Thursday, October 29, 2009
Bruuuuuuuce!
Hub Blog really liked Ward Sutton’s cartoon look at the 25th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ album. I’ve never been convinced that there was widespread "popular misreading" of the album's signature ‘Born in the USA’ song. Bruce has always come across to me as playing both sides of the fence when it comes to the song. Its lyrics are clearly ‘60s counterculture in content and sentiment. But Springsteen is artistic and smart enough to know that by pumping up the song into a flag-festooned anthem, he was tapping into more patriotic times in the ‘80s. He fed the ambiguity – and that may have done partly because of his own ambivalence and partly because he wanted to be more popular. He hasn’t done much since to clear up the confusion, unless you think this is an adequate "philosophical" explanation: “You serve at the behest of the audience’s imagination. It’s a complicated relationship.” … Sounds like a successful chef saying he’s ultimately going to give the customers what they want. It’s not that complicated. …
And that’s my heavy Bruce Springsteen analysis of the decade. See you in 10 years for Hub Blog's exciting 35th-anniversary analysis of the album. *
* Note: As you can probably tell, I’m not a huge fan of Bruuuuuuce’s work in its totality. …
Hub Blog really liked Ward Sutton’s cartoon look at the 25th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ album. I’ve never been convinced that there was widespread "popular misreading" of the album's signature ‘Born in the USA’ song. Bruce has always come across to me as playing both sides of the fence when it comes to the song. Its lyrics are clearly ‘60s counterculture in content and sentiment. But Springsteen is artistic and smart enough to know that by pumping up the song into a flag-festooned anthem, he was tapping into more patriotic times in the ‘80s. He fed the ambiguity – and that may have done partly because of his own ambivalence and partly because he wanted to be more popular. He hasn’t done much since to clear up the confusion, unless you think this is an adequate "philosophical" explanation: “You serve at the behest of the audience’s imagination. It’s a complicated relationship.” … Sounds like a successful chef saying he’s ultimately going to give the customers what they want. It’s not that complicated. …
And that’s my heavy Bruce Springsteen analysis of the decade. See you in 10 years for Hub Blog's exciting 35th-anniversary analysis of the album. *
* Note: As you can probably tell, I’m not a huge fan of Bruuuuuuce’s work in its totality. …
