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Born in the USA: how Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album bridged the American political divide

Steven Hyden traces the impact of the title song, whose coruscating verses and affirmatory choruses cut both ways, and made its creator for a time the world’s greatest rock star

27 July 2024

9:00 AM

27 July 2024

9:00 AM

There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A .’ and the End of the Heartland Steven Hyden

Hachette Books, pp.230, 28

In 1977, in the wake of the death of the king of rock’n’roll, the American journalist and music critic Lester Bangs said: ‘We will never again agree on anything like we agreed on Elvis.’ The ‘we’ was America. And Bangs was right – until June 1984, when Bruce Springsteen released Born in the U.

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