On June 4, 1984, Bruce Springsteen released the legendary album Born In The USA. A look behind the scenes of a masterpiece.
1984. It was with his ass in front of the Star-Spangled Banner that Bruce Springsteen arrived en masse in record stores. With hindsight, we must recognize that Born in the USA. – the album, the song and the sixteen-month tour that followed – proved to be the breakthrough that even Springsteen fans had never dared hope for. With his seven consecutive singles and fifteen million albums sold, Bruce would establish himself as one of the biggest rockstars in the world – as well as an American icon the likes of which had not been seen since Elvis.
Most of the songs from Born in the USA had been composed even before the release of Nebraska in September 1982. And are in the same vein: compassion is the first characteristic of the opus, but also the memories, the losers, in short, the entire universe of the Boss is here transfigured and readapted in a decade where everything will become ultra sophisticated: human relationships like music, a world of “winners”, which Springsteen dismantles piece by piece, because he continues to come across veterans or sick blue-collar workers. And also to remember where he comes from, notably in the poignant “My Hometown”.
Sound signature
By May of that year, Springsteen and the E Street Band had already canned seven tracks that, according to Springsteen, did not work acoustically on the demos of the future solo album. In fact, the Boss started playing guitar before passing the chord charts to Roy Bittan and Danny Federici who, together, created the keyboard and piano sounds. And the songs began to take shape with a completely new sound. A morbid perfectionist, Springsteen spent months searching for the sound signature of the record. The titles will be played and replayed dozens of times in the studio over two years, before taking their final form.
Among the many sessions that took place during 1983 – almost thirty songs! –, a few tracks end up standing out like “Bobby Jean” which Springsteen had discarded and which thanks to the insistence of Steve Van Zandt will finally be included on the album just like “No Surrender”. For their part, Jon Landau and the sound engineer and co-producer of the record Chuck Plotkinended up convincing Springsteen that the best takes of the songs were those from the 1982 sessions. Although very discreet, Plotkin would be the architect behind the unique sound of Born in the USA, its extended reverbs and sometimes intrusive keyboards. Finally, when mixing time arrives, the Boss will call on the genius of the console Bob Clearmountain quai had already mixed two titles of The River.
Ultimate piece
While the sessions finally seem to be completed, the album having taken its final form thanks to the help of the members of the group – Bruce even invited colleagues and friends to vote to finalize the tracklisting – Landau points out rather dryly that the record needs a final song. The better the producer briefs his foal: this last song must be written in the first person and “capture your state of mind” at this precise moment in his life. Springsteen, outraged, retorts: “If that’s what you want you just have to write it yourself.” But three days later Springsteen returned to see Landau and played “Dancing in the Dark”a new composition born from his frustration and the state of confusion in which he found himself at the time. Landau, stunned, then declared that the album was finally finished.
Today, although the sound is typical of eighties hyperproductions, the live experience has preserved the intrinsic quality of the songs that make up this masterful album. The mastery of the writing, the diversity of styles – from rockab' to ballad – make them so many magical moments during the high masses that the Boss' concerts have now become – ceremonial instituted precisely during his first real major world tour in the wake of the release of Born in the USA
Better still, the last two tours saw Springsteen and his E Street Band revisit the album in its entirety and in the order of the original tracklisting, notably during its appearance at the Stade de France in Paris in June 2013.
