely ’80s musical genre: Heartland Rock, the soundtrack to deindustrialization. In the early ’80s, blue-collar workers started taking it on the chin. The Dads who worked at the refinery, the steel mill, and the textile mill were all Democrats, because they belonged to labor unions. It wasn’t like that when Bruce was growing up in Freehold, New Jersey, in the ’50s and ’60s. ![]() The white working-class characters who populate his lyrics voted for Donald Trump, but the white professionals who know all the words to his songs voted for Joe Biden. Springsteen is an upper-class musician (he lives on a 300-acre horse farm and his daughter is an Olympic equestrian) who sings about the lower class for the entertainment of the middle class. I just want to note that the people Springsteen sings about are very different from the people who attend his shows, and that the gap between his subjects and his audience says a lot about the social and political changes in this country since Springsteen began making music 50 years ago. I don’t want to cast doubt on Bruce Springsteen’s social conscience, or his concern for the downtrodden in our society. Vietnam vets turned down by the hiring manager at the refinery.Guys who couldn’t get jobs at the textile mill in their hometown because it closed up and didn’t come back.Laid-off steelworkers sinkin’ down in Youngstown.Single moms who split up with their husbands two years ago.Here are some of the people who probably won’t be buying those tickets: Scott from London, Englandi think in these lyrics, Bruce has made the mistake of admitting to his old teachers that it was him all along, the gruff voiced guitar player, who that day got in a fighter plane and machine gunned down the school.Here are some of the people who’ll probably be paying $146 for a ticket to Friday’s Bruce Springsteen concert at Wrigley Field:.Kyle from Belleville, CanadaI love the stories Bruce tells during this.Jill from Decatur, GaThis song was also used in the 2007 film "Gracie" which was inspired by the experiences of the Shue family (actors Elisabeth and Andrew)in 1970s New Jersey.Simen from Brumunddal, NorwayOne of my favorites from Bruce! I was surprised when I heard this one on "Big Daddy.".Simen from Brumunddal, NorwayWhen I hear this song, I get that Freehold/Asbury Park spirit, and how it was to live there in the 50s, 60s & 70s! With the shore, boardwalks, bars, clubs, old houses with all those porches, rock bands, everything about Springsteen's childhood! I'm lucky enough to go there in April 2013 :-). ![]()
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