Bruce Springsteen ‘Didn’t Want To Make’ Born in the USA

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” is regarded as a classic rock song, and its timeless appeal turned him into a global sensation. The album also played a significant role in popularizing American heartland rock and opened doors for other musicians who gained recognition due to the sudden attention.

However, if you read the liner notes of Springsteen’s latest release, a compilation of previously unheard tracks titled “Tracks II: The Lost Albums,” you’ll find that he expressed some disappointment with this pivotal album. He mentioned that he “wasn’t happy” with it and believes it didn’t “connect” with audiences in the same way as his other releases.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Springsteen revealed why he holds this belief, saying:

“It was a record I put out. It became the record I made, not necessarily the record that I was interested in making. I was interested in taking ‘Nebraska’ and making a full record that had somewhat that same feeling.”

“If you hear ‘My Hometown’ and you hear ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ they were sort of the bookends I intended. And the rest of the stuff was … just what I had at the time. Those were the songs I wrote. Those were the songs I recorded.”

Springsteen continued:

“From conception to execution, it was not necessarily the record that in my mind I had planned on, but that’s the way creativity works. You go in the studio, you have an idea. It’s not necessarily what you come out with. So that was just the situation of that record for me personally.”

Writer Andy Greene follows up on this, saying, I’m a little surprised to hear you say that. I always heard Born in the USA as dispatches from various people left behind by Reagan’s America. As a listener, it felt cohesive.

When the interviewer noted that he always believed that “Born in the U.S.A.” was a “series of dispatches from various people left behind by Reagan’s America,” Springsteen was inclined to agree, at least partially:

“I guess it was to a lot of other people, too. I suppose maybe I was looking for something darker. But outside of that, the themes of ‘Nebraska’ are in there – in ‘Downbound Train,’ they’re in there, they’re disguised somewhat into pop music.”