The TRUE meaning of "Born in the USA"

With the Fourth of July being this week, I have been hearing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" one too many times on the air not to mention on TV during the city's fireworks show.

To this day it appears to me that many people think that "Born..." is a happy song about American patriotism (and mind you the opening melody seems to throw people of so I understand). However, if you read between the lines (or rather lyrics), you will see that this is not entirely true.

Let's examine the lyrics one phrase at a time:

"Born down in a dead man's town.
 The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.
 You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
  'Till you spend half your life just covering up."

Just by listening carefully to this opening verse, one can easily see that the narrator did not enjoy living the dream. That "first kick," could infer that the narrator is a black man and is being beaten by cops, or that the narrator came from another country expecting to find peace and tranquility in America only to be disappointed by taxes and the law. By spending half your life just "covering up," it is not clear if the Boss means covering up for your mistakes, or covering up for why you were "beat too much."

However, it is the REST of the song in which one can clearly see that this is not a patriotic anthem.

"Got in a little hometwon jam
  So they put a rifle in my hand
  Sent me of to some foreign land
 To go and kill some yellow men."

You guessed it the narrator is talking about how he got drafted for the Vietnem War. The "yellow men," refers to the fact that most Asians have yellow-ish skin. However, it is not clear what that "hometown jam" was.

By the end of the song, the narrator had come back from war ("Came back home to the refinery") however due to the high unemployment rate of the day, he could not get a job. ("Hiring man said son if it was up to me.") The narrator also ends up in prison likely for a number of criminal offenses due to the fact that he could not get a job ("Down in the shadow of the penitentiary"), and also address thte saddness of losing your friends and family to the war ("They're still here, he's all gone".)

Well this may have been a sketchy analysis, I hope I was able to clarify, for many, the popular misconceptions about "Born..." "Born in the USA," may while be Springsteen's best record, and the title track may still be his "signature song," but it is really not patriotic, so much as it is anit-war much like CCR's "Fortunate Son." However, the latter starts with a much more mellow tune, which gets you thinking that the theme of song is not happy unlike "Born in the USA" whose melody is so peppy and cheerful that it leads many people to not pay attention to the lyrics.

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