Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA by Himes Geoffrey

Author:Himes, Geoffrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing
Published: 2007-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four: Trying to Write This Book

By the end of the summer of 1982, Bruce Springsteen, his manager Jon Landau and their two coproducers, Steve Van Zandt and Chuck Plotkin, had more than forty songs on tape to choose from for the next album or albums.

They had the fifteen songs from the January 3 Colt’s Neck acoustic cassette: “Bye Bye Johnny,” “Starkweather (Nebraska),” “Atlantic City,” “Mansion on the Hill,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Johnny 99,” “Downbound Train,” “Losin’ Kind,” “State Trooper,” “Used Cars,” “Wanda (Open All Night),” “Child Bride,” “Pink Cadillac,” “Highway Patrolman” and “Reason to Believe.” They also had solo-demo versions of four more strong songs: “My Father’s House,” “The Big Payback,” “Riding Horse” and “Fade to Black.”

They had the full-band tracks from April and May of 1982: “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Glory Days,” “I’m on Fire,” “I’m Goin’ Down,” “Working on the Highway,” “Downbound Train,” “Darlington County,” “Atlantic City,” “Murder Incorporated,” “This Hard Land,” “Lion’s Den,” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh),” “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” “None But the Brave,” “Frankie,” “Mansion on the Hill,” “Nebraska” and “Johnny 99.” They had the two tracks recorded for Donna Summer: “Cover Me” and “Protection.” They had live recordings of the band playing “Bye Bye Johnny” and “Follow That Dream” from the River tour.

As August rolled around, the four coproducers had to make some decisions. Clearly they had enough tracks on hand for a terrific rock ’n’ roll record. Clearly they also had enough tracks for first-rate country/folk record as well. Should they release both? One or the other? Neither? Was it more important to get these songs to Springsteen’s audience while the performances were still fresh? Or was it more important to hold onto them until the absolutely perfect sequence was found for an album?

Choosing how many albums to release and which songs to put on each album is an artistic decision—as much as deciding to change a lyric or to add a synthesizer to an arrangement. These choices can be as productive or as counterproductive as any other—and are equally subject to criticism and praise.

Springsteen could have picked a dozen of his band tracks that August and could have released a Born in the U.S.A. album in the fall of 1982 that would have been every bit as good as the version he released two years later. Sure, it would have been missing “My Hometown,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “No Surrender” and “Bobby Jean,” but the substitution of “Murder Incorporated,” “This Hard Land,” “Pink Cadillac,” “Johnny Bye Bye,” “Follow That Dream,” “My Love Will Not Let You Down” and/or the band version of “Atlantic City” would have more than compensated. Then he could have easily picked another dozen tracks for a Nebraska album that same fall or winter.

Such a decision would have had two dramatic consequences. First, it would have allowed these songs, written and recorded in the moment of 1982, to interact with their own time, reflecting the cultural climate of that year back on itself and perhaps influencing it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.