June 4th marked the 36th anniversary of the release of Bruce Springsteen’s biggest album ever, “Born in the U.S.A.” Sure, the Boss was known for his “Born to Run” song and album, “Hungry Heart,” the single from “The River” plus rowdy and intense marathon live concerts, but mainstream mega-success had eluded the New Jersey singer-songwriter.
After 1980’s release of “The River”, Bruce followed up that well played concert tour with the mysteriously depressing, quiet and stark “Nebraska” album. I actually love all the songs on “Nebraska” but it was an odd release to put out for a guy who had a top 40 hit in “Hungry Heart” and was knocking on the door of bigger things.
A few weeks before the “Born in the USA” album came out, radio stations and record stores got the lead single, “Dancing in the Dark”. The synth tinged pop song sounded very un-Bruce-like. Despite the fun B side of “Pink Cadillac”, there was concern among some Springsteen fans (myself included) that maybe he’d gone soft and light on us. I voiced doubts that “Born in the USA” would sell well among the Springsteen devotees.
Well I was way off about this and learned how wrong my prognostication was about a few days before the album hit stores on 6/4/84. What sold me was when I took a call from my college radio friend Dave Ross. At the time Dave was working in promotions at 95.5 FM,WMET rock radio and they’d gotten an advance copy of the new Springsteen album. Dave was yelling excitedly to me over the phone about what a monster record “Born in the USA” was going to be. He was in a production studio at WMET and started needle dropping on the vinyl record, speakers blasting the music over the phone to me. I was hearing searing samples of songs like “Cover Me”, “Bobby Jean”, “No Surrender” and of course the title track “Born in the USA.” Just catching these snippets, it became apparent that “Dancing in the Dark” was the outlier of the album and an obvious pop hook to bring in the non-Springsteen fans to the record store. The rest of the album was straight on rock with unforgettable melodies and lyrics.
On June 4th I was at a mall record store getting my copy of “Born in the USA” and that slice of vinyl stayed on my turntable for the better part of the next two years. Bruce Springsteen, newly pumped up with muscles from extra time in the gym was also loaded with hot new songs to play for his fans on a tour that started on June 29th 1984 and landed for three shows at the Rosemont Horizon a couple weeks later. I attended two of those Horizon shows and was blown away by Bruce’s new music along with songs from the previous years. The E Street Band was in killer form, despite Little Steven Van Zandt leaving the group after the album was recorded to do his own solo album and tour. Little Steven was replaced by ace guitarist Nils Lofgren and the E Street tribe added its first ever female member in New Jersey vocalist Patti Scialfa who years later would become the second Mrs. Bruce Springsteen.
After seeing the first of my two Boss shows at the Horizon I was walking back to the car with a buddy, just totally exhilarated by what we saw the previous three plus hours. I remember thinking Bruce Springsteen’s professional and personal life would never be the same again. He was on a rocket ride that in less than a year would move his concerts from hockey arenas to huge outdoor football stadiums and beyond. Several hit songs would be mined from “Born in the USA” and the whole world would know and understand what a big deal the working class guy from Freehold, New Jersey was.
More than three and a half decades have since passed, and I remember those days like they just happened yesterday.
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