March 19 – Wednesday – Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.

First, let’s talk about the cover. Not the butt shot, necessarily, but the inside sleeve. It’s the first time there has been a truly flattering picture of Bruce on one of his albums. Okay, the photo on the back of Greetings from Asbury Park is cute, and the cover of Born to Run is cool, but here he looks good all buff and toned and showing it off. This album however, would be the last Springsteen album I would buy. Born in the U.S.A., which came out in 1984, is a more mainstream album that has no daring arrangements or anything monumental. But it did mark Bruce’s acquiescing to the power of MTV, in the days when it showed music videos, as he first made videos of some of his songs after resisting for so long. During The River tour, Bruce would pull a girl on stage to dance with him during “Sherry Darling.” Now he had the act on tape, but it would be to “Dancing in the Dark,” which was Courtney Cox’s big break, and she was the total envy of female Bruce fans everywhere. In the video of “I’m on Fire,” we get to see Bruce do a little acting.

While “Bobby Jean” is not a favorite song of mine, at least it features a female main character, who is not an appendage of the singer, and may be his first since “Kitty’s Back.” I actually liked and still like this album, and was willing to go with Bruce on this leg of the journey he was taking. Maybe it was the marriage thing that made me loose so much interest as to not get the next record or any after that. But as I don’t have it, I can’t really say. However, this is a really good workout record, so much so that both sides prompted me to push myself a little more during the vertical and horizontal portions. It’s on the list. Not high, but it made it.

Oh, and just in case you thought we were done, there is more Bruce to come.