Almanac Music: Springsteen’s Vietnam Song
It is a bountiful time for Bruce Springsteen fans with multiple documentaries being released, a biopic in cinemas and rumours of more to come.
It is also the time when Springsteen has gone through the cupboard, dusting off old recordings. In honouring the sound of himself as a young artist, he has released earlier versions of his Vietnam song and listening to them reveals the depths of this oft-misinterpreted masterpiece.
The solo acoustic version (‘Born in the USA Demo Version’) that he recorded at his home in January 1982 is stark and bluesy. The misty vocals are from a low-level criminal who goes into the army to avoid jail and serves in Vietnam. A decade later, he is aimless after returning to indifference and shrugged shoulders. There is a growing suspicion in his voice that he has been conned. The haunting howl halfway through seems like a cry of confusion, wailed into a vacuum.
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘til, you spend half your life just coverin’ up.
A later version (‘Born in the USA Electric Nebraska’) is counted into a song with jagged guitar and a kicking drumbeat. The voice now is urgent – the con seems to have formalised into questions for authority that demand a reply. A scratchy guitar lead replaces the disillusioned cry of the earlier version. After his lament about losing a brother in the war comes a hurtful sigh.
Those who heard in the chorus (from Ronald Reagan to MAGA), a jingoistic anthem, could never have listened closely. The full rising temper of the song is in its final released version (‘Born in the USA’), where the veteran’s story becomes an angry, shouted protest. Gone is the almost apologetic tone of the first version – same words – but now he seems he can be loud because there is:
Nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go.
Australia has its own baleful anti-war masterpieces as told in the voice of the veteran – ‘Khe Sanh’, ‘I was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green)’ and ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’. Each has that first-person power and delivered variously with the pained (Jimmy Barnes), questioning (John Schumann) and lingering (Eric Bogle) voice that Springsteen projects in his different versions.
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About Michael Sexton
Michael Sexton is a freelance journo in SA. His scribblings include "The Summer of Barry", "Chappell's Last Stand" and the biography of Neil Sachse.
Gee, I like this. His autobiography is evocative, like this piece, with a real songwriter’s ability to capture emotion and scene.
As a Springsteen tragic “Born in the USA” (hit version) is the only song I automatically skip on a playlist. I know all the history and the underlying meaning, but the strident loud chorus always sounds and feels bombastic and jingoistic to me. Ronald Reagan used it for some campaign warm ups in his 1984 re-election campaign.
Springsteen crowds sing along as a song of triumph and pride – not regret. That’s always the vibe, and there is nothing I detest more than “American Exceptionalism” (because it makes all others “less than” and justifies exploitation).
First time I saw Bruce live (6 all up now – 4x in Oz and twice in Europe) was 20 March 2003 – the first day of George W Bush’s (and Blair and Howard’s) unjustified and counter-productive Second Gulf War. Tanks rolling across desert was live streamed all day on most TV stations. Bruce came on stage alone (under the roof at Docklands) with a 12 string slide guitar and played the pained bottleneck slide version of “Born in the USA” (how it should always be heard). You could have heard a pin drop. No verbal commentary – the song said it all – “here we go again with another imperialist foreign war”. Then the lights burst on with the E Street Band going straight into a loud demonstrative version of Edwin Starr’s “War” (What is it Good For?).
Music saying more than a thousand words. “When will they/we ever learn?”
Of all the Boss’s songs, I would say the Born in the USA is the most widely misinterpreted.
Thanks, Mike.
As one of those fans you noted in your introduction Michael, yes, I am v excited. Going to a prescreening of Deliver Me from Nowhere early next week, and just hanging for the Nebraska 82 boxset to land. I’m not expecting to be blown away, just want to enjoy Bruce’s company.
As for BitUSA (the song), I don’t tire of it at all. Not just because it is the best song on easily his best album, but the inchoate rage is palpable, in his vocals, the words, guitar and Max’s drumming. He manages to balance spitting out the chorus, with a side of sadness/reflection befitting the song’s narrative. It is no accident that Shut Out the Light was the b-side. And what a song.
Agree with PB on the 2003 Docklands concert, the start was incredible, marrying BitUSA with War. That left a chill. Unfortunately, the rest of the concert was a bit so-what, marred by The Rising, the album it was promoting, which has way too much filler.
Bruce’s has a deep connection with the Vietnam war – in how America’s standing was severely hit, only 20 or so years after they won the world over following their leadership in WW2 and personally, being a teenager in the 60s. He has engaged Vietnam via a range of perspectives from as early as Lost in the Flood on his first album, to the story he would tell, leading into The River on his 80 tour and through to Youngstown and Galveston Bay on Tom Joad.
Cheers
Like Rick Im looking forward to the pre screening of the biopic next week Mike. I believe the story is based on the making of Nebraska my favourite of his. As Pete and Smokie mentioned, the song was badly misinterpreted. I first saw Bruce in Brisbane in 1986? and remember the crowd drunkenly singing it like a MAGA gathering. I couldnt listen to it for 30 years until a show in Melbourne when he did the acoustic verion live. Cheers
Great insight and comments. An enjoyable read. Thanks.