The Ronald Reagan Disaster Hasn't Gone Away

zachbaron:

“Just heard (half of) the new Bruce song as I entered the parking lot—“we take care of our own/wherever our flag is flown,” or something like that anyway. Huh? Mr. Question Authority? Now sounds as reflexively patriotic as the most predictable country songwriter. Have you heard it? [Me: Yes, equal parts boring and vaguely jingoistic. But I dunno—hasn’t that been his thing for a while? He is deep in his mindless heartland phase…] Well, I thought he just had a passing fancy thing with all those “heroic” police and firefighters on 9/11. And they were brave … . I wonder if Bruce is burning his bridges with the boomer generation that made him famous. We can be sentimental for bravery, but we (I) have mixed feelings about chest-thumping and flag-flying. We protest wars, don’t celebrate them. Who will buy these songs?”  

“My mother is (still) a better music critic than I am.”

—

—Almost thirty years after “Born In The USA” became one of the most misappropriated songs in pop history, some still don’t want to hear Bruce’s chorus flag waving as anything but sincere, never sarcastic, never with a biting sense of irony, and never in any relation to the harshly contradictory verses. I’m far from being in love with the new Springsteen single, I think it’s way too predictable, but my first reaction when I heard the song last night wasn’t “I like this” or “I don’t like this,” but rather: “I’m worried that this ludicrous ‘Bruce is a chest-thumping American apologist’ conversation is going to start up again.”  Have some fans been thoroughly sold on this idea of the “reflexively patriotic, heartland” Bruce for quite a while, and will they buy this new record and bring flags to his shows and just not get it?  Of course, though I think, and hope, they’re in the minority.  Are critics (and their moms), now, going to start dismissing Springsteen under the same misconceptions? 

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   That last line is Guthrie all over.

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   am.” — —Almost thirty years after “Born In The USA” became one of the most misappropriated songs in pop history, some...

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