crossposted from Bad Conscience
When I tell people that Bruce Springsteen is one of my favourite artists, the usual reaction is confusion. “How can you listen to that godawful I Love The American Dream redneck crap?” is a common British reaction. For Americans, it’s more often of the form “Sorry, I only listen to good music”.
This can leave me feeling exasperated. Springsteen, after all, is an artist with far more depth and nuance than stereotypes about glorifying American Greatness allow for. One only need think of the bizarre memoirs of a serial killer in Nebraska to get that far. But more than that, Springsteen songs often give voice to the downtrodden, hard-working but never-gonna-make it ordinary people. The working guy who puts in his hours and drinks at the bar with his buddies on Fridays – drinking to forget that it’s the system that screws him over.
Songs like “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “Downbound Train,” “The Wrestler” or “Youngstown” capture the desperation of those left behind by capitalist progress. “Johnny 99″ and “Jungleland” follow the fates of those pushed into illegality by social and economic systems over which one has no control. Even up-beat songs like “Glory Days” are laced with overtones of regret and lost opportunity, whilst the inspirational “Thunder Road” or “Born to Run” are day-dream fantasies about escaping the monotony of dead-end small town life.
Even Springsteen’s signature song – usually taken as a balls-out statement of unthinking patriotism – holds more than first meets the ear. “Born in the USA” is, after all, about being born in a “dead man’s town”, sent to Vietnam to avoid prison, and returning to unemployment, marginalisation and “the shadow of the penitentiary”.
I had a brother at Khe Sahn/
Fighting off the Vietcong/
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/
But then, Springsteen doesn’t exactly have his bad reputation by complete chance. After all, “Born in the USA” was used by Ronald Reagan as his campaign theme tune – and Springsteen raised no apparent objection. The album cover for “Born” is hardly an indictment of American failings, and has much more of a rally-round-the-flag feel.
And many Springsteen songs are not political at all. “Darlington County,” “The E Street Shuffle,” “Radio Nowhere” or the divise “Outlaw Pete” are simple songs to get you tapping your foot and forgetting about the day job.* Because ultimately, Springsteen is a business man.
He’s not afraid to make political points when it suits him – but he’s an entertainer and his main aim is to shift units. Springsteen knows that whilst his songs can hit a political note with those union guys who vote Democratic, the Republican-voting truck drivers can punch the air to “Badlands” too. After all, you don’t end up doing the Superbowl half-time show if you isolate half of America.
But then, all credit to the man. I imagine there’s not many things that can unite me and an Alabama redneck, but Springsteen is one of them. Maybe that’s why they call him The Boss.
All together now:
The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive/
Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide/
Together Wendy well live with the sadness/
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
(Oh!)/
Someday girl I don’t know when were gonna get to that place/
Where we really want to go and well walk in the sun/
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run/
Fade out with the sax…
Posted by Left Outside 
