40 years later, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ still sounds like peak Boss

Bruce Springsteen plays his guitar while singing his hit song “Born in the U.S.A.” as he completed his world tour at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Sept. 1985. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

Steven Hyden is the author of “There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA and the End of the Heartland.” (Courtesy of Hachette)

East German-born fans of U.S. rock star Bruce Springsteen uphold a self-made Stars and Stripes reading “Born in the USA,” the title of a famous song of Springsteen he also played during his East Berlin concert, Tuesday, July 19, 1988. About 150,000 people attended. (AP Photo/Andreas Schoelzel)

Bruce Springsteen performs during his sold-out concert, Monday, Aug. 5, 1985, at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Scott Stewart)

Steven Hyden is the author of “There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA and the End of the Heartland.” (Courtesy of Hachette)

Bruce Springsteen performs at his second concert at the Coliseum in Los Angeles on Sept. 30, 1985,in support of “Born In The U.S.A.” album. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

Steven Hyden is the author of “There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA and the End of the Heartland.” (Courtesy of Hachette)

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(For an appetizer, here’s Hyden’s rankings of the 12 songs that make up Born in the U.S.A. I won’t stand for his “Cover Me” erasure.)

Q: You’re someone who has to stay on top of recent music as a critic, but you’re able to pull up the Springsteen deep cuts in this book. Was that challenging?

Writing a book allows me to align my professional listening with my recreational listening. I’ve been a Bruce guy since I was six and Dad played his Born in the U.S.A. cassette in the car; it profoundly shaped what I want to come from rock n’ roll. I’m always thinking about Bruce and the album’s legacy anyway, but getting a book contract to write about something I love lets me know the hours spent going through the print archives and revisiting Bruce’s albums, bootlegs, concerts, documentaries, and videos was not a waste of time.

Q: Can you set the 1984 music scene and where “Born in the U.S.A.” fits among massive hits “Thriller,” “Purple Rain,” “Can’t Slow Down,” “Like A Virgin,” etc.?

For lack of a better way of putting it, he’s the White male rock star of the equation. There are obviously other examples, but as a singular figure it was Bruce. “Born in the U.S.A.” became bigger in part of that specific American year, getting released in June and starting a tour shortly before the Los Angeles Olympics and Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign, where he famously praised Springsteen at a stop in New Jersey by misinterpreting the lyrics.

What people tend to overlook is by that time, Bruce wasn’t just a rock guy anymore. The buff cover of “Born in the U.S.A.” is much different than the stark scruffy close-up of “The River.” On stage, he doesn’t look the same – he’s jacked. The band became a staple of Top 40 radio and MTV and in that era, following the Thriller template and releasing seven singles off of “Born in the U.S.A.,” all of which reached the top ten.