U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U Springin' Springsteen On My Bean? - Born in the U.S.A.

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

Adam Scott Aukerman go track-by-track through Born in the U.S.A.—a true doozerino of an album that produced seven top ten singles and became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Plus, Adam explains why he worked as a concessions boy during his own little league games and the Scotts try to figure out, “What is a Lean-to?”

From born in the USA to death to my hometown, this is you springing Springsteen on my bean! The comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things Bruce, this is good rock and roll. Music. Hey, welcome to the show. What song is that? It's a song called, it's by Bruce Springsteen. Okay.

Called Top of the River Album. Is that Cadillac Ranch? It is Cadillac Ranch. That really is sticking as our theme song. Our new theme song. Fuck off. Welcome back to the show. This is you springing Springsteen on my bean. And my name is Scott Aukerman.

And across from me i would say at my two oh military terms yeah you're not at my six i'd prefer you at my six oh you would just backing me up i mean okay um uh here at my two you know him as one of the stars one of the many stars star-studded cast in the movie krampus uh i'm still on strike yeah i know that i have been on one of one of your unions is now i have been on strike from sag for for several years. Excuse me. Oh my gosh.

Are you okay? That took a lot out of me. Are you all right? Oh God. Welcome to the show. This is Adam Scott over here. Hello, Adam. Who do you want to say hello to?

Oh, what's your middle name? David. Cool. Why? Just writing. Wait, is this an episode of what's your middle name yeah hey everyone welcome to what's your middle name this is scott and this is scott and we're finding out people's middle names it's a great you know what it is it's a great question it's a great uh i don't know if you know or use this term, icebreaker.

That's right. A lot of times when you're making a mixed drink, you'll go into your ice machine and you'll step inside. Yeah. And I have a full- The walk-in ice maker. The walk-in ice machine. But the walk-in ice makers, they make one giant block of ice. Giant block of ice. It's as big as Frosty the Snowman, his dang self.

It's, in fact, in the shape of Frosty the Snowman. It is, yeah, yeah. We have a mold. Scary. Yeah, very scary. I mean, it's honestly a little more like an evil snowman. I don't know why I had the mold made this way. Yeah, yours has fangs frowning lines and blood coming out of its eyes yeah i mean it's ice but it's blood that's why

i said blood coming out of his eyes yes exactly and also uh blood coming out of his ice back there hey hey uh but yeah you'll walk in there and you'll be like okay i just want a little bit of ice i don't want this full frosty the snowman inside my my cup well it wouldn't fit unless you had a giant frosty the snowman sized cup built to 11 10th scale so that it could fit inside right um which i do you know yeah. I mean, you have one of those. Sure. But everyone else who has a walk-in frosty snowman-sized ice closet does, probably doesn't have one. And honestly, I wish I could get rid of some of the ones I have because you have to buy them in bulk.

You have to buy 32 cups. They're huge. They're huge. They're taking up so much space. And they don't stack. No, no, of course not. Not with that body. Nope.

They sit. The body is stacked. They stand. Oh, is it ever? They stand side by side. Side that body. Nope. They sit. The body is stacked. They stand. Oh, is it ever? They stand side by side. Side by side. Yes. At attention.

You have an entire room of your house just to hold your frosty snowman 11 tenths sized cups. It is excruciating right now. And I wish I could get rid of them. But, you know, a lot of these people with walk-in ice makers. Yeah. They don't have the space. And I wish I could get rid of them. But, you know, a lot of these people with walk-in ice makers. Yeah. They don't have the space. And I happen to have the space. Which is really, really nice.

It's really convenient. Nursery? Nope. That's where I keep my Closet of the Snowman 1110s. Exactly. Yeah. So you're going to have to sleep standing up next to them. That's right.

But that's a valuable skill is to be able to sleep standing up. Oh, man. I'm so glad I learned how to do that in college. And here's how you do it in college. Well, yeah. You take the college course, how to sleep standing up. 101. There. Done. Okay. Now, if you're not in college, it's a long, laborious process. You have to, first of all, take your bed and you have to tilt it up so it's vertical. So it's perpendicular to your floor. That's step one. And you're not even in it at that point. Yep. There are 19 steps. Yeah. Go ahead with the other 18. Go ahead.

Oh yeah. Everyone knows what they are. Oh right. Let's get back to the icebreaker. Oh, yeah, yeah. So you don't want this giant Frosty the Snowman inside your giant Frosty the Snowman cup, obviously, because that doesn't leave you. There's only the one-tenth left for the liquid that you get in there. Right. And you're thirsty. And you're thirsty. Nom, nom, nom, nom. So what do you do in that situation? Wouldn't you just go home? You're already home. You're already home. You can nom, nom, nom. So what do you do in that situation? Well.

Wouldn't you just go home? You're already home. You're already home. You can't go home. No, but you can't stay here. I'll tell you that much. No, you can't. You got to break off some of that ice.

And I know that when you hear break off, you're thinking Kit Kat bars. And those are delicious. Those are so good. You keep those in the freezer too. Nothing better than a frozen Kit Kat bar that you have to put in the microwave for a good 15 seconds. Oh 15 minutes. More like

get that soupy Kit Kat. Don't put it in there for 15 minutes. 15 seconds maybe 20 seconds. Yeah. Yeah listen so 15 seconds, maybe 20 seconds. Yeah. Yeah, listen. So I don't know about you, but I like to get that little icebreaker,

the ice pick. The ice pick. And a lot of people are like, what are these ice picks for? We see them in movies. Sharon Stone. Yeah, Sharon Stone kept one under her bed. Is this an episode of I Love Films?

I think it might be. Hey, everyone. Welcome to I Love Films. This is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're talking about a certain style of movie on this week's show. We're talking about femme fatalities you know what's what's really interesting about this particular genre of uh femme fatales is that also i think it fits cozily

uh right up next to film noir i think sometimes you'll see a film noir and there will be nary a femme fatale inside yeah that's true that's completely true you'll be searching you'll see a film noir and there will be nary a femme fatale inside. Yeah, that's true. That's completely true, Scott. You'll be looking at the edges, the margins of the frame. Because the frame is everything. It is. And a lot of times, if you moved even just an inch to the right or to the left, something that wouldn't belong there would be in the frame.

And you don't want that. You might see a person holding a light or a microphone. Or, yeah, and we're talking, of course, this is like a biblical set piece, a period piece set in biblical times. You don't want to see microphones. No, they weren't invented yet. And look, Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, would he have liked a microphone or two uh yeah i think it would have come in handy it's like hey jesus uh you don't need to shout anymore

right you know but uh unfortunately they weren't uh invented for another two years after his death and uh they were invented by uh who were they invented by again uh benjamin franklin that's right two yeah in 2 bc or 2 ad sorry what happened in 2 bc i get those two dates mixed up it wasn't a uh a microphone exam i mean there was a microphone embedded in the device but it was uh one of one of these uh job was one of these jobbers, one of these guys. You're miming something that you're talking to. Is it a gun?

Are you talking into a gun? It's a musket. Musket. All muskets had- Mini microphones. Microphones. Just hidden microphones so that- People don't know this.

People don't know this, but there were microphones embedded in muskets because they were working on sound effects records. They were. And they did not have, this is before they got sound effects of guns. Yeah. And so any movie, back to I Love Films, from the invention of the first one with Lumiere or whoever the fuck invented the first movie. Yes. All the way up to, I think, Beverly Hills Cop 2?

Yeah, it was part two. Part two used the same musket sound that they recorded. And also they liked, there's a little speaker, they liked, you know, warfare was much different back then. They liked being able to speak into it to say,

I'm about to fire. Exactly. When they're firing at each other. Give someone fair warning. you know what i mean well give a fighting chance it was fair it was fair and that's that's warfare these days oh this is a dicey topic all right let's close up i love films bye Anyway, what's your middle name? Oh, my middle name. Well, is Paul.

Okay, bye. Bye. It just takes some time. Little girl in the middle of the ride. Glad we settled that. Yeah. Good stuff. We're here with Adam. When I say we i mean me i guess uh we're we're here talking about uh

a little uh a little album just a wee album yeah just a just a slight little album called born in the usa oh my goodness this album this album yeah that's the U S a. Oh my goodness. This album, this album. Yeah. That's the one we're talking about. We finally got here. This is a doozy.

This is a true dozerino as Bruce, I think was quoted as saying when he calls it that when it came out, I believe his first interview in Rolling Stone, they said, tell us about born in the USA. He said, well, you know,

before you ask it is a true dozerino it's real dozerino it's it's on the cover it's bruce standing there and in quotes under an annie lebowitz photo it says it's a real dozerino and everyone knew of course everyone was like oh wow okay we better buy this album um so it's uh it's it's we're going to be talking about it uh i would say the first uh bruce springsteen piece of art i was ever aware of oh me too for sure um you know for sure never even heard of the gentleman before this came out i was looking at the uh singles uh that that all hit singles was it seven hit singles?

Seven hit singles. Jesus. And the dates that the singles came out spanned over a year and I remember those not being able to buy my own albums yet or anything. Those songs being ubiquitous. I had a guy that would go

buy my albums for me. You had a manservant. That's right. No I didn't have enough. I remember I wanted a Go that would go buy my albums for me. You had a manservant. That's right. Yeah. No, I didn't have enough. I remember I wanted a Go-Go's album once, and I had like $2, and I went to the record store in Santa Cruz and was appalled to find out that if you want to buy an entire cassette, it was like $8.99. It was probably $5 at the time, like $5.99, $6.99, somewhere around there. And you only had two. I don't remember.

And by the way- I remember I bought a 45 single instead. You couldn't have even bought something for $1.99 because you didn't have enough for the tax. That's right. It would have been like $2.17. So you're looking for something- I was stuck. $1.75 or under.

But how incredible that I was still able to buy a 45 record that must have been like a dollar or something right 45s were i remember the the year they came out they were a penny and then the next year they were two pennies huh and so by the time they got to be a dollar that was a hundred years later right so this was probably 1985 because the first 45 record was in 1885 right so yeah you're right yeah i think they were a dollar by then yeah and they've just gone up since then now they're uh it's 40 years later so they're almost a dollar 40 a piece scratch all that this was 1984 85 i had cassettes of my own by then but they were all bought at the flea market in Santa Cruz. So they were all bootlegged copies of albums.

They were bootlegged? They weren't just like old used copies? They were bootlegs. That's right. That's where I could afford my own tapes because they sold the latest releases for like $1.50. This is actually a genius plan i know it's against the law and you wouldn't you know steal a car just by pushing a button would you actually i would sure remember that commercial no i don't i don't it was all about like not downloading music and it was like you wouldn't steal a car by by pushing a button is like fuck

yeah i would that's right just push one button and you steal a car? Well, these sounded like shit. Well, that's a different distinction. Remember, I had the Ghostbusters soundtrack and stuff like that. Ghostbusters soundtrack, by the way, I had that. That was a banger. Oh, yeah.

You had... Billy Joel and Innocent Man, I had that. Bootlegged, sounded like shit, but great songs. Did you tell that to Billy when you met him? I've seen that picture. Next time I see him. Oh, hey,

by the way, I never actually bought your record. I had a bootleg copy. Innocent man, as far as I'm concerned, sounds like shit. He's like, please,

please, please let me give you a free copy of the CD. Nope. Decision is made. Sounds like like shit and by the way how did you ever even become a fan of mine and the insert for the cassette just a flimsy piece of paper with no printing on on the other side of it why even bought it was like a blurry picture of the album cover i love it um i never i've never even come across anything like that uh really i and i would have eaten that shit up although it sounded like shit so maybe not it was just really hissy yeah you know were they doing it from another cassette or was it must have been because i used to make

my own cassettes of records i would do the needle drop try to try to press record and play right after the needle drop before the song started that was an art because you didn't want to hear the that's right of the needle drop well remember if you just a double cassette player if you made a copy of a cassette it always sounded one generation worse yes so it sounded like they were making a copy of a copy of like four generations later. Right. And this is almost four generations later. It's so long ago. It is. It's about 45 years later. You're a great grandpa. Oh, Jesus Christ.

How are your great-grandchildren? They're doing well. They're all... Is this an episode of How Are Your Great-Grandchildren? I believe it is. Hey, everyone. Welcome to an episode of How Are Your Great-Grandchildren? I believe it is. Hey, everyone. Welcome to an episode of How Are Your Great-Grandchildren. This is Scott. And this is Scott.

And this is the show where we check in with each other and just kind of figure out how our relationships are with our great-grandchildren. Yeah. What about you, Scott? I want to hear. How are your great-grandchildren? They're so darling. Hmm. What about you, Scott? I want to hear. How are your great-grandchildren? They're so darling. I mean, my grandchild lets them just run all over the house.

I would probably use a little more discipline, but then again, that was a big point of contention with my son was how much discipline. I was too hard on him. But now I feel like boy with society it's gone the other way where now we're just letting them do whatever they want you know but they're but they're adorable and i spoil them i love to spoil them what do you like to buy them uh i usually like to steal a car by pushing a button and i'll just give them cars every time i come over i'll give them a car you push a push a button, get a free car, give it to them. Give it to them.

Sign the deed. The pink slip. The pink slip over to them. And so then they're to blame if they get caught. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. And a lot of times, everything I steal, like I've embezzled.

You know me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is part of the how are your great-grandchildren. Very dirty. Yeah. You're a crook. Yeah, exactly. I embezzle tons you know me yeah yeah yeah this is part of the how are you great very dirty yeah yeah uh but you're a crook i mean yeah exactly i embezzle tons and tons of money yeah not even from companies that i work at i'll like go to another company and i'll be like let me get a little bit of that i'll just embezzle just like you need to wet your beak a little bit sure let me wet my beak and it's

not because you need to it's because you you can, which is what I admire. Exactly. Thank you so much. So I'll then give them all that stuff. And then when people come around and go like, did you just embezzle $100 million? I'll be like, not me. That's my great grandkid. Yep.

So they're all in jail. Uh-huh. Yeah. How are your great grandkids? They're great. I was going to say they're great. But they're great. They are my great grandchildren. Yeah. They're your great grandkids? They're great. I was going to say they're great. But they're great. They are my great grandchildren.

They're doing quite well. They're very, very, very, very precocious. I heard about this. I read it in the local paper. Yes. It said precocious great grandchildren. Yes. Get even more precocious.

Yes. And then it had story on page 15. And honestly, at that point, I was exhausted. Yeah. Grabbing headlines all over the place. Yeah. All over the local papers. It's great.

Yeah. That's so great. I'm learning to love them, which is interesting. You're learning. Well, I know that you have been learning basic human empathy. Interaction, empathy. Yeah, yeah. That's been a tough road for you.

It's not easy, but listen, they're my great-grandchildren, finally kind of turning that corner. Yeah, you wouldn't do it for your children. No. You wouldn't do it for your grandchildren. Didn't know how. Yeah, that's true. How did you eventually figure out you had a problem? Well, they tried to tell me for years

and I wouldn't listen. And finally, I just kind of, they zeroed in on me and sat me down my entire family. Were you standing this entire time? I was standing all those years. I was standing.

Oh, that makes more sense. It's hard to have empathy when you're standing. It's hard to hear anything when you're standing. Yeah, because you're so far up. So tall. You're way up above everybody.

Yeah. I'm 6'7". I know you are. And that's the problem, I think, sometimes when we, you know, down here on earth, we're always praying, you know? And it's like, God's way up there.

He's not going to hear you. Right. You know what I mean? Right. He doesn't listen to prayers. How tall is god he's like seven five yeah it's i mean come on and then he's on top of that he's standing on a cloud yeah which those are all at like those are super high those are like eight thousand feet some to

ten thousand feet whoa forty thousand fifty thousand sixty thousand eighty thousand ninety thousand a hundred thousand okay hold on a second now we're like on the moon or something i hope so 40,000, 50,000, 60,000, 80,000, 90,000, 100,000. Okay. Hold on a second. Now we're like on the moon or something. I hope so. Okay. Bye. Bye.

Was that a show? It was a pilot, I think. No, but were we in a show? Yeah, we were in a show. Yeah. That was How Are Your Great-Grandchildren. That's right. That's a great show. It is, but I think they're testing it out.

I think it's a pilot. Well, they just need to focus group it and figure it out. Yeah, and then work out the kinks. I think it's very good. Ray Davies' personal trailer, that's what he used to say. I got to work out the kinks. Ah, yeah. All the time.

What were you going to say? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I guarantee you um oh i thought that i you you picked up something off the table and and brought it to your face and i thought you were taking a phone call you're just putting your glasses i was putting my glasses on i thought that was a great way to end that show you You're just like, hello? I gotta go? What? Bye. Great visual gag for a- Some great stuff.

Adam, what- Yeah. What were you- What? Hello? Am I not talking loud enough? Scott? Hello?

Yeah. What? Hi. Oh, okay. I guess our connection got better. Yeah. We're taping Oh, okay. I guess our connection got better. Yeah. We're taping this, by the way. We're not in the same location on this show.

We're in two separate rooms at the same place. That's right. Why are we doing this? We can't afford Zoom. So we're using just tin cans. Tin cans. And string. They call it boom, but I feel like it's just tin cans and string.

I feel like it's just tin cans. Yeah, I know. It was this app that we had to download, and suddenly out of the disk drive on our computer, just like, it just ejected a bunch. Yeah. That was the sound of tin cans. That was the sound of tin cans. Going on the floor.

Tonk, tonk, tonk, tonk. Rolling around on the floor. But yeah, so we're not in the same place so sometimes there might be a little bit of delay a little bit of boom lag in the recording oh sorry

go ahead no you go oh okay uh yeah there there might there might be a little hello hello hello sco sco Scott. Scoot. Beep. Scoot. Boomlag. So if you hear something. Oh.

Scott. Adam just farted on the boom here. So if you hear something, I think we've ironed out the kinksinks which is uh what ray davies uh personal taylor used to do uh but um but so i think it's i think it's not too bad if you're listening to it no i think it's uh perfect yeah so good stuff so but um adam what uh uh what were what were you up to in 1984? First of all, we were all worried about, of course, Mr. 1984 himself, George Orwell. We're all worried that everything he predicted was going to suddenly come true.

So January 1, 1984, we're all like, fucking here we go. I remember that. I was 11 years old. I remember that New Year's Eve. And I think all I knew about 1984, about George Orwell's 1984, was the Apple commercial.

That was the extent of what I knew about it. Sure, George Orwell, the book 1984 didn't start as a book. It started out as an Apple commercial. That was the extent of what I knew about it. Sure. George Orwell, the book 1984 didn't start as a book. It started out as an Apple commercial. And they adapted it into a novelization of the commercial into a book. And did you, and then they made a movie and it was called 1984. Yep.

Based on the book 1984, which was based on the book 1984, which was based on the commercial. The Apple commercial. And what did you think of the movie as it compared to the book

and the commercial that the book was based on? I think it worked a little better in short form, honestly, as a commercial. Yeah. Because when you try to

stretch that out, stretch it out, it's kind of like suddenly you add side characters, like the neighbor character. What? You know, it's like, okay, I know we need to add screen time, but I don't need the nosy neighbor character coming over going like, hey, neighbor, just check it. And then everyone inside the house is rushing to hide all of their, you know, 1984 stuff. 1984, like, paraphernal checkbook yeah yeah books and hats

and mugs and thimbles that's right and patches snow globes patches everything 1984 really and they're like oh put it away put it away put it away and then they finally shove it into the closet and then nosy neighbor is like i like, I'm here to fix your closet. And they're like, oh no, no, our closet. We, oh, I remember we asked you to come over and fix that, but we fixed it in between when we asked you and right now. And it's just like. You know what? Now that you're like explaining the whole story to me, that, that, all the, the whole story.

Yeah. It's my favorite movie. It is really good. When I was just describing it, I was kind of like, why did I say that this was not necessary? So good.

It really came to life when I said it. Maybe it's just me saying it. I think that's it. Maybe the execution of it. Are we recording this? No. Okay.

Next time. I did. I think I had last week's recorder still going. Oh, we've been think I had last week's recorder still going. Oh, we've been recording this whole time? I think we have, yeah. Oh, yeah, we didn't mean to start yet. God, I should leave this room.

Yeah, come into this room. Okay, hold on. Scott? Scott? Wrong room! Okay, hold on one sec. Scott? Colder!

So many rooms in this house. Okay, here we go. Hey! Hey! Hey! Scott. Hey. How's it going? Are you Scott Aukerman? I am, hey. Scott. Hey. How's it going? Are you Scott Aukerman? I am, yeah. Wait a second.

What's your middle name? Charles? Get the fuck out of my way. Ow! Scott. Hey, hey. Have you seen my twin brother? Yet.

Scott Charles Aukerman? Yeah, you didn't hit him, did you? I slapped him across the face. Oh, no. He's sunburned. Oh, god damn it. What's your middle name? David?

That's the one. Let's go record our show. Let's record. Yeah. And record. Ah ah thank goodness oh we finally did it this is great hey you know what i've realized what's that every week that we put out this show we've actually we've accidentally put out the pre the first half hour to hour where we're not talking about bruce springsteen wait? I think that's an editing mistake. Oh, God. That must be so boring for people.

I don't know. I think some people might only listen to that part and then turn it off when we start talking about Bruce Springsteen. Oh, my God. I can't even imagine. Can you imagine? So other than, you know,

obviously watching that commercial, then reading the novelization then watching the movie and that's right thinking it's your favorite movie what what else were you doing in 1984 and while you talk i'm gonna move this panel that i put in the wrong place i'm gonna move it behind you is that for sound reasons um i was again i was 11 years old i remember you know looking at what is an 11 year old adam scott he's obviously a little boy he wants to be a big boy that's right he dreams of growing taller and taller and finally reaching the tippy top step on the ladder it must have been in the sixth grade because 1985, summer of 85 was between sixth and seventh because I was back to the future.

So the fifth, sixth grade is where I was. Yeah, ending your fifth grade, then summer happens. You're out there crack of the bat. Foul ball! Go back to home and we're going to pitch again to you. was in little league and

pony league baseball where you now and i believe i've told the story on this show before that good i was played so infrequently that i sold concessions at my own baseball games i don't know that i've heard this before. You would... I would... You were on the bench a lot? I was on the bench so much that I got bored and would leave and no one would notice. And I would go to the concession booth and ask if they needed any help. Oh, I thought that you were buying concessions for like, say, for a dollar a piece and then selling them in the stands for like $2 a piece,

trying to make a little extra money. See, I should have had you with me because that's a great idea. That's a great idea. But no, I would just work at the concession stand because it was more interesting than sitting on the bench. And that's where you started your love of working retail in the food industry. That's right. Eventually became a candy boy.

Yep. But at this point, you are just a concession boy. Concession boy. Are you slinging Frankfurters? What are you doing? Yeah, there's some Frankfurters. There's Soda Pop, you know, carbonated beverages. Tab.

Sprite. Cocaine Tab. Seven Up. Sprite and Seven Up? Well, that's a good point. I'm not sure. Because this is probably the years before that companies like Pepsi or Coca-Cola company would come in and give a shit. Give a shit and force exclusivity.

Yeah, I don't think at Harvey West Park they gave a shit. Coke, Pepsi. Did they have a fountain though, do you remember? No. Or was it cans? I think it was cans and a cooler. Got it. But it was a little structure

that you would need to go into. A lean-to of some sort? What's that? What is a lean-to? That's a good question. Let's find out. Let's find out. Is this an episode of

What is a Lean-to? Yeah. Is this an episode of What Is Aline To? Hey everyone, welcome to What Is Aline To? This is Scott. And this is Scott. And this is the show where we try to figure out it's a lot like our sister show was what's the sister show to this that was that person that actor in species oh that oh um scott glenn yeah with scott glenn Species, where we try to find out what a lean-to is. Did you ever find out?

No, we're not allowed to. What about Lance Henriksen? Was he in Species? We're not allowed to find out. Okay, yeah, I still don't. We're not allowed to look it up. That's part of the problem with the show. I didn't look it up.

I haven't looked it up. This whole time. No, I haven't looked it up, and no one's allowed to tell us. That's the other thing. God damn it. So we'll never, ever, ever know. Are we allowed to watch Species? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Come never, ever, ever know. Are we allowed to watch species? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on, Adam.

I'm sorry. It was a stupid question and I got a stupid answer. I think, hey, fuck you. It's okay. I do love your sense of humor. Thanks. Should we read our text? Our text? Oh, our text exchange from earlier. But yeah, we're not allowed to look up what a lean two is or uh if scott klein or scott klein was in species oh so we're not gonna find out what we'll take your best guess what a lean two is what do you think it is it some sort of standard design

for a snack bar type structure could be i remember there was one of those uh counters that would that had a part of it was on a hinge so it would go up and down and i would just go under it to get into the snack bar area right yeah because i was smaller yeah then then what then you are now or then yes anything else in the world well i was extremely small so did you ever see okay did you ever see honey i shrunk the kids no no i would love to do that on scott hasn't seen with you okay let's i i saw that movie so many times because it coincided with the may have been the summer i really kind of discovered uh small weed tiny people but it was intended as like a family movie and me and my friends just kept going over and over okay we have to do an episode of our

other show about this it's pretty great um if i had to guess what a lean-to is i think it's like feels to me like it's a type of simple structure that's like originally added to an existing building with the rafters kind of like leaning against another wall you know what i mean like uh it was used as like maybe a shelter or i hear you it was uh and i i think you know maybe they're known by their finnish names lavu uh-huh okay yeah no i know exactly what you're talking about. It wasn't that. It was not that. No.

But is that a lean-to, do you think? I believe it is. Now that you describe it, it's like, yes. That's just my guess, and we're not allowed to look this up. But that's, if I was taking a stab at it, it's how I would describe one. To me, that sounds right on the money. But we'll never know? We will never know.

And we'll never know if Scott Glenn was in Species. Bye. Bye. So it was probably just a shack kind of thing. It was a shack. Simple structure. Some prefab. You would go underneath the-

Underneath the folding counter. The folding counter. And you would- And it was the folding counter folding counter and you would and and this it was a gentleman who was or was it a lady i think it was just other kids that were working it and i was like i'll do it and they would leave and i would man it by myself and people would come up to buy stuff and they would see my uniform and say aren't you guys playing right now and would you keep the money or you would, you're an honest young lad.

I was an honest young lad. And so you would give, you would, you would, and these, these idiots who were supposed to be there who just took off, what are they doing? They're just like, we found some dumb sucker to. I don't know. I don't know. I don't.

This is like Tom Sawyer with the, with the whitewashing the fence, you know what I mean? Except I wasn't really accomplishing anything. I was just bored. But maybe they pull that reverse psychology on you somehow. They're like, you don't want to be back here behind the counter. They just needed someone to work for free selling snacks. And my baseball team was fake fake the other baseball team we were playing was fake and it was all constructed just this is a long con and so in order to sell snacks

to the people watching the fake game that's right they needed someone for that all the parents that were there watching the fake game they're all fake they're all actors all actors have you by the way the the sag strike we don't know if it's still going when we're recording this. We hope it's not, but probably it is. Have you been doing a lot of the work of playing fake people for these types of cons? Yeah, this is how I've been making my living. It's the only work that you're able to get these days. That's right. Like fake families and-

It doesn't pay as much, but it's. It pays almost as much though. It's a great. You get. It pays seven figures. 99% as much as you do as a working. Yeah. It's not eight figures, but it's $9,999,000.

Which is fine. That's okay. You can't live on it necessarily, but. You can't live on it necessarily but you can't live on it for more than i don't know two weeks you know how much is nine million cents nine million cents uh well there's a hundred cents in a dollar so you take off uh you take off two zeros, so it would be $90,000, I think? Okay. That's right. Yeah.

You're right. Good job. Which is nothing to sneeze at. It might actually make me sneeze. I think I'm allergic to money. Say that total again. $90,000. Why did you just karate chop me

on the stomach? Sorry. Do you think... It doesn't make me sneeze, it makes me karate chop. You think sneezing is karate chops? Well, that's what you do when you're allergic to something,

you karate chop. Like if I walk out on a spring day into a field of poppies, watch out. Gotcha! Oh, black belt! All right, look. I have to say, Adam.

Yep. I don't think that you've told this story about the selling candy before, but I love it. I love your entrepreneurial spirit, even though you were not keeping any money. You were just trying to occupy your mind mind why were you so bad at baseball i must have also been trying to blunt the humiliation of never right playing like not even getting thrown into right field every once in a while i thought everyone had to play when you were in little league not in the mid 80s i think you pretty much do whatever you wanted i guess maybe i was playing in the 70s and it was, it was, uh, 70s up to 80s. And it was always like, okay, everyone has to, everyone who's on the team has to play position and has to bat in the rotation. I remember my coach being awesome, like super, super nice guy and stuff. It wasn't, you know.

Oh yeah. Super nice guy. And also I was kind of like yeah i don't i doubt i'd play me like i didn't know how to do any of it wait isn't that part of being the coach that was teaching you how to do it no i don't know i i'm sure they tried i know that i they i i couldn't i don't know whether it was i couldn't hold up the bat with any sort of authority or i couldn't swing it fast enough or something, but they would not allow me to swing when I was at bat. They would only allow me to do check swings and basically bunting. Oh, sure. Yeah. And so anytime I stepped into the

batter's box, everyone on the opposite team said, all right, he's bunting. Everyone move forward. That's just so emasculating. Yeah, it's not. And then bunting is hard. that's just so emasculating yeah it's not and then bunting is hard it's hard to get a good bunt going oh yeah I mean yeah would I lay it down the third base line every time yeah yeah would you really oh yeah RBIs I had the most RBIs I had

by the end of the season I had 670 RBIs oh so you were good RBIs are incredibly valuable I won MVP every year. You did? Really? Yeah. I won most improved every year. Most improved piece of shit. MIP. I remember I got a

double once. I got a triple once. It was thrilling. You just taught me every time. Oh, wait, no. Did you get a triple? No, I got a double. Because I did a homer. Tell me about your double double i got a legit double once and then the other time i got a double i was so excited i ran past it i ran i i somehow um caused us to get two outs in my because cause I over shot. What did I do?

Did you run into center field? Just right past the second base. I forget what I did. Climbed over the wall. I just remember going back into the dugout and crying and my teammate, this guy, Zeb, who I went to school with, he was so not, and he was like the best player on the team. And he came over, he's like, dude, you fucking kicked ass out there. Like he made me feel better.

It was very nice. Oh, wow. It's crazy how you remember this stuff from when you're 11 years old. I don't think that any other kid was ever supportive of me. Really? Really? I was thinking about that today. kid was ever supportive of me really really think i was thinking about that today uh just the the whole psychology of everything when i went to school is just always about like be better than

everyone else and try to insult anyone who's less really yes that's the whole just like psychology of where i grew up i think well i think there was a lot of that in the sports, and I was not equipped for it. Right. But there were a couple guys on the team that were nice. But there was a lot, there was some, the opposite of that. The worst, I used to play right field, because that's where, if you have never seen baseball

or played baseball, that's where the fewest amount of balls. That's right. When I would play, that's where I would be. And if anyone ever hit it to there it's terrifying just like fucking shit because it's not like you're i almost feel like if you're worse you should play the the like third base or something like that because then things are not arcing incredibly high towards you it It's scary. And also you're just sitting there going like, this is the hardest thing to catch, I think.

Although obviously fly balls are kind of easy to catch if you're a professional baseball player. Yeah. But as far as I know, none of us were, none of us have been called up to the majors at that point. So you see this ball coming towards you and you're like, fuck, God damn it. That's why also I think I was okay with being on the bench and working concessions. There was no pressure.

Yeah. I'm out there in right field. I'm like, Oh God damn it. Don't fucking hit the ball. Although wasn't there, there was a concessions competition, right?

Didn't Alec Baldwin come in and that's right. And, uh, he was like, okay, first place Mercedes, second place set of steak knives, third place, you're fired. That's right.

And that's when I bailed out and went out and played baseball on the field. Because it's like, what a relief. That's right. But I remember one time I'm in right field and someone hits the ball and it's instead of a pop fly, it's a line drive to right field. Oh. Hits me right in the fucking cup. Oh, God. And it bounces off the cup, and I go, oh.

And everyone goes. Still hurts. Yeah, and everyone goes, ha, ha, ha. It hit him in the dick. Jesus. Oh, my God. But we love sports. We love competing.

And the competition aspect of it, obviously, is incredibly important. Oh, yeah. That's why we grew up to be such jocks and sports freaks. Yeah. And you, you've seen our muscles, obviously that's a big part of this show. Uh,

we, every episode we show off our muscles, fitness, training, health and wellness. It's not, obviously it's not in vogue these days to say like, Oh,

we were into bodybuilding and showing off our big fucking muscles. And our butts. And our butts and shit because people are like, oh, well, we shouldn't be like lording it over on people with different body types. So we have to say health and wellness. But it's us and our butts. It's us and our butts and our big fucking butt. Check out our butts. Yeah, check out our butts.

Look at these butts. Look at these two butts. Look at this butt. Look at that butt. Look at these two butts. Check out our butts. Look at these butts. Look at these two butts. Look at this butt. Look at that butt. Look at these two butts. You like butts? We've got two of them. There's one here. There's one right there. Check them out.

All right, look, Adam, we need to take a break. If you can believe it. We do. When we come back, we're going to be talking a break. If you can believe it. We do. When we come back, we're going to be talking about an album that came out in 1984. That's why I brought it up. What? We're going to be talking about a little album called Born in the USA. This is you springing Springsteen on my bean. We'll be right back. great morning lights that shoot shade another day closer to the grave

Hey, welcome back. You springing Springsteen on my bean. We want to give a big shout out to some of our listeners. We want to shout out one of our listeners, Bruce Springsteen. Shouting him out. Thanks, Bruce. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. great to have you be a listener um and we're talking about the album born in the usa um today and uh this is a big one this out it's hard to explain just how ubiquitous this album is.

Try, try, try, try. Don't just say something's hard and then give up. That's what I'm doing. I'm trying. I'm trying to pump you up, man. Thank you. Because you give up all the time. Thanks.

And I think you're better than that. I think that you can actually achieve anything. I believe in you. Thank you. I feel like I just hit that double that i blew yeah in uh in pony league you blew a double um uh yeah it was just it was everywhere and the imagery on the cover was everywhere. Let's do some stats. Yeah, bro. Because our last record that we were talking about was Nebraska that came out September 30 of 1982.

This album comes out not even two years later, but almost two years later. It comes out June 4th of 1984, one calendar month before I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. That's right. July 4th. Oh, yeah. Fourth of July. Fourth of July.

It's a big deal. Yep. And also, a mere seven years after the bicentennial itself. Yeah, 1776. Yep. 1970 oh i guess uh well it's eight years yeah 1976 yeah was the bicentennial of uh it was it was yeah it truly was do you think we're gonna make it to uh to 2076 i think so i mean what with the advances in medical technology and how soft they're making buses now so when you step off the curb and a bus hits you now, it just kind of goes boing.

Boing, oink, oink, oink, oink. Bounces right off you. Do you remember the Bicentennial? I do not. I do. Yeah. You do. Yeah, you were too young for it, but you were around, right? Yes, I was three years old. Yeah, and you were working in a coal mine.

Yeah, right. That's right. And that's why you never really knew if it was day, if it was night. Right. No, I remember it. I think I had a t-shirt of it. I wish I still had it, honestly. Yeah, I do. Because it sounds pretty badass, right?

It sounds great. Yeah, I was six years old and I was in the aforementioned Little League. And I remember that summer and I remember not enjoying being in Little League and crying all the time and riding around on my bike and kind of going like, oh, yeah, 1776. I've heard of that, not really knowing much about it other than just like, oh, that's when everything started, I guess. I mean, when did you get any kind of grasp on history well i remember growing up and still feeling like the aftermath of the bicentennial and yeah the come down and it was sort of like everyone was still sick of it like wasn't that whole summer it was just all about was just culturally, it was sort of everywhere and everyone was sick of it. I guess I never really felt that.

That's the feeling I got. Everyone being sick for years after, I guess. I've never really felt that. But interesting. I get, you know, obviously I didn't grow up in Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz has a different, I would imagine like it's more hippies and stuff up there, right? Yeah. I mean, it was kind of my parents and their friends seem to still be kind of over it no my I mean my you know my dad was

in the National Guard so is this boring you you're fucking yawning sorry to bring up my my deceased father and make you yawn. Sorry, it's just so boring. No, different culturally, a different place. I was in Orange County as well. And so I think, you know, like still to this day, I think my mom on July 4th digs up like an American flag sweatshirt or something like that. For 4th of July. For 4th digs up like an American flag sweatshirt or something like that.

For 4th of July. For 4th of July. Yeah. So I think everyone was pretty into it. Yeah. Where I grew up. But why are we even talking about that? I don't know.

This is 1984. 1984. Well, because it was eight years after. Oh, right. That's what we're talking about. Okay. So June 4th, 1984, I was, let's see, I graduated 88, so 87, 86, 85. So this is me right before I go into freshman year.

Right, eighth grade. Eighth grade. Again, I talked about this in our first episode, I believe, episode i believe but um i was hanging out with uh a girl who was very into bruce springsteen and brought him to my attention and i uh was not into it and it was actively kind of resisting it even though like watching mtv and stuff like that it was hard to get away from it sure so it was it was everywhere the thing i didn't realize was that dancing in the dark was the first the first single yeah that's the first probably the first bruce springsteen song i ever heard huge hit huge hit uh let's talk about it

seven top 10 singles out of 12 songs seven 11 out of 11 songs. That's what I meant. Seven were top 10 singles. That means four songs weren't four songs suck. Yeah. And we're not good enough. That means that four songs, uh, were not in the top 10 at all.

And here's the thing. If you're writing a song and it's not top 10 single quality throw it away yeah just get rid of it get rid of it you want every one of your songs that you ever write to be in the top 10 when we interview bruce springsteen that should be our first question why did you include those four other songs on your album, I'd buy a record with just seven songs on it. Yeah, I mean, obviously. Just throw those other four away. Yeah.

Dumb shit. So stupid. So dumb. Anyway, so it's a massive commercial success, certified 17 times platinum, which means over 17 million sold in the United States. Yeah, 30 million copies worldwide. Topped the charts in nine countries,

including the US and the UK. One of the best-selling albums of all time. Also the first compact disc ever made in the united states and you know what i i saw was that those compact discs were manufactured in tearhout indiana where columbia had i guess a cd factory and that's where the columbia record club would be that's where they start where whenever you sent away for 11 albums for a penny i guess it was to tear out indiana i guess i didn't really because they would sell records from any company right but were they always trying to push columbia they were always trying to push columbia with that big red block lettering on the on the side yeah interesting and it was the

columbia record and tape club so they must have manufactured any record label stuff because it was a factory. Oh, yeah. Because it was the first factory. So it must have been like, hey, we'll make you 100 CDs, but we'll keep 10 for us. Well, and they were probably the ones that had slight defects in the printing or whatever. And for the artists, it was great because it would just boost their numbers there's got to be a documentary on the columbia record no shit and they shouldn't interview us about it yes because we've talked about it on this show my uh pseudonym wiggy

wigbert yeah subscriber i was rupert pupkin i was travis vick. I had so many. Let's see. What else about this? One of the best-selling albums of all time. I mean, a huge concert tour coming out of this. And, yeah, an incredible achievement. This is the apex of his career huge it's all downhill after this but well it also it's interesting what it did to him creatively because i think it it totally knocked him in a different direction and took his dick in the dirt certainly and it took took him years to sort of

find his bearings again, don't you think? Let's talk about the producers. We have our old buddy, John Landau. Yep. Then we have a gentleman, Chuck Plotkin. Chuck Plotkin. Chucky Plots.

Chucky Plots, we call him. He did the mixing. We've talked about him and he did the mixing of darkness on fedge of town um we have a little gentleman by the name of that boss the bull bruce springsteen and then we also have a guy who we should talk about. He's leaving the Edible Street Band as of this record. That's right. Mr. Lilyhammer himself,

little Steven Van Zandt. Yeah. Producer, co-producer. Co-producer on the record. And he is leaving the E Street Band, the Edible Street Band. He wants to go solo. You know, when I went to the Us Festival, I do remember hearing about this almost every episode of the show.

Seems like one of the only things you've ever done in your life. 1983, my first concert, we go there. We had backstage passes one day, and the one band we went backstage for and watched them play from behind them was Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. Those Disciples of Soul. Yep. Were they as good as Bruce Springsteen and the Edible Street Band? Better. Better.

So we made the right decision. It's weird, though, because it was 83, and that's a year before Born in the USA came out. And I know Born in the USA and Little Stevens' first solo record came out like two weeks apart. Yeah, he'd been sort of foot out the door a little bit. I mean, you know, he was brought in, he says like, well, I was brought in to kind of like get Bruce Springsteen

to be where he needed to be. And then once he got at that level i decided i was gonna you know do my own thing almost like he's what like the rock and the fast and furious franchise or something like that like remember how he used to say like what i do is i pump up franchises right and then i leave once i can't stand the main actor um but yeah he he wants to go solo i mean you know he uh this is this is the guy who ended up making lily hammer he's got his own thing going yeah he's he's he's a capable person yeah but um he uh he yeah that's so weird that how his record came out two weeks apart. But you can hear him all over this record.

Oh, yeah. When we hear the songs, you'll hear him singing. There's a song about him on the album. So he's still a huge part of it. It's not like there were bad feelings, really. I mean, maybe a little bit. Actually, in reading about it, it seems more like Springsteen was sad. Yeah, exactly.

And let's talk about it. In our previous episode, we talked about Nebraska, how linked it is with this record, how he made these cassette recordings of all the songs and then brought them in. And they tried to do these electric versions of the Nebraska songs, several of which worked out and are on this record, several of which did not work out so much, and so they kept them on Nebraska. So this record, I think the first song that was cut was Born in the USA. And that was, we heard the acoustic demo

Nebraska version of it. Yeah. And then that was cut a full two years before the record even came out. That's crazy too. There's a bunch of songs on this album that were cut around the time as Nebraska. Yeah. And then they just sat on them. Yeah.

And Bruce Springsteen kept working on it and working on it. it and working on it and i think like what i was reading was he had all these incredible recordings from early on in like 1982 and then he's like sort of like the river like no i'm not satisfied yeah and he went and recorded way more stuff and everyone was like this stuff sucks yeah and then he finally goes to chuck chuckieucky plots. And he's like, what do you think? Chucky plots. Yeah. And he like,

somehow he just gets this look on his face. And Bruce Springsteen, I think the quote was, do I not pay you enough? Just tell me what you think. Yeah. And Chucky plots goes, look,

man, all the stuff we recorded two years ago. That's like, that's the stuff. Yeah. He goes, you're the, the record should start with born in the like, that's the stuff. Yeah. He goes, you're the, the record should start with born in the USA.

It should end with my hometown. And then the in-between stuff, we got a bunch of great stuff. Let's just put it out. And he was, and he finally became convinced, but wasn't there. There's stuff that they recorded in 82, then some in a bunch in 83.

And then the last one, the very last one was dancing in the dark and that was like right before the album yeah the deadline john lando he hears the record is maybe 10 songs at that point and he says you know what it's good but i don't hear a lead-off single yeah which is kind of insane to think like us an album that had six other top 10 hits he doesn't hear but but i think it's what he's trying to say is i don't hear the single that's going to make everyone pay attention like the breakout yeah thing and so bruce springsteen gets really mad and goes i've written 70 fucking songs you want to write a hit single you write it yeah this is a lot like of

course the argument that kelly clarkson had with clive davis you bring that up every single episode um but uh springsteen gets mad and says fuck you you write a song and then goes home and writes stanzas in the dark and comes back and he goes i wrote the hit single it's so great that song yeah and the the video is so fucking cute um so springsteen by the way he he takes a trip out to california to from uh where he's like holed up on the farm and kind of breaks down on the way, I guess, like mentally and gets into therapy. And so this is where he starts like trying to unravel all these weird feelings he has about his past and his present,

maybe even his future. And so, yeah, this record is, is also where the sound changes just a little bit. Roy Bitton gets a synthesizer. Mm-hmm. So he, everything on the radio has this Yamaha synthesizer on it, which weighs 200 pounds, I think.

And so it weighs almost, I think, almost as much as you do, Adam. Because you're 300 pounds? 300 pounds, yeah. So it's about two-thirds of Adam's weight. Okay. And he starts fiddling around with it, and he doesn't really, you know, he's not a synth player necessarily. In fact, Springsteen says he's not a synth player, he's a piano player. So he doesn't play it like a synth player.

Yeah. So he plays weird things that a synth player wouldn't play. But this is the first Springsteen record that doesn't have sort of, on every song, the traditional, I guess, bar band kind of song? Yeah, and some electronic drums on a couple of them, too. Like Dancing in the Dark. Does that have electronic he doesn't have well no i don't think it does he's playing drums but it has had the the the drum it sounds like he for that song anyway he was playing drums but they were probably electric pads or something

like that song yeah i'm not we should listen when we listen to it we should listen to it probably um they they did figure out, by the way, you know how they've had so much trouble with the drum sounds on Darkness on Fedge of Town? Yeah. And specifically like with him just going stick, stick over and over again. Then they sort of figure it out with the river.

They do these large gated drums for this record that I think I was watching a documentary. I think it was Sound City or it was another doc. I think it was Sound City. And they talk about how Phil Collins essentially figured out how to do gated drums and it was an accident. What's gated drums? Gated drums are where you, I just heard it as a way of talking about a certain drum sound but it's it's the drum sound on uh in the air tonight where they sound really loud but i think it's a where you hit

the snare and it then echoes back and you hear the snare sound again or something like that it just makes everything sound super loud but also compressed somehow and isolated yeah and i i believe it was they fucked up in the studio or something when they were when phil collins was recording and it sounded really weird and the the person was like oh let me change that back into what it's supposed to be and ph Phil Collins is like, no, that sounds awesome. And no one had ever recorded drums like this before. I read on this record

that they have it hooked up to a broken reverb plate or something like that. They did it very specifically, but the drums sound huge on this record. Yeah, they do. That's for sure. Yeah.

So that's kind of the stats uh it's 46 minutes and 57 seconds if that gives you any idea of how long it is yeah i think that gives me an it's just a little over 45 minutes yeah about one almost almost two minutes over. Yeah, a couple minutes. That gives you some idea of how long it is, right? Yeah, a roundabout number. Yeah. So that's all the stats. It's a blockbuster. A true blockbuster.

Oh, we should talk about the cover. Annie Leibovitz shot the photograph. She shot that photograph right behind you, by the way. That photograph? Of me and Kumail and Kroll. She did? She did, yeah. Really?

That's why I have it on the wall. But Annie Leibowitz, it's of bruce's uh how shall we put this delicately his derriere his fanny well apparently he went and like really worked out before this album came out to kind of pump himself pump himself up have you read change his look a little bit why did he want to do that other than just it's great to have a great body i i don't i i didn't read why yeah neither have i i just read that he did and everyone talks about like oh he worked out a little bit and then they put his ass on the cover yeah it's it's it's him in jeans and a white t-shirt uh standing in front of the american flag with a red baseball cap in his

back pocket some people have said like oh is he pissing on the flag that's what that was i read that i think that's such a weird assumption to make yeah but it's everything about the imagery is is ripe for misinterpretation. Yeah, I guess so. I just always thought it was a patriotic-looking image, but it's a little ironic given the subject matter. Yeah, exactly. But Annie Leibovitz shot that,

and I think Springsteen is quoted as saying something to the effect of like, well, they had a choice of putting my ass on it or my face, and my ass looked better. Yeah. Which he's being modest. He's a good-looking guy. Great-looking guy. And watching the videos from this era, he looks amazing.

Yeah. He was in shape and looked like a movie star. Yeah. And so many of these songs are sort of very tied up into our memories of the videos themselves. Yeah, for sure. When we talk about the singles, we'll talk about that. Okay, so that's pretty much everything we need to know. Adam, when we come back, we are going to get into it.

We're going to listen to these songs. Are you excited? Oh, man. Can you imagine us doing something like this? Nope. Well, we're going to. This is You Spring in Springsteen on my bean. We'll be right back talking about Born in the USA after this.

There are pictures of heroes on the wall. Stop mumbling. To get to Candy's room at a walk. Speaking of candy. Candy's home. Welcome back. By the way, when we talked about darkness on the edge of town, we didn't talk about one of the outtakes that I think kind of ties into one of the stories you just told. It's a little song called Candy Boy.

Hmm. Candy's Boy. This is about you. This is called Candy's Boy? Candy's Boy. It's between this and Adam Raisa Kane, about which song sort of is tailored to you more. And you chose Candy's Boy.

Okay. Well, he sucked at baseball, and so he wins. Old Candice. They used to hit balls to him, and he would sit down and cry. Good song. Love it. Yeah. All right. We're talking about darkness.

No, sorry. We're talking about Born in the USA. And talk about, okay, talk about front-loaded albums. I feel like this one is back-loaded. Back-loaded, yeah, for sure. Isn't it weird? The last four songs are top 10 singles. Yeah. And one the first two are as well yes but then it gets into uh it's it it is structured bizarrely but but you know ever since our previous episodes where i was talking

about certain bands i've seen doing and we we saw you know the the uh actoon baby where it just ends on these bummer notes yeah uh this is one i i saw the postal service recently yeah and that's a front-loaded album too or like you know the first four tracks are incredible and every it's 10 songs and every one is really good so you can't really go wrong but i was always like pick your big singles and put them at the end that truly is what this record is so it would be great to hear uh you know and a concert of the whole album but uh let's go track by track yes this is side one this is born in the USA and it's a song by Bruce Springsteen on you springing Springsteen on my bean end up like a dog that's gonna be too much.

Till you spend half your life just to cover him up now. Born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. Born in the U Born in the USA Now, got in a little hometown jam So they put a rifle in my hands Sent me off to a foreign land To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Come back home to the refinery How a man said the son, I feel what's up to me. Went down to see my V.A. man, he said, son, don't you understand now? Born in the USA.

A song about a Vietnam veteran who comes back and doesn't really fit in. Did you ever understand it was about that when you were listening to it as a kid? No, not at all. Because you just kind of hear like, born in the USA, that sounds like patriotic. And it was a huge hit when it was out as a single. And then you have people like Reagan using it in rallies. But that's when you did hear about that it was not about that. There's a little pushback.

When he was asking Reagan to stop using it. Right. And then Trump wanted to use it, and he was like, yeah, sure, go ahead. Yeah. Did Trump really use it? Yes. Ew. ahead yeah um did trump really use it yes ew um this was um originally written as the title song to a paul schrader movie that he was thinking of starring in oh is that right yeah

yeah it was called born in the usa it ended up being Light of Day, which Michael J. Fox starred in. Yeah. But Bruce Springsteen liked the title a lot, so he wrote this song and then was like, I'm not going to star in your movie. Yeah. But he thanks Paul Schrader in the liner notes. Oh, interesting. in between Nebraska, he reads Born on the Fourth of July,

Ron Kovic's book. A Vietnam veteran who was very patriotic, who came back from Vietnam paralyzed from the waist down. It was turned into a Tom Cruise movie. Incredible movie. And they met at the pool at the Sunset Marquee.

Him and Ron Covington. Not Tom Cruise. Don't know if Tom Cruise has ever met Bruce Springsteen. I would imagine they have. I would think that they would have, because they'd have a lot in common, I would think. And so they met, and Springsteen did a benefit concert

for a group of veterans, which kind of changed, it really affected his political outlook. So this album is very sort of political. Yeah. By the way, listen to these drums uh this was all sort of rift in the studio yeah and those keyboards too that was a new sound at the time yes so the so like you said he's playing them in a different way than everyone else was playing they play so springsteen plays this song for

everyone and it doesn't really have that chorus or anything and so roy bitten listens to it and he hears one part which is dean dean dean dean dean dean any like in the song with a lot of other stuff around it and he kind of goes oh that sounds like a riff so he starts playing that on the keyboard and goes and everyone just like then max weinberg starts going behind it and springsteen like kind of goes okay yeah yeah you play this you play this and they're all looking around and he goes does everyone know the the chords and they all go yeah and so then they just recorded that basically that's crazy i think there's like a good 45 seconds of jamming that

they cut out at the end or something like that but they all and this is two years before the record comes out they all look at each other and go like okay i think that was good pretty good max weinberg by the way almost fired on the previous record he goes and takes drum lessons i think and comes back just kind of nailing it wow um almost fired on the river on the river yeah that's right um and uh yeah born in the usa yeah what do we think big song it's great i mean it's one of those songs it's like thriller or something it's hard to separate it from the cultural moment and it's hard to separate it from the cheech marin parody born in east la born in east la um i mean it's great it's it's uh it's a perfect kind of kickoff for this album. It's not a song I would put on for like listening enjoyment,

which is mainly what songs are meant to be, but it's, it's less, it's, it's hard to even think of it as a song. It's almost like an overstatement. It's weird that it's a hit single. I know because,

because I, I, here's what I think about it. It's also an earworm though. It's not, not a song know. Because, here's what I think about it. It's also an earworm though. It's not a song. You know, it's weird. I really like the lyrics. Yeah.

He's pared them down to be so simple too. Like I think he had a longer version of the lyrics about the Vietnam veteran going in and trying to get a job uh and he's pared it down to just like the guy going if it was up to me and you know everything else that that happens transpires you know um he calls the va all this kind of stuff so it's like i really love the lyrics musically i think it's annoying almost the d d d d d d and how repetitive it is yeah that's the thing is it's like uh it's almost like a something for a baseball game or something less than it less than it than like a big hit single baseball games well they make me want to work at a snack bar but but yeah it feels almost like an overture like hey this is what the album's about yeah get ready for an album and i love the the drums and i love the instrumentation and all that i find it just a

little bit annoying and so i like i agree with you in the sense of like when it came out i was not into it and now i don't listen to it for pleasure as much as i go okay this is setting the table yes i like it more than the nebraska version though i feel like it's better suited for this sort of thing yeah than the other version there is a third the the third version is he worked out kind of a uh a way to do it on the acoustic tours that he did back yeah i remember that one which is which is different than the Nebraska version. Did he do it at the Broadway show? I wonder. Can't remember.

There's no way to find out. Nope. But yeah, as far as it being a single, it's confounding to me a little bit because I, but the simplicity of it, just the fact that the D, D, D, D, D, D D that the keyboard is playing is also the melody over and over and over again. Is just has made me kind of anti the song, but there's so much I like about it. Yeah.

That's Born in the USA. Born in the USA. It went to, in the US, it went to number nine. Number nine in the USA. And, um, it was the third single.

Pretty weird. It's the third single. But the third single was like the following year, right? No, it was in October. So it was, it was,, right? No, it was in October. So it was, you know. Dancing in the Dark.

The day before Halloween. So everyone was like getting their Bruce Springsteen costumes together. Right. It was Dancing in the Dark. Yeah, Born in the USA was in the Broadway show. Oh, great. Yeah. And he did a, do you want to hear a little bit of that?

Yeah. That version? did a do you want to hear a little bit of that yeah that version um because i think he was trying to recontextualize it for everyone it it's interesting to have a song like that um you know that's that's so misunderstood you know it to have a song come out that you're, that you were like, oh man, this is really meaningful lyrically.

And then to have everyone just go like, yeah, America's amazing. It's, it must be such an albatross around your neck. All right, let's hear some of the Springsteen on Broadway version. ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you. guitar solo The end.

Wow. Weird. Weird version. I guess they just decided to not go with any lyrics. The end. Wow. Weird. Weird version. I guess they just decided to not go with any lyrics. Or the melody. No, obviously it continues. Here we go. Okay, Bruce, we get you can play guitar let's go pick it up

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 gasping be too much Till you spend half your life just covering I was born in the USA and half your life just covering up. I was born in the USA, born in the USA. I got in a little hometown jam, so they put a rifle in my hands. Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man. I was born in the USA.

Born in the USA. Come back home. I like it. He got into a hometown jam, meaning like he got in trouble with the law. Yeah. And had to join. And by the way, Springsteen's talked about he had every intention of dodging the draft for Vietnam. He tried.

He tried saying that he was strung out on LSD. I think he said that he was gay as well, but none of it was necessary because he failed the physical. Didn't have to go, but he's felt guilty about about it ever since just wondering who went instead of him um so i think a lot of the feelings of that are on this song trying to wrestle with that and wrestle with every vietnam vet who went out there and came back and was not welcomed with the sort of welcome that they expected or maybe even deserved. Right. When they listened to the song,

Springsteen said to Max, the drums are the most important part because they sound like bombs going off. And Max Weinberg was thrilled because he was like, I could have lost this job from that to now being told like, oh, wow, the drums sound really good. So he felt good about that. Good for him. Good for him. You know?

All right. Should we move on to song number two? Everyone deserves to have their boss say something nice about them. And that's why, Adam, let me just say that I think you're doing a good job on this podcast. Thanks, boss. All right. Song two. This is Cover Me by Bruce Springsteen. Just getting rougher, cover me Come on, baby, cover me

Well, I'm looking for a lover who won't come on in and cover me Now, promise me, baby, you won't let them find us Hold me in your arms Let's let out the blindness Cover me Shut the door and cover me Looking for a lover who will Come on and uncover me Hey!

Outside's the rain The driving snow I can hear the wild wind blow so much more commercial sounding so this song was written for donna summer you can totally hear that and so it's not it's it's kind of like not first of all the guitar just is like crazy springsteen's going off on these like again the synth is like right and the backup front backing vocals did donna summer end up using it no So what happens is they're cutting this record. He's like, Quincy Jones. Q.

Father of Rashida. Yes. Asks Springsteen, hey, do you mind writing a song for Donna Summer? Yeah. And Springsteen's like, I love Donna Summer. Yeah. And so he writes this and they go and cut it and john lando goes like whoa what the fuck are you doing dude this is don't give this away and and springsteen's like nah

it's no good puts it away never really thinks about it for the record and then they're putting together the record like as it's gonna come out and um someone says hey what about that song cover me you almost gave to donna summer and they're like nah and max weinberg goes like oh the drums aren't even any good on it really because they're really unpolished because he was just doing it as a demo and john lando's like i really think this is a hit can we put it on can we put it on and so they put it on so this is that version this is that version second single it's so good it's another top 10 hit it's fucking awesome definitely the like the hardest song on the record yeah it's so catchy and good yeah max weinberg sort of doing

like almost a disco beat um yeah i mean springsteen also something that's interesting is he was always a big defender of disco because he was so offended by the like thinly veiled racism of the anti-disco yeah you ever see david bowie's uh on mtv talking about that as well yeah yeah like those two guys were totally and they're so right it was so fucking racist like all the people who are just like disco sucks yeah is all because like well we don't need to get into but the whole history of disco obviously that's our separate podcast the disco the whole history of disco the whole history the entire history um but yeah cover me i always liked that song when I heard it. Yeah, it's great. And it's not a rocker like a rocker of the type of any of the songs on the river either.

Right. It's just such a weird like, Yeah, yeah. Totally. Not a song that you would really associate with Springsteen, but it sounds like a single. And I remember it being everywhere at the time. Yep.

Good shit. We like it. Great shit. Love that song. All right. Let's go to track three on side one. This is Darlington County by Bruce Springsteen. sticks stick We'll be right back. Driving in to Darlington County Looking for some work on the county line We drove down from New York City

To the girls are pretty But they just want to know your name Driving in to Darlington City Got a union connection with an Uncle Wayne's We drove 800 miles without seeing a cop we got rock and roll music blasting off a teak top

singing sha la la sha la la la la sha la la la la la la sha la la sha la la la sha la la You know, it's actually, yeah, it's brilliant. I always thought, I mean, lately when I've been listening to this, it's so weird that Darlington County and Working on the Highway

come so early in the album. It actually makes sense like lyrically you mean well just kind of tone wise born in the usa and cover me are so serious uh even though cover me is like a pop song it's kind of this harder harder yeah more more kind of dark song then So they needed something like either this or Glory Days is a perfect slot for it. Darlington County reminds me of songs from the river. Yes. You know, this is like old Bruce Springsteen. 100%. Like fun party song.

Yeah, yeah. So almost, you're right, it needs something to be like, hey, this isn't a totally new version of Bruce Springsteen. Remember us? We're fun. Exactly. I think you're right about working on a highway too um i like this song i like hearing it live yeah it's cool it's cool yeah but it is it is the most like old springsteen and and i like it for that yeah me too um it was not a single i i felt like maybe could have been i feel like it was played a lot.

Just I'm sure non singles were played on the radio too. Cause I remember once when I finally got this album, like in high school, knowing Darlington County was probably played on whatever local radio stations. Right. And I've heard him play it a lot in concerts. Right.

And concerto as they say um that's a a song that that's uh uh live in the studio very few overdubs sounds like it yeah so just them having fun um all right let's hear we were talking about it uh working on the highway this is track four on side one by Bruce Springsteen. Some heading home to the family summer looking to get hurt Some going down to the store wearing trouble on their shirts How hard for the county at 095 Although the whole red flag wants you trapping past me by In my head I keep a picture of a pretty little miss In my head I keep a picture of a pretty little miss Someday, mister, I'm gonna lead a better life than this Working on the highway, laying down the blacktop

Working on the highway all day long, I don't stop Working on the highway, blasting through the bedrock Working on the highway, working on the highway So this is a song. It was written for Nebraska. It was called Child Bride. A downbeat, somber song about a guy who gets involved with an underage girl and is arrested for it. Hmm.

He, how nice. He comes back and turns it into a rockabilly song about a guy who's arrested for getting involved in an underage girl and then, uh, is working on the highway kind of like, and ironically, it reminds me of like a buddy Holly sort of.

Yeah. It does sound like a buddy thing. Yeah, it does sound like a Buddy Holly kind of thing. Like very subversive though, like where if you're not paying attention to the lyrics, it's like, yeah, working on the highway, that's fun. I wasn't hearing the Child Bride undertones of it listening to the lyrics. Is that still in there? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow.

So it's like a trick that he's done to make everyone like sort of bop along with this like you know how nebraska is about a bunch of criminals yeah it's essentially about a criminal who's interesting yeah interesting what do we think of working on the highway it's my least favorite on the album is it i think it's important because you don't like you don't like the rockabilly type stuff anyway uh i don't even really think of this as that even though it is i think the kind of baseball rink organ is important that they're introducing it here and then use it later on so much so it kind of definitely feels a part of this album so i don't know if i would like take it off the album or

anything like that but what do you like better do you like cadillac ranch or working on the highway working on the highway you can't change the theme song again to this to work it on the highway i might you never know it feels more throw away than anything else on the album it does feel throw i mean if it had come out and been a single would would it have been popular? Maybe. Who knows? And then maybe we'd be saying like classic Springsteen song or something. But I don't think it's offensive or anything in terms of like I never listen to it and go like, ugh, that song.

I like it. But I like classic sort of sounds a little more than you do. Okay. You know what I mean? Of like old 50s rockabilly right right you hate the boomer nostalgia shit that was going on in the 80s maybe i was just a little overloaded by it like there's so you didn't like the bicentennial you didn't like that's right i was a nihilist at 11 years old so you you're around reading Camus? That's right.

Okay. Let's hear a song now by Bruce Springsteen. This is track five on side one. This is a song called Downbound Train. And it, of course, is by Bruce Springsteen. I had a job, I had a girl Had something gone mister in this world

I got laid off down at the lumberyard Our love went bad Times got hard Now I work down at the car wash Where all the liver does is rain Don't you feel

like you're a rider On a down mountain stream She just said, Joe I gotta go Like you're a rider On a downbound train She just said, Joe, I gotta go We had it once, we ain't got it anymore She packed her bags, left me behind She bought a ticket on the central line Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining

I feel a kiss in the misty rain and I feel like I'm a rider on and down my train All right, what do we think of Downbound Train? I love it. You do?

Oh, man, this song's great. Are you not fond of it? This is my least favorite. Really? Yeah, on the album, I mean. Oh, yeah. What do you like? Tell me about what you like about it.

No, I'm not saying to defend it, but I really want to know what... It sounds very much a part of this album and it does not sound like the river right or darkness on the edge of town you got the synth in the in the background that starts in like the second verse or something like that which kind of contemporizes it with everything else i think it just has this great momentum and catchy melody and I think it's awesome. And I love the guitar sound on it too.

I would love to hear the Nebraska version because this was one that they successfully translated from Nebraska. I would love to hear that. Everyone says the Nebraska version is somber. Yeah. Some people say

Robert Kirkpatrick says it's the best song on the album. Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh says it's the weakest song he's released since the second album. Incredibly sloppy. Huh. Weird. I feel like it's just tight and straightforward and sloppy. Yeah, I don't know. Weird.

I'm not sure why. I've never really felt like it's up to the level of the other songs, but it's, again, not offensive to me where I'm sitting here going like, God, turn that down. Turn that music down. Okay, this is the last song on side one. This is another top 10 single. This is a song called I'm On Fire,

and it's by Bruce Springsteen on You Spring and Springsteen on my beat. Hey little girl, is your daddy home? Did he go away and leave you all alone? I got a bad desire, oh I'm on fire Tell me now, baby, is it good to you? And can you do to you the things that I do? Oh, no, I can take you higher Oh, I'm on fire guitar solo Sometimes it's like someone took a knife Baby, edgy and dull And cut a six-inch valley Through the middle of my skull

At night I wake up With the sheets soaking wet And a freight train running Through the middle of my head Only you And cool my desire Oh, I'm on fire I'm on fire. Went all the way up to number six.

What number single was this? This was the... Fourth. This was fourth. When I first heard this, I remember being sort of like over the album, you know, and going like, okay, yeah, we got it. Bruce Springsteen, we got it. And then this single came out and me going like, oh, yeah, this is cool. It's really smart to release this fourth because it is a completely different vibe.

If someone hasn't bought the album yet, everything they've heard from it is totally different from this. I really love this song. Me too. This is one of my favorites. He just kind of laid down the guitar part and everyone, Roy Bitton started playing that synth part. That synth part is so kick-ass.

Just holding on the note. It's great. Love it so much. It was a song that Springsteen went back and forth. He was going to cut it until the very last second. Don't do it. Don't do it, Bruce. Someone's got to take the albums away from Bruce.

I know, man. Although, you know, it worked out a lot. And guess what? He didn't cut it. So chill out, bro. Chill out. Don't sit here going like, I'm going to cut it. I'm going to cut it. When we know you're not going to cut it so chill out bro chill out don't sit here going like i'm gonna cut it i'm gonna cut it when we know you're not gonna cut it you're not gonna cut that shit

um great end to track or side one rather um as well weird that this next song was not a single it's so strange because it feels like a giant hit feels like a hit this is the first track on side this is no surrender this is is by Bruce Springsteen. Well, we busted out of class Had to get away from most fools We learned more from a three-man record Baby, we ever learned in school Turn out our year of neighborhood drama sound. I can feel

my heart begin to pound. You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down. Well, we made a promise. We swore we'd always remember. No retreat,

baby, no surrender Like soldiers in the winter's night We're about to defend No retreat, baby, no surrender This was, it did chart on the mainstream rock chart. It did. Getting up to 29. Even though it wasn't officially.

It wasn't a single, yeah. But the mainstream rock chart was the chart where they would play album tracks and sort of chart those a little more. This was in the batch of songs he was recording more towards the end when he was kind of like, maybe I'll just put out a solo record yeah and trash all the stuff like born in the usa and all that and people were like maroose come on um and this was sort of like also written in the wake of little steven departing and him processing his feelings about it um and little steven actually convinced him like you should put

this on the record yeah this was a real push that little steven made for this one right because it's about the band and sticking together right and springsteen felt it was glib or something yeah it was kind of like i don't know it's like on the nose yeah it's a surface level so the little steven was like come on come, bro. Come on, bro. Because they opened their current tour. Don't make me lily hammer your ass. They opened a current tour with this one. Oh, yeah.

It's great. No Surrender. Love it. Not a hit, but could have been a hit. 100% of. Could have been the eighth hit. But you know what also could have been a hit is track two on side two.

This is a song called Bobby Jean, and it's by Bruce Springsteen. guitar solo Well, I came by your house the other day Your mother said You went away She said there was nothing That I could have done There was nothing nobody could say Now me and you We've known each other

Yeah, ever since We were sixteen I wish I would have known I wish I could have called you Just to say goodbye. Bobby G. Now you're hung with me when all the others turned away, turned up their nose We liked the same music, we liked the same bands, we liked the same clothes

Yeah, we told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things we'd ever seen Now I wish you would have told me I wish I could have talked to you Just to say goodbye Bye, my dear So this song is about Little Steven. Yep. When they play it live, they cut to

Little Steven on the big screen. Everyone cheers. Oh, is that right? Yeah. And it's about, like he he's talking about we've known each other since we were 16 i wish i would have known i would have said goodbye to you you know he's like processing his grief uh of little steven leaving the band um this also this and no surrender were written after he was kind of fucking around with all these other songs he was recording solo and he was like maybe i just do a solo record and then chucky plot says like dude

get back to born in the usa yeah and it's a monster blockbuster album just waiting to have there's probably seven top 10 singles on it um he was right he was man he was he was right on the money. So then Springsteen was like, still wasn't convinced and was like, send me an acetate of the record I think we should put out. And John Lando sends it to him and he's like, yeah, you're right. This is not a record. So he goes, okay, let's put out a rock. By the way, Clarence, here we go. One of the only Clarence sightings on the the record really so he goes okay let's get back in the studio let's and he cuts no

surrender and Bobby Jean like now knowing he's gonna make a rock record yeah this is one of the I think best songs that is not a single on on the right oh yeah yeah what do you think yeah I like this song. I would choose No Surrender as probably that one. The one that the non-single hit. It's maybe a little like facile of just like ding, ding, ding, you know, like rock and roll a little bit.

It doesn't feel as modern as some of the other songs. It sounds like Darlington County, like one of those kind of older spring scenes. Yeah, but it's bit. It doesn't feel as modern as some of the other songs. It sounds like Darlington County, like one of those kind of older spring scenes. Yeah, but it's cool. It's awesome. So maybe it is like technically, you know why it's not a single because it would have come out

and people would have been like, oh yeah, like the river kind of spring scene. Been there, done that. B-T-D-T. All right, this next song though. Yeah, great song. This next song is track three on side two. This was a single.

This is I'm Going Down by Bruce Springsteen. Top 10 hits. Right? Yeah. Yeah. We sit in the car outside your house It's quiet, I can feel the heat coming round I go to put my arm around you And you give me a look like I'm way out of bounds

Well, you let out one of your four excises But lately when I look into your eyes I'm going down, down, down, down We'll be right back. Rested and we go out, baby, for a night We come home early, burning, burning Burning in some fire and light I'm sick and tired of you setting me up, yeah Setting me up for just a knock, a knock, a knock I'm going down, down, down, down

Going down, down, down, down Going down, down, down, down I'm going down, down, down, down I'm going down, great melody i think i don't know't know. I love it. Just kind of perfect in a way. Yeah. And sounds like new and fresh. Yeah, it doesn't sound like old Bruce Springsteen somehow, even though it's using, I don't know, just guitar and bass and drums and hand claps and stuff. Also, his vocals are so front and center.

Yeah. It's great. And I do think that he is talking about going down, if you know what I mean. I don't know what you mean. What do you mean? I think he's admitted that he's talking about cunnilingus. What? I think. Anyway, that went all the way up to number nine

yeah these are just all big hits yeah so these last four songs are huge hits and uh this is track four one two three four yeah yeah track four on side two oh there are 12 songs on this record yeah shit all right um this is glory days by bruce springsteen iconic song Come on. He could throw that speedball by you Make you look like a fool, boy Saw him the other night at this roadside bar I was walking in, he was walking out We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks But all we kept talking about was glory days Well, let's you by, glory days

In the wake of a young girl's eye, glory days Glory days Well, there's a girl that lives up the block Back in school, she could turn on a boy's head. Sometimes on a Friday, I'll stop by and have a few drinks. split up. I guess it's two years gone by now. We just sit around talking about the old times. She says when she feels like crying, she starts laughing. Finding about glory days. Yeah, passing by glory days. And the one with the young gold eyes, glory days. Glory days. You hear a little Steven in the back there singing the background vocals as well as the chatter. Adam, it's crazy that,

because isn't this like one of the ones that they recorded early on? Yeah, yeah. And he was thinking of throwing it away. And that it was just sitting there for a couple of years. Yes. This is, is i think tied for first is my favorite bruce ringsteen song is it really yeah tied with what with uh uh uh uh from the river we talked about on the river it's uh out in the streets right i i just love this song and i i maybe didn't pay attention to it all that much

because i thought it was like literally singing about actual glory days yeah and going like isn't it great to have like to love your life yeah i wasn't hearing the sort of that it's actually kind of sad yeah a sad song about people missing like you know their chance being hot shit in high school and then uh looking back on those as the glory days and realizing the rest of their life is not going to be as good but but i remember where i finally came around on this song was when letterman uh oh yeah his final show on nbc uh it was all secret of who was going to be on it that's right and then he brought out springsteen and springsteen did glory days and like stood on the desk and that's right and played this song and i was just like holy

this rules yeah and that's one of the things that turned me around on springsteen yeah it made me like him after that yeah um and just it's so funny because even though it is kind of a sad song when you listen to it in concert, you are sitting there going like, yes, glory days. Everyone stands up. It's great. So good. Little Steven says that he really wanted this to be included

because he's like, you need to show you have a sense of humor, you be included because he's like you need to show you have a sense of humor you know it's like you need to have fun that's a big part of your personality and i think spring scene because he's like going through what he's going through he's like no i want everything to be important and heavy yeah but it is important and heavy it's just sounds fun it sounds fun yeah exactly it's a great great juxtaposition of sort of heavier lyrics although done with a wry sense of humor and then a really fun melody yeah great video too yeah he's like doing some acting in it it's too bad he didn't star in that paul schrader movie i know man okay so now this is track five on side two right and this is the huge hit single and it's the second to last song on the record this went to number two

didn't hit number one but this was the lead-off single this is dancing in the evening And I ain't got nothing to say I come home in the morning I go to bed feeling the same way I ain't nothing but tired Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself Hey there, baby I could use just a little help

You can't start a fire You can't start a fire without a spark This gun's for hire. Even if we're just dancing in the dark. So I think you are mistaken. They're not electronic drums. But I think the reason you think that is because of the electronic bass that's playing. That's overshadowing the actual bass.

But then also the fact that Max was... They did a few versions of this, and then John Lando came up and talked to the band, and he goes, hey, could you just play this Beat It, which was a huge single, Michael Jackson's Beat It. Right. And Max was like oh i understand what you mean just like very straight no fills uh so he's just playing like boom maybe that's

never doing any fills it sounds really like artificially yeah uh contained it sort of sounds like what huey lewis did on the sports record where they took electronic bass and sort of made their sound feel contemporary. Max is just going and so they did it like Beat It and it becomes a huge

they wanted something that could be a dance record and they made remixes of it and it becomes a huge they wanted like something that could be a dance record yeah and they made remixes of it and dance remixes and uh it's it's so good and i always kind of was like oh yeah dance pop and never really when it came out paid that much attention to the song itself but hearing like a bunch of covers some great covers of it by like tegan and sarah and people like it's such a good melody the melody is amazing and the video was just huge huge and courtney cox so if you haven't seen the video check out the video like it's great so the video uh springsteen he is not playing guitar in it because they wanted him to dance so he's doing

that sort of yeah sway dance and he did what he would do in concert at the time which is he would bring up someone from the crowd to dance with and it's courtney cox in the video and she looks surprised and then does the like swinging side to side dance with him it made an instant star out of her but it's amazing because watching the the video today it was like she's in the video like two quick shots of her and then her dancing totaling like i don't know 15 seconds and suddenly she's a major star yeah because yeah everyone knew who she was. Yeah. But what's weird is, so then she does Friends in 92, so that's like eight years later. 94.

94, oh, right. She did Ace Ventura. She must have done something in between because everyone just knew who she was. Family Ties. Oh, Family Ties. That's what it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then you hear Clarence at the very, very ending. Yeah. Huge, huge song song huge song um yeah it was definitely one where uh he they weren't even going to put it on the record and he just wrote it at the last second and in fact they had to stop the mixing of the record so they could lay it down it's crazy it's crazy to think that it's like man on the moon with automatic for the people it's crazy to think of it existing without that last second song and i almost feel like that's why it's towards the end of the record is it was never even going to be on there so they're like i don't know just put it on at the end it

is a weird thing to follow glory days with it does feel a little tacked on like it feels like it could be more thoughtfully placed in the i wonder if if we should re-sequence this record probably i've always i've felt like it's not exactly right it's weird yeah um this is the last song on the record and this is called my hometown another hit single I was eight years old And running with a dime in my hand ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Tassel my hair, say some take, good luck around, this is your hometown. This is your hometown, this is your hometown, this is your hometown.

This is your own time In 65, tension was running high At my school There was a lot of fights Between the black and white There was nothing you could do Two cars hit a light On a Saturday night I feel like this song really solidified him in mainstream culture as being this voice of the working man thing. Yeah, it starts off sort of nostalgic about like, oh, my hometown is great.

It's great to be. But then he talks about a lot of his feelings. It talks about racial violence and the economic depression. it talks about racial violence and the economic depression. Um, he was sort of talking, I think he was talking about a certain like race riot that happened in his hometown at a certain point. Um,

and then his father, like driving him around the town. We talked about that on the previous episode and being like all proud of where they're from and stuff, even though, know it's it everyone seems to have a dead end kind of existence there yeah very bittersweet yeah but a very important song on the record and for the times too right in the middle of kind of reagan's america and yeah trickle down economics a lot of stuff not working out for people this went all the way to number six um you two performed this in the unforgettable fire tour oh they did yeah it'd be interesting to hear that version

i've never heard that um yeah this is one of those corner, one of the ten poles of the record that they felt like had to be on it. And it closes the record out. I feel like we should make our top ten albums of the 80s. Yeah, that would be fun. Yeah. This would not be on mine. Just kidding. JK, JK, JK, JK.

JK, JK, JK. JK, JK. Do you want to hear a selection of some of the B-sides? Sure. Because a lot of the B-sides are some of these songs that he was working on by himself. That they just trashed and said, let's make them B-sides. But this is Pink Cadillac.

This is the B-side to Dancing in the Dark. I do You may wonder how come I love you When you get on my nerves Like you do Well baby you know you love me There ain't no Secret about that But come on over here And hug me

Baby I'll spill The facts Well honey it ain't your money Cause, baby, I got plenty of hat I love you for your bank and a lot First fill the seats, ridin' in the back Losin' down the street, wavin' to the girls Feelin' out of sight

Spendin' all my money on a Saturday night Pink Cadillac. No thanks. Too retro, right? Wouldn't have fit on the record, but he was thinking about it for a while. Like the subject matter of Pink Cadillac and the sort of rockabilly.

Who cares? You don't like it. Is that our new theme song? Maybe. Alright, this was the Born in the USA B-side. This is Shut Out the Light. Was this a Nebraska session? Sounds a little more produced

than that. He did this in the Hollywood Hills. This is when he was thinking of doing a solo record. down on main street and went into a local bar he bought a drink and found a seat in the corner in the dark well she called up her mama to make sure the kids were out so i think he put out nebraska and was like maybe i should just keep going in this vein and forget about all these hit rock songs. Yeah. And everyone was like, these things that generate

income. Could we just make these B-sides, please, Bruce? But sounds cool. Yeah. But I think he made the right choice, actually. Yeah. This is the B-side to

I'm on Fire. And this is a song called Johnny Bye-Bye. Which anyone who has a kid named Johnny, they've experienced saying bye-bye to them. Yeah, bye-bye. She drew out all her money from a southern press Johnny they've experienced saying bye-bye. Bye-bye. the promise of land well hey little girl with the red ray song there's a party tonight down in memphis town i'll be going down there if you need a ride a man on the radio says

another one of these solo things he was considering making the record i could see why like listening to this and then born in the usa people were like dude dude what the fuck are you doing come on okay this is the b-side to glory days this is stand on it yeah he just had to get this shit out of his system. Yeah. Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll. Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll rock rock rock rock rock and roll totally um this is the b-side i'm going down this is janie don't you lose heart You got your book, baby, with all your fears Let me, honey, and I'll catch your tears I'll take your sorrow if you want me to Yeah, come tomorrow, that's what I'll do

Listen to me Janie, don't you lose heart Janie, don't you lose heart Janie, don't you lose heart Janie, don't you lose heart Better. Yeah. Sounds like the E Street Band. Yeah.

That's Nils Lofgren, who we'll talk about in a second, doing backing vocals. Okay, so there's one more B-side, which was a live cut of a Tom Waits jersey girl this was the b-side to cover me uh this is also on the live record that they put out uh the box set the 1975 to 85 yeah box set um a lot of people think that springsteen wrote this because it was played more than the tom waits yeah version was but this is a tom waits song i got no time for the corner boys down the street Making all that noise

The crowd clapping gets very off time right around there. It's too slow for a crowd to clap along with it. You know what I mean? Musicians, yeah. Musicians loved Tom Waits

back in the day. Yeah. Not that they still don't. It's just he became huge. But, yeah. Cross the river to the Jersey Sea Still my favorite punchline of any. Everyone knows Tom waits at the dump. Wait, what's that from?

It's a story he tells about taking all the kids in his school on a field trip. He took them to a guitar center and he's sitting there posing by the guitars and no one recognizes him then he takes him to the dump the minute they arrive someone goes hey it's Tom Waits everyone knows Tom Waits at the dump

oh is it yeah super funny okay so that's Jersey Girl there's one other song of note which was the only other song that he would release commercially this was off the We Are The World record and this became a hit There's one other song of note, which was the only other song that he would release commercially. This is off the We Are the World record. And this became a hit.

Not a hit hit, but like played on album oriented rock. This is Trapped. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. yep there's a studio version of this too somewhere i don't think so yeah this is the only version that came out i mean maybe they recorded one at some point but this it's so word sound became theirs like immediately this is just basically i'm on fire yeah part two yeah other than the chorus i think he really goes for it well it seems like i'm caught up in your trap

and it seems like i'll be wearing the same old chain Good will conquer evil And the truth will set me free And I know someday I'll find the key And I know somewhere I'll find the key Well it seems like I've been playing the game way too long and it seems the game I played has made

you strong but when the game is over I won't walk out losing yeah I know that I'll walk out of here again yeah I know that I'll walk out of here again Yeah, I know someday I'll walk out of here again

But now I'm trapped Oh yeah Trapped Oh yeah Trapped Pretty good. Yeah. It's awesome. I've seen him play this. Really?

Yeah. Were you one of the guys going, woo! Yeah, well, no, I was on stage. You were on stage? Playing a bunch of different instruments. Like Courtney Cox? Yep. By the way, when I saw Bruce Springsteen at Dodger Stadium one year, BJ Novak, I was at

a party with him, and I think whoever he was going with dropped out. And so he's like, do you want to go to Bruce Springsteen right now? And I was like, yes, I do. BJ, by the way, was like, I don't think I know a single song by him. And so I would look over at him during the concert,

and he'd be like shaking his head like, I don't know, I don't know. And then finally- It's like born in the USA. Finally, they play Dancing in the Dark, and he looks at me and nods yeah this one i know ever the whole rumor was we're in la maybe courtney cox will be there and get up on stage and dance with him and he was like a realistic rumor that people were sort of like yeah this might happen of course it's not gonna happen i wonder if she's ever done that she should once i mean wasn't that the rumor when billy joel was at the hollywood bowl too is that because christy brinkley

was in the front row like oh really maybe she'll get up and like dance during uptown girl um okay so we should we should mention because little stephen's out and nils lofgren is in and he's playing guitar now ah and, got it. And he's in the Edible Street Band. And he, I mean, pretty amazing CV on Nils. He played with Crazy Horse. He's on After the Gold Rush. He's one of the guitars on after the Gold Rush. Just, yeah, like you can retire after that.

If you're going to lose little Steven, you may as well get someone as incredible as Nils Lofgren. So Nils Lofgren goes on this crazy tour. What happens is this comes out, seven huge hit singles. They go on an arena. I mean, it's a state, I think it's a stadium tour. They're playing, it starts as an arena tour. By the end of it, they're playing Dodger Stadium.

They're playing like all these huge baseball stadiums. It takes like a full year. I think they're out there on the road and, you know, they're playing these amazing shows. Finally, people are sort of, the whole world is paying attention to one of the best live acts. Yeah. And so they're putting on the classic Bruce Springsteen show for hours and hours,

and people are, you know, being blown away by it. And at the end of it all, then you have Bruce Springsteen exhausted and wondering what to do next. And that's where we leave it. That's where we leave it. What do we think of Born in the USA?

I love Born in the USA. It's one of my favorite albums of his. All right. How about you? My feelings on it are so wrapped up in it being the first one that I ever heard that I find such joy in going back and rediscovering a lot of the songs and going, wow, this is so good. I've never been able to approach it

as a work of art that I have come to fresh. And again, the title track is one of those where I kind of am like, oh, I don't know about this. Yeah, I mean, so much of it is connected to pop culture at the time. It's hard to separate it from that. But just great songs.

Again, having Glory Days on it is just, if you have Glory Days on anything, I'm gonna like it. Yeah. pop culture at the time it's hard to separate it from that but just so much great song again having glory days on it is just you if you have glory days on anything i'm gonna like it yeah even on a piece of paper just written down just just the words two words it doesn't even have to be glory it could even be day's glory it you don't even have to use the word days or glory just write something down on a piece of paper i'll probably enjoy you love it all right let's uh wrap this up okay we're gonna see you next time this is a song called pink cadillac we're gonna see you next time are you springing springing on my beat until then i hope that you found what you're looking for You may wonder how come I love you when you get on my nerves like you do.