There was nothing you could do : Bruce Springsteen's

There was nothing you could do Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." and the end of the heartland

Steven Hyden, 1977-

Book - 2024

"A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen's iconic album, Born in the U.S.A.--a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America. On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years. Because this record ended up being much more than just an album-it is a document of what this country was in its moment, a dream of what it might become, and a prescient forecast of what it actually turned into decades later. In There Wa...s Nothing You Could Do, veteran rock critic Steven Hyden explores the essential questions that explain this classic album - what it means, why it was made, and how it changed the world. By mixing up his signature blend of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden digs deep into the songs that made Born In The U.S.A. as well as the scores of tunes that didn't, including the tracks that make up the album's sister release, 1982's Nebraska. He investigates how the records before Born In The U.S.A. set the table for the album's tremendous success, following Springsteen as he tries to balance his commercial ambitions with his fear of losing artistic control and being co-opted by the machine. Hyden also takes a closer look how Springsteen's work after Born In The U.S.A. reacted to that album, discussing how "The Boss" initially ran away from his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP until he learned to once again accept his role as a kind of living national monument. But the book doesn't stop there. Hyden also looks beyond Springsteen's career, placing Born In The U.S.A. in a larger context in terms of how it affected rock music as well as America. Though he aspired to be as big as Elvis and as profound as Dylan, he was equally aware of his heroes' shortcomings and eager to avoid their mistakes-all while navigating the tumultuous aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, a time when America was coming apart at the seams. Born In The U.S.A. simultaneously chronicles that coming apart and pushes for a more united future, a duality that made him a hero to a younger generation of bands - from Arcade Fire to The Killers to The War On Drugs - who openly emulated the sound of Born In The U.S.A. in the hopes of somehow, in their own way, achieving a measure of that album's impact in the 21st century. By the aughts, when Springsteen fan (and future podcast partner) Barack Obama entered the White House, it appeared that the hopeful promise of Born In The U.S.A. might be realized. But the election of Donald Trump seemed to confirm an opposite truth that was closer to the darkness of songs like "My Hometown" and "Born In The U.S.A." than Springsteen's revival-like shows. As Springsteen himself reluctantly conceded, the working-class middle American progressives he wrote about in 1984 had turned into the resentful and scored Trump voters of the 2010s. How did we lose Springsteen's heartland? And what can listening to these songs teach us about the American decline that Born In The U.S.A. forecasted? In There Was Nothing You Could Do, Hyden takes readers on a journey to find out"--

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Subjects
Springsteen, Bruce > Criticism and interpretation.
Springsteen, Bruce. > Born in the U.S.A.
Springsteen, Bruce
Born in the U.S.A (Springsteen, Bruce)
Rock music > Political aspects > United States.
Rock music > Social aspects > United States.
MUSIC / History & Criticism.
Rock music > Political aspects
Rock music > Social aspects
United States
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Biographies.
Genres
Criticism, interpretation, etc
Biographies
Published
New York : Hachette Book Group 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Steven Hyden, 1977- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xix, 250 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780306832062
9780306832079
  • Preface: Born in Born in the U.S.A.
  • Chapter 1. Man at the Top
  • Chapter 2. Man in a Room
  • Chapter 3. Mansion on the Hill
  • Chapter 4. Growing Pains
  • Chapter 5. Bossmania
  • Chapter 6. Bruced Out
  • Chapter 7. Reborn in the U.S.A.
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Steven Hyden was six years old when he first heard Bruce Springsteen's 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. His description of the experience reads like a Springsteen song. He is sitting in his father's car. He reaches in the glove compartment "because I am a bored little boy." He pulls the cassette tape out and holds it his hands, examining it. The next few moments are life-changing even if it initially goes over his young head: he hears a solitary piano chord followed by a big BOOM! and then the sound of a man shouting, not exactly singing. He has a "gravelly" voice and, the boy concludes, sounds angry. "This is a shock to the system." The preface sets the tone for the rest of the book--it's a work of criticism published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the album's release--that explores Springsteen's music and career. Specifically, Hyden is interested in not only why Springsteen made Born in the U.S.A., but also how it changed the culture. He also explores its modern-day impact. Even longtime Springsteen fans will learn a thing or two from Hyden's entertaining examination of the man and his music.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The 1984 album Born in the USA cemented Bruce Springsteen's reputation for drawing listeners from across the political divide, according to this boisterous account from music critic Hyden (Long Road). Recalling how he first heard the album as a six-year-old in his father's car--"All these years later, I am still chasing the rush"--Hyden traces some of Springsteen's musical influences (Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan) before situating him alongside John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, and other contemporaries whose songs centered working-class protagonists. According to Hyden, Born in the USA straddled "a hard-hat, working-class conservatism" and an idealism "born out of the civil rights and anti-war movement of the sixties." That combination garnered Springsteen fans on both the right and the left, Hyden writes, noting that the title track, a song about the disillusionment of a Vietnam war veteran, was co-opted by Reagan-era conservatives as a patriotic anthem. Balancing a fan's enthusiasm with a critic's attention to detail, Hyden sheds light on Springsteen's legacy and the political moment that allowed him to occupy the cultural "center of American life." Fans of the Boss will want to add this to their bookshelves. (May)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Ambling biography of Bruce Springsteen's most popular album. Rock critic Hyden, author of This Isn't Happening and Twilight of the Gods, was just 6 when he discovered Born in the U.S.A. At that age, he writes, he did not comprehend the title song, a bitter lament from a returned Vietnam veteran and the forgotten lives he and his comrades would lead. Of course, half the people who heard the album didn't get that connection, certainly not Ronald Reagan, who wanted to use it for a campaign theme. Writing on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the album, Hyden argues that the album "managed to capture the center of American life"--a single album able to accommodate interpretations from all points along the cultural and political spectrum. No more. In this polarized and fragmented time, where Springsteen had formerly eschewed taking political stands, he now placed his bestselling record to the left, turning his back, perhaps, on a good chunk of his audience who take a more rightist stance. The thesis is unremarkable, but Hyden scores good points along the way. Some are of the cultural-critical sort, as when he notes that the album "represents the peak of the boomer generation controlling what was popular in music." Soon after, listeners would fragment, with younger audiences turning away from classic rock and toward self-curated playlists rather than what MTV and the radio were selling. New attitudes were also emerging: Hyden contrasts Springsteen's album with Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, with the left-behind jungle of Vietnam turning into the inescapable jungle of America. As for Springsteen's one-time plea for togetherness, fuggedaboudit: "Outside the arena, the dream disappeared. All you had were the broken pieces of America." Fans of the Boss will find arguable interpretations on every page, but definitely a book worth their attention. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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