Born In The U.S.A.

Rate It! Avg: 4.5 (867 ratings)
Sample Album
ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 46:19

eMusic Review

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Glenn Kenny

eMusic Contributor

06.30.09
Bruce Springsteen, Born In The U.S.A.
1984 | Label: Columbia

Still the ultimate Springsteen and the E Street band statement, this finds the group — recently enhanced by ace guitarist Nils Lofgren, of solo, Grin and Neil Young fame — firing on all eight cylinders. The songs themselves cover a magnificent range of themes and emotions. The feisty chorus of the title track still blinds many to the fact that it's a resolutely downbeat song about an out-of-luck Vietnam vet. "No Surrender" is the real barn-burner here — Springsteen and the band revived it while campaigning for failed presidential candidate John Kerry. The awesome "Glory Days" is a rocker's wry take on getting older—a follow-up of sorts to Asbury Park 's "Growing Up." And "I'm On Fire" is simply the best of Springsteen's simmering love/lust songs.

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E Music crap

Lionel2

Why is it that the 4 songs on this album that you have heard on the radio since you were a kid are the only ones that they make you buy the whole album to hear? Sorry, but I'm not paying $7 for a bunch of crap that I didn't want to listen to 30 years ago and still don't want to hear now.

user avatar

Love It

aquaductagious

Bruce Springsteen is a nice man. And this album is amazing.

user avatar

Blastin' through the bedrock

quit-it

I started to download some e-music comedy albums, but then realized all I had to do is come here and read the Springsteen reviews to get a laugh. Wow. There are some angry people who only want to hear Dancing in the Dark for the 500th time but apparently will hemorrhage out their hole if they listen to Darlington County or any other track. Whatever. This album is a classic and a bargain at any price. The deep cuts are the best cuts. All twelve credits. And to Schmitty in Portland –relax. Yes, if reviewer Glenn Kenny can list guitarist Nils Lofgren’s former bands, he should know that Nils was Miami Steve’s tour replacement but never played on the Born in the USA album. Thanks for the corrections, but remember, not everyone has erected a shrine to the Boss in their house.

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Classic Springsteen

theisey

Takes me back to my youth and replaces worn vinyl and tapes. It has me tapping toes and even singing along - as long as no one else is watching!

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The boss is the boss

mmzinder

I listened to this album when I was a kid, but only now, when I'm 20 years older and there's a recession I can fully appreciate it. No song here is less than excellent.

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Wanna Dance?

ubsober2

I'm sorry, there are those that would say The Boss is old news, or just old period - but one listen to this album and if you're honest you know it makes you want to dance. It is a vivid collection of musical stories that make you want to hear more. To celebrate the Glory Days of summer get this one and you won't be disappointed.

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Bruce is the Best

Schmitty

Fantastic party album-not his best-but certainly what made Bruce the biggest rock star on the face of the earth, at the time. Need to set the record straight. To Glenn Kenny's review, Nils Lofgren did not play on the Born in the USA album. Steve Van Zandt did, quit the band, and Nils joined for the tour. Also, to EMUSIC-0203CAFE-the album did not have five #1 songs. Actually, Bruce has never had a #1 song. Get the facts straight people. You're talking to a Bruce nut here.

user avatar

awesome

WVMMRH

and the pricing is downright great

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5 #1 HITS ALBUM !

EMUSIC-0203CAFE

I love this album, I believe it to be his most sucessful. The hits just keep coming. It is one of 3 Albums that I know of that has 5 #1 hits in it. Michael Jackson's Thriller and I forget which on of Madonna's is the other, all from the 80's.

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eMusic Features

0fdb823c3e0f9fc973880113c2e6b106

Icon: Bruce Springsteen

By Glenn Kenny

If ever there was a rock 'n 'roll icon who needed no introduction, Bruce Springsteen - who got his nickname "The Boss" because, from very early on, he was the guy who made sure the band got paid - is surely that guy. As for that band, the current lineup of his longtime crew the E Street Band is Nils Lofgren on guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt on guitar and sundries, Clarence "the Big Man"… more »

They Say All Media Guide

Bruce Springsteen had become increasingly downcast as a songwriter during his recording career, and his pessimism bottomed out with Nebraska. But Born in the U.S.A., his popular triumph, which threw off seven Top Ten hits and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, trafficked in much the same struggle, albeit set to galloping rhythms and set off by chiming guitars. That the witless wonders of the Reagan regime attempted to co-opt the title track as an election-year campaign song wasn’t so surprising: the verses described the disenfranchisement of a lower-class Vietnam vet, and the chorus was intended to be angry, but it came off as anthemic. Then, too, Springsteen had softened his message with nostalgia and sentimentality, and those are always crowd-pleasers. “Glory Days” may have employed Springsteen’s trademark disaffection, yet it came across as a couch potato’s drunken lament. But more than anything else, Born in the U.S.A. marked the first time that Springsteen’s characters really seemed to relish the fight and to have something to fight for. They were not defeated (“No Surrender”), and they had friendship (“Bobby Jean”) and family (“My Hometown”) to defend. The restless hero of “Dancing in the Dark” even pledged himself in the face of futility, and for Springsteen, that was a step. The “romantic young boys” of his first two albums, chastened by “the working life” encountered on his third, fourth, and fifth albums and having faced the despair of his sixth, were still alive on this, his seventh, with their sense of humor and their determination intact. Born in the U.S.A. was their apotheosis, the place where they renewed their commitment and where Springsteen remembered that he was a rock & roll star, which is how a vastly increased public was happy to treat him. – William Ruhlmann

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