Episode 5 | "Born in the USA"

Today on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet: We kick things off with a world-wide unanimous banger from the boss.The song is as famous for its perceived patriotism as it is for its cease and desist letters to presidential campaigns. It’s somehow patriotic and ironically patriotic all at once. A satire packaged inside a genuine, heart-felt, sing along of a pop rock song.While this song feels like a case of, “What hasn’t been said about this song,” it turns out we found plenty to say.We’d also be interested in hearing what you have to say. Please shoot us a line or drop your rating in one of the feeds.As always, if you think a friend would enjoy this, pass it along:https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/p/born-in-the-usa?r=44wa19&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true 

Some people hear this one and file it away as a slow, sexy love song. It is not a love song. It is about Abu Ghraib.Side two, track two. The last song on the EP and the last day of American Beauty Week.We get into:The trick Bruce is pulling: pedal steel, twinkly piano, a whisper in your ear, before he walks you straight into the worst thing we’ve ever done. Genesis chapter three. One of the few times Bruce swears on a record and exactly why it hits. JB coins the phrase "sexy doubt.” And the decade old rumor that Tom Morello is going to cover this someday.Heads up, this one has the explicit tag, and we spend a good while on what the song was about then and what it is about now.

Coming at you with a friggin’ power-pop song today. Hurry Up Sundown may seem like a shimmery, empty, late-summer dream, but Rob drops a homily in here that would make even the harshest shut-up-and-singer reconsider.Since it’s side two, track one, Bruce reminds us that we are supposed to be having a good time here. It is a wall of sound power pop song, it is almost entirely one guy playing everything he could find in the room, and it has never been performed live for a human audience. Not once. We have thoughts about that.Is it a straightforward pop song, or is it an ode to the plight of the worker and cry for the night that follows a hard day?

What does the album High Hopes, Tony Toni Toné, Record Store Day, and the Farfisa have to do with each other? This song. Kind of.Join us for the second song in our track-by-track exploration of Bruce Springsteen's American Beauty EP.We also revisit Rob's campaign to have Dream Baby Dream scratched from the historical record and why JB played an out of tune piano with a bottle of Evan Williams in a fur cap.Anyway, seems like there might be something about Mary (Mary). Let's go find out. Maybe she's over in Charlestown.

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Hello Bruce fans. In case you’ve been wondering, “Are JB and Rob dead?” The answer is no. We are in fact alive and better than ever. Here’s the real question, does being better mentally and physically lead to more entertaining podcasts? Probably not. But who knows?All that to say, we’re back to the Bosscast and we’re excited to talk about music, (WITH YOU!) again. We missed you. Seriously, all of you. The ones we knew, the ones we didn’t, and they ones we haven’t met yet.So buckle up, enjoy the ride, and let us know what you think—about the music, about the latest tour, about your life for the last five years.

The final episode of our original run. We thought we were done... but we were wrong!

This was our first episode ever. We were just a couple boys in our summer clothes.

Bruce will give until there's nothing left.

Bruce didn't say goodbye.