June 4, 1984: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band release their album "Born in the U.S.A." It lifts "The Boss" into the stratosphere of rock and roll history.
Bruce had been releasing music about, as he put it, "a runaway American dream" for 12 years: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. in 1972; The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle in 1973; Born to Run in 1975; Darkness at the Edge of Town in 1978, The River in 1980, and Nebraska in 1982. Now, he was ready to put out his magnum opus.
The album opens with the title track, which is not a happy song. A poor kid struggles, gets in trouble, and is drafted to fight in Vietnam. Things don't get better for him. Things don't get better for him after he gets out, either. Side One continues with "Cover Me," "Darlington County," "Working on the Highway," "Downbound Train," and Bruce's creepiest song, "I'm on Fire."
Side Two begins with "No Surrender," a song which is a lot better in live versions, in which it might be Bruce's best song. It's followed by "Bobby Jean" and "I'm Goin' Down." "Glory Days" is about peaking in high school, and what happens after. "Dancing in the Dark" -- definitely not to be confused with the 1931 Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz song of the same title, or the 2015 Rihanna song of the same title for that matter -- is the best song ever written about being bored.
"My Hometown" is a lament, which could be about many places, but it seems to fit Bruce's Freehold, New Jersey, 50 miles south of Midtown Manhattan. For comparison's sake: Billy Joel's Hicksville, Long Island is 30 miles east.
Of course, conservatives -- the ones who weren't dumb enough to believe the cover photo, taken by Annie Leibovitz, showed him taking a piss on the American flag, a pose Bruce explained by saying, "They liked the picture of my ass better than the picture of my face" -- were dumb enough to see only the title of the title track, "Born in the U.S.A.," hear it repeated over and over again as if it was a prideful boast, and presumed this was a pro-America song.
President Ronald Reagan used it at campaign rallies. Bruce made him stop, because it was about a war that Reagan supported from beginning to end, and the damage it did to America and its soldiers. Bruce also wasn't a fan of what Reagan's tax cuts for the wealthy and his union-busting had already done to America's manufacturing base.
On September 19, at a campaign stop in Hammonton, southern New Jersey, Reagan said, "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."
When reporters, dubious that a 73-year-old conservative President would know who Springsteen was and what he was about, asked campaign staffers what Reagan's favorite Springsteen song was, they said, "Born to Run." Tonight Show host Johnny Carson -- who liked Reagan personally, had him as a guest in 1972 when he was Governor of California, and even did an excellent, if respectful, impersonation of him -- then joked in his monologue, "If you believe that, I've got a couple of tickets to the Mondale-Ferraro inaugural ball I'd like to sell you."
Two nights later, in concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Springsteen mocked Reagan, and suggested that Reagan listen to his songs more closely, specifically "Johnny 99," about an unemployed auto worker who turns to murder.
Reagan probably just heard the chorus of "Born in the U.S.A.," the song, and assumed it was about patriotism. It wasn't: It was about the Vietnam War, which Reagan always supported; about the way the country treated its veterans, when Reagan had been cutting funding for vets' benefits; about a man who was there when his country needed him, but did not return the favor when the man needed his country.
The album has sold over 30 million copies. There were 7 singles, starting with "Dancing in the Dark," which hit Number 2, and it remains the highest-charting song on which Bruce has ever sung -- except for his appearance on "We Are the World." (Manfred Mann's 1977 cover of "Blinded By the Light" remains the only recording of a song written by Bruce to hit Number 1.) "Cover Me," "Born in the U.S.A.," "I'm on Fire," "Glory Days," "I'm Goin' Down" and "My Hometown" also hit the Top 10.
The album also launched what turned out to be Bruce's biggest and highest-grossing tour, 156 concerts from June 29, 1984 to October 2, 1985. The E Street Band: Bruce, "Little" Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren on guitar, Garry Tallent (yes, it's his real name, pronounced like "talent") on bass guitar, Clarence "Big Man" Clemons on saxophone, Roy Bittan and Danny Federici on keyboards, and "Mighty" Max Weinberg on drums.
Left to right: Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, Clarence Clemons,
Roy Bittan, Bruce Springsteen, Danny Federici.
(No, that's not Steve Buscemi.) Bottom: Steven Van Zandt.
One of the backing vocalists was a redhead from nearby Deal, New Jersey, named Patti Scialfa. Her father's family came from Sicily, and her mother came from Belfast, Northern Ireland. An explosive combination. In 1988, after Bruce and his 1st wife, Julianne Phillips, split up, he moved in with Patti. They've been together ever since, and married in 1991. He had a son, Evan, now a songwriter; a daughter, Jessica, who became a champion equestrienne; and another son, Samuel, who stayed the most to Bruce's blue-collar roots, as a firefighter in Jersey City. (UPDATE: In 2022, Sam and his fiancée presented Bruce and Patti with their 1st grandchild.)
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June 4, 1984 was a Monday. The United States Football League was in season, and 1 game was played: The Philadelphia Stars beat the Pittsburgh Maulers, 23-17 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
The NBA Finals were between Games 3 and 4, and the Boston Celtics would beat the Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games. The Stanley Cup Finals were decided 16 days earlier, when the Edmonton Oilers beat the New York Islanders in 5 games.
And these Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Yankee Stadium. Ron Guidry struck out 10 batters. Don Baylor hit a home run. Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Don Mattingly went 0-for-5.
* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Darryl Strawberry hit a 3-run homer in support of Ron Darling.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken hit home runs for the defending World Champions. Robin Yount went 0-for-4. Paul Molitor was injured and did not play. (Seriously, with all the times he was hurt, how did he get over 3,300 hits?)
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-5.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dave Bergman hit a home run to win it in the bottom of the 10th inning.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 6-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew each went 2-for-4.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 6-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ken Oberkfell singled Andy Van Slyke home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Bruce Sutter was the winning pitcher, Al Holland the losing pitcher, in relief of Steve Carlton. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4 with a walk.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. The Royals' only run came on a home run by George Brett.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 3-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Ed Whitson (5 1/3rd innings) and Dave Dravecky combined on a 4-hit shutout. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-4.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
* And the Chicago Cubs and the Montreal Expos were not scheduled.
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