Born in the USA (Live Amnesty International) 1988 – Bruce Springsteen

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just covering up now

Born in the U.S.A (born in the U.S.A)
I was born in the U.S.A (born in the U.S.A)
I was born in the U.S.A (born in the U.S.A)
Born in the U.S.A (born)

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land (foreign land)
To go and kill my fellow man

I video-taped the fantastic Amnesty International music concert (below) from TV when I was an adolescent. I watched it more times than what is considered healthy. I digress…. this article will venture down a garden path of my youth which I have strong memories about; so please forgive me for its verbosity and intention of therapeutic reciprocity.

My parents and brother had heard Springsteen and Dylan blaring from my room for a few years by then and I had got some flak for it.
I remember my mother mocking me constantly singing Congratulations by accentuating Dylan’s nasal delivery and my father was insistent that Dylan wasn’t the consummate music artist with a voice like his.. ‘OK Dad‘.

Then a miracle happened. My mother actually watched the Amnesty concert with me one day and she was gobsmacked. She told me, and I’ll never forget it: ‘That Springsteen ran the show and was excellent‘. I could tell she was hooked from then on.

My father, many years later, contacted me when I was at the Officers Mess in a Naval institution in Sydney and he’d just seen Dylan live (On TV in Sydney) at his Oscar winning performance of Things of Changed. I had seen Dylan live at Centennial Park in Sydney just the day earlier.
My father told me after seeing the ceremony or words to the effect, ‘Dylan’s eyes penetrated the screen like nothing I have ever seen‘.
To me, my father seemed kind of awe-struck or perhaps I was left more awestruck by what he had just said. Either way his comment was in the ‘lock and load’ position awaiting this post two decades later.

Anyhow, back to basics;

I felt when watching Springsteen performing Born in the USA below, that this special (which Mama loved so much) should never be forgotten. It’s said (and they may be just urban myths) that when Springsteen released Born in the USA, politicians on the campaign trail wanted to use his song as a Patriotic anthem of sorts and the Boss dismissed it, stating it was a ‘protest’ song. Another one I told people is that Born in the USA was the second best-selling album of all time behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which I had read once or thought that I had read.
Anyway, now that is all said and done—onto the grand finale:

SONG & PERFORMANCE 1, 2…1, 2, 3, 4! BOOM

Reference:
1. Born in the USA – Wikipedia

About observationblogger

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand