There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen's “Born In The U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland

by Steven Hyden

A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic album, Born in the U.S.A.—a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years. Because this record ended up being much more than just an album—it is a document of what this country was in its moment, a dream of what it might become, and a prescient forecast of what it actually turned into decades later.   In There Was Nothing You Could Do, veteran rock critic Steven Hyden explores the essential questions that explain this classic album — what it means, why it was made, and how it changed the world. By mixing up his signature blend of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden digs deep into the songs that made Born In The U.S.A. as well as the scores of tunes that didn’t, including the tracks that make up the album’s sister release, 1982’s Nebraska. He investigates how the records before Born In The U.S.A. set the table for the album’s tremendous success, following Springsteen as he tries to balance his commercial ambitions with his fear of losing artistic control and being co-opted by the machine. Hyden also takes a closer look how Springsteen’s work after Born In The U.S.A. reacted to that album, discussing how “The Boss” initially ran away from his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP until he learned to once again accept his role as a kind of living national monument.   But the book doesn’t stop there. Hyden also looks beyond Springsteen’s career, placing Born In The U.S.A. in a larger context in terms of how it affected rock music as well as America. Though he aspired to be as big as Elvis and as profound as Dylan, he was equally aware of his heroes’ shortcomings and eager to avoid their mistakes—all while navigating the tumultuous aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, a time when America was coming apart at the seams. Born In The U.S.A. simultaneously chronicles that coming apart and pushes for a more united future, a duality that made him a hero to a younger generation of bands — from Arcade Fire to The Killers to The War On Drugs — who openly emulated the sound of Born In The U.S.A. in the hopes of somehow, in their own way, achieving a measure of that album’s impact in the 21st century. By the aughts, when Springsteen fan (and future podcast partner) Barack Obama entered the White House, it appeared that the hopeful promise of Born In The U.S.A. might be realized. But the election of Donald Trump seemed to confirm an opposite truth that was closer to the darkness of songs like “My Hometown” and “Born In The U.S.A.” than Springsteen’s revival-like shows. As Springsteen himself reluctantly conceded, the working-class middle American progressives he wrote about in 1984 had turned into the resentful and scored Trump voters of the 2010s.   How did we lose Springsteen’s heartland? And what can listening to these songs teach us about the American decline that Born In The U.S.A.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Audiobook, Politics, Memoir, History

255 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Hannah]

sweet but essentially incoherent. struggling toward a thesis about Springsteen's leftism vs how he's persistently read by conservatives that lands more or less on "Springsteen is essentially centrist... which could be good... or can be bad." Springsteen has been pretty open about his bluecollarsona that Republicans so adore being an attempt to physically/artistically inhabit his dad's skin, and I think the reason Reagan et. al. love it is precisely because it's not very authentic, just as the American right's own "anti-elitist" "pro-Middle-America" stance is purely a relationship with the aesthetic of Midwestern and Southern poverty, rather than the lives of the Midwestern or Southern poor. something something Walter Benjamin fascism is the complete triumph of aesthetics in politics.

this is to say: I feel strongly that your average stereotypical male Springsteen fan is less attracted to an effortless rock'n'roll masculinity in Springsteen than they are to the fact that his masculinity is visibly effortful, that it is an attempt to be someone he is not (Doug Springsteen), just as those dads effortfully perform a masculine persona themselves. I think that's mostly missing from this reading, which focuses more on what a boost it is for his album sales. then flinches away from that because the author does adore Springsteen and feels that's maybe too cynical. mb I'm not cynical enough, but I think that BitUSA!Bruce is more absorbed by his own emotional problems than this gives him credit for!

all of this said, I always feel funny about Springsteen opinions that go "as we all know, the main lens through which Springsteen should be examined is that all white dads love him beyond reason" because my white dad personally feels that Springsteen is, like, fine. this is where my thesis comes from here, is that I think it has to do with the fact that my dad isn't particularly neurotic about his masculinity. (sorry to y'all's dads about the implied slam here.) I on the other hand started caring about Springsteen at the exact moment I realized I was transgender, so if you see where I'm going with this

[Kiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part musical criticism and part cultural commentary this book looks very specifically at Bruce Springsteen and his life during the period of Born in the USA (and to a lesser extent Nebraska). I am a huge Bruce fan so I am biased but I loved. The track by track analysis along with where Bruce was at the time of the recording combined with the discussions about how much it resonates currently and how many albums and artists it influenced are a plus. By choosing to focus on a very specific and short part of his life the author is able to give you a full portrait of Springsteen the man and musician.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank NetGalley and Hachette Books for giving me this advanced copy to read and review.

A very well-detailed and interesting look at how Born in the USA was not only made, but how it created Bruce and the myth that surrounded him after the whirlwind tour in 1984-85. Mr. Hyden explores a ton of themes and ever-changing social and musical landscape that Bruce and America go through as a direct and indirect result of his Album. As stated in the intro, this book wasn't a "Making of..." book, nor was it a Bruce Springsteen biography. What this book is a musical and cultural criticism of what Born in the USA was and is, and how it has left a mark on many Americans, especially in the age of Trump and populism. The book reads at first as if the contents of the chapters do not seem to match the title, but you need to read the book in whole to understand the entire message.

Overall, a good book that combines Bruce fandom and understanding his music with combining the commentary of what Born in the USA was, what Born in the USA was meant to be, and what Born in the USA can or cannot represent in Modern America. I have been listening to his songs in greater detail after reading this, trying to listen more closely to the message he is trying to say, rather than listen for the awesome tunes and jam out on my way to work.

Great book, and I hope many more people enjoy this book when it comes out.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Hyden’s take on Pearl Jam, and that was a decent enough read, but this seems to have a bit more going for it. Though beware of the many movie spoilers in here.

The longer this short book goes on the more apparent the padding and filler becomes as we get increasingly tenuous scenarios thrown in, which seem closer to a blogger’s juvenile indulgence rather than something published in the mainstream release. But then again in this day and age its often difficult to tell the difference.

But I enjoyed this and Hyden makes a lot of decent and memorable points, and I learned some interesting trivia about "The Boss" and his music, though I can only imagine how awfully bad being forced to watch and listen to him and Obama talk about politics over many hours would be? And I have to say I was saddened and disappointed to hear of Springsteen's enthusiastic support of dynamic ticket pricing...now there's a man whose sold his soul and lost touch with the financial realities of most of his fans.

[Stuart Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll read anything with the name “Bruce Springsteen” on the cover, but this was a really special book. This is an absolutely clear-eyed, if endearing, look at Springsteen’s career and, specifically, the choices he made in the wake of the overwhelming and no doubt frightening success of Born in the USA.

What’s striking about the book is, in analyzing Springsteen’s deliberate and strategic decision to scale back his ambition and popularity, author Hyden doesn’t take the hagiographic position that mega-stardom was always Springsteen’s choice to abdicate. Hyden places Bruce in a world that’s moved on, both musically and politically. The issue for Hyden isn’t Springsteen’s greatness or even current and future relevance - the issue is whether Springsteen’s unifying vision of an ideal United States where we take care of each other with compassion was ever true, much less is currently true.

What I love best about this book is it’s written with love and affection, but the kind of love and affection that’s richer because you see the flaws and foibles of the author's object. Along the way, Hyden has time to have some fun with Bruce’s physique, his unfortunate hair choices, some of his musical choices, his self-seriousness and self-mythologizing. Springsteen has spent most of his career trying to take the wind out of that myth - this is the only recent work on Springsteen that has taken that effort to heart. Far from critical, the book acknowledges Bruce’s greatness by making it the life’s work of a man, not an icon. And places that man within the context of a similarly sober view of our troubled country.

[George Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

also read in 2024, ‘cus one Bruce book obviously wasn’t enough. Had some great sections and very clearly well-researched, but felt it ran out of steam / repeated itself a bit too often for me to totally get into it.

[Mike Sennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful book-length essay on Springsteen's legendary 1984 album. The author explains how Springsteen made the album that shot him to super-stardom and why it had such broad appeal even though the themes of the album and the stories related by the songs were mostly dark. Hyden also argues that in today's polarized political environment, it would difficult (if not impossible) to repeat what Springsteen accomplished with this record. Finally, the book discusses how after the success of "Born in the U.S.A." and the following tours, Springsteen spent the next 15 years backing away from being the "man at the top," making several more personal and/or less ambitious records before bringing the E Street Band back and making albums that again spoke to a wide audience. If you read this book after Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, you will get a detailed picture of a critical period of Springsteen's career and how he impacted the country and several generations of musical artists. Although this book is not quite as impressive as the Warren Zanes book on Nebraska, it is definitely worth reading.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like I wasn’t gonna love this one?

[Mat C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven Hyden is my favorite music critic and one of my season pass authors. If he announced a book about The Wiggles I’d probably still pre-order that book. Shout out to his Indiecast and Rivals podcasts. I look forward to every giant list he releases ranking an artist’s catalog.

At one point in this book, Hyden talks about the time he found a cassette of Born in the USA in his father’s car. Oddly enough, I have the exact same memory of finding a Springsteen cassette in my dad’s car, while waiting for him to come out of a Lee Valley Tools store. It was the Greatest Hits and I’m guessing many kids found Springsteen cassettes or CDs in their father’s cars. That’s why Springsteen is an important artist to cover.

I didn’t go on to become a massive Springsteen fan like Hyden. I appreciate his classic records (Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska, Born in the USA, The River, and Magic) but after that I’m more of a greatest hits fan. I don’t think you need to be a massive Springsteen fan to appreciate this book. Hyden is most interested in the arc of Springsteen’s career, his relationship to his influences and peers, and his cultural legacy. Pearl Jam is a band that’s never clicked for me (I’ve tried) and I loved Hyden’s book on them too.

My favorite section of the book was Hyden talking about Springsteen and Bob Dylan. My main takeaway is that we need a Steven Hyden book about Dylan’s Never Ending Tour (another great podcast Hyden cohosts).

[Sam Sciarrotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven Hyden on Bruce is always a treat. He's so good at tapping into what makes the guy and his fans tick. This was such a great and unique deep dive into the peak of Bruce's commercial popularity, and I really appreciated the way Hyden contextualized the periods before and after BITUSA. Two passages that stuck with me:

"Outside of the arena, Bruce Springsteen did not seem like an indestructible god. He seemed like a man who is extremely good at his job, but a man, nonetheless, who is vulnerable in the ways we are vulnerable, starting with our mortality and the personal compromises that stem from our human frailties."

"Like Bruce, I am not as noble as the ideas I publicly profess. I am not as principled as the editors at Backstreets. The chance to stand 50 feet away from Bruce Springsteen outweighed my moral outrage over dynamic pricing. The Boss, once again, was my boss."

[Chad Trim · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I have any criticism of Steven Hyden's excellent 'There Was Nothing You Could Do" it would be that it often feels disjointed. The obvious through line is "Born in the U.S.A." but otherwise, the book feels more like a series of essays than a fully coherent thesis on the album and the "death of the heartland" as the subtitle suggests. The chapters, or essays I'll call them, are fantastic though, and fortunately for both author and reader, Springsteen and his apex mountain album justify pretty much every page. There's so much myth to be discussed, and I really enjoyed the ways in which Hyden connected other parts of Springsteens career while always relating them back to his 1984 album. I was lucky enough to attend the now infamous Ticketmaster-dynamic-pricing tour Hyden ends the book talking about, and it was an experience I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Though the Ticketmaster debacle did keep me from seeing it with my Dad too which would've been even more special...

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette for the advanced copy!

[Martin Maenza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hachette Books provided an early galley for review.

By the time I started classes for my sophomore year of college in the Fall of 1984, I most certainly had added the cassette of this album to collection. "Dancing In the Dark" and "Cover Me" had both already rocketed up the charts, with five more hit singles yet to come. While I was familiar with Springsteen's earlier albums, thanks to my older brother, this really was the first of the New Jersey rocker's records I had got into from the ground floor. It was a perfect starting point for me. And, based on the Preface chapter, this is also was true for Hyden.

I enjoyed the deep-dive into Springsteen's music before, through and after this album, as well as the context Hyden provides in relation to other artists, other albums, and the then-current events. It helps to add perspective and layers to twelve tracks from the album itself. After reading Springsteen's autobiography, I found this a nice counterpoint from an outside rock music journalist. Music fans of the 80's decade will certainly glean much from the study presented.

[Chad Supp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steven Hyden again does what he does so very well. It’s never a straight up biography, but a trail of biographical breadcrumbs leading to or from a source. In the case of “There Was Nothing You Could Do,” the breadcrumbs go in both directions to and from the source positioned somewhere near the middle with the phenomenon of Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” What led up to the groundbreaking album, and what happened in its aftershocks. Hyden examines the impact the record had on the artist, on America, and on himself as the author and a Boss fan since the age of six. What was the cultural and political significance of the Bruce Springsteen character presented in “Born In The U.S.A.,” and why does that character (and that America) not exist today? Along the way Hyden provides deep critical and personal examination of every album and many live performances from Bruce. I’ve had “Lucky Town,” an album I’d mostly forgotten about over the years, on repeat for several days now. Must read for anyone who appreciates Springsteen as an artist.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve been following me for a while you know I am not much of a fan of music books. Considering reading and listening to music are two of my biggest hobbies you’d think this wouldn’t be the case but more often than not I've been severely let down by the lack of quality in these kinds of books. I’ve described these simplistic biographies as “glorified Wikipedia articles”. I get that the click economy isn’t what it used to be but a lot of these books really don’t justify being printed physically.

I was almost ready to give up on this genre of book until I learned that Steven Hyden was writing a book on Bruce Springsteen. Steven Hyden definitely deserves his acclaim as one of the more pressing voices in music criticism in the modern era, especially around the work of Bruce Springsteen. Whether it be his lists ranking Springsteen albums or songs, his coverage of seeing him live, or my personal favorite his “20th Century Boss” podcast series where he goes through each of Bruce’s albums released in the 20th century. Each episode features a different guest who is a contemporary musician that takes great influence from Bruce. Pre mega stardom Boygenius members Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker get their own episodes as well as personal favorites Jeff Rosenstock and Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus.

Suffice to say, I was more than willing to give this a shot. After waiting months for its release I finally got a copy. Still, I was a little apprehensive. The relatively short page count of 230 pages had me worried that this would be just another sparse summary. That is not the case.

Hyden continues to prove that he is a cut above the rest in the landscape of music journalism. From the introduction, you get a sense that this is not your typical music book. His very metafictional descriptions of the cassette packaging and runthrough of the tracklist really set the tone for this book. He is not interested in giving you the facts that you are already fully aware of, he wants to make the argument of why Born In The USA is Bruce’s best album and how the image of Bruce at the height of his popularity has haunted him for the last 40 years.

This was such a refreshing experience. For how short this book is it sure doesn’t feel like it. Hyden gives you so much with each page. You get the general background of Bruce’s career, the buildup and falling action centralizing around the mid 80s, but you also get Hyden’s personal experience with the album, the making of the iconography of Bruce, the musical landscape in which this album succeeded in and the eventual shift in culture, political analysis of America and what it meant in 1984 and how that is no longer the reality, as well as Hyden’s hypotheses of an alternate reality falling action to follow up Born In The USA. There’s a lot here that warrants a book like this to be published, read, and discussed widely. I applaud Hyden for regaining my faith in what is so often a cash grab genre.

Only Hyden could write this book as it offers so much of his personal experience and analysis through a lens that is as insightful as it is humorous. One of my favorite aspects of this book is how a major breakout album such as Born In The USA, an album that is more cultural phenomenon than just a collection of songs, comes to be and what that means on a grander pop culture level.

Examining how Bruce’s fanbase has rejected this album back then as well as to this day is the kind of thing I want from a book like this. Having a real discussion about how once an album is so big it no longer belongs to anyone. It doesn’t belong to Bruce, it doesn’t belong to the longtime Bruce fans, and it doesn’t belong to political opportunists.

These kinds of discussions inspired thoughts of my own, drawing parallels to more modern examples such as Turnstile’s Glow On and Charli XCX’s Brat. This week especially, it feels like we’re living through the cultural peak of “Brat Summer” and I can only see the parallels to the political opportunism and oversaturation that existed with Born In The USA back in the mid 80s.

While this book goes over best for someone who is a Bruce fan, who’s aware of the lore and timeline of events, I really do think this book should be experienced by those interested in music and pop culture on a grander scale as it really does offer some great thought provoking concepts.

If I had any complaint, it's that the ending of this book really speeds through the falling action of Bruce. It made me realize just how much has happened in the world of Bruce Springsteen, just in the last five years. Hyden ends this book with a very glowing and gushing coverage of seeing Bruce live in 2023. This is the only time this book feels like Hyden is falling into the trap of mundane music books. Preaching to the choir about how great the music is without any further criticism. It’s nothing too egregious but I felt it was the only slip up here. It also probably doesn’t help that I remember reading his coverage of this concert back when he first wrote about it last year and it felt like a bit of deja vu.

[Gary Anderson]

The thesis here is that Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 Born in the U.S.A. album is the centerpiece of his career. According to author Steven Hyden, everything Springsteen created before this album was leading up to it, and everything he has done since has been a reflection on it. Not only that, but Hyden makes the overwrought assertion that this album crystallized a certain moment in American history that can serve as a prism for understanding cultural trends since then, especially in the rock world. I don’t think any of this lands with particular precision, and much of Hyden’s extended essay ranges far afield from Born in the U.S.A., but I still enjoyed reading his passionate ruminations on the effects of Springsteen’s music.

[John DiConsiglio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forty years burnin down the road & Bruce’s BITUSA (in fanatic-speak) might be the most divisive rock-blockbuster ever. It’s almost no Springsteen snob’s favorite disc. (It’s stadium sound is a great introduction for kids—including mine.) The title track was famously misinterpreted by Reagan right-wingers. (All’s forgiven, Boss. Bring it home!) Hyden’s long essay argues BITUSA is the last music to bridge political gaps. On one hand, the book’s a pop eulogy for the decaying American dream. On the other, it’s fanboy fun, with fantasy-album lineups, Dylan called a “DILF” & the final word on the “Glory Days” gaff. “This is the last time I address the ‘speedball’ controversy.”

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you want to see the emotionally repressed man in your life cry—a stoic father, an unflappable granddad, a weird uncle, an immature brother—send him to a bruce springsteen concert.

published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of born in the u.s.a., steven hyden's there was nothing you could do looks at springsteen's bestselling, iconic seventh album. situating its release and enormous impact within the context of the social, political, and musical milieu of the mid-1980s, the rock critic portrays springsteen's classic record as a defining moment for the culture, for bruce's fans, and for the author himself (whom first discovered the cassette version as a six-year-old in his dad's car). critique, analysis, history, and personal take, there was nothing you could do explores the legacy of bruce's remarkable, influential, and often-misunderstood album — a 12-song record which still reverberates today. a must-read for bruce fans, of course, but also a fascinating snapshot of an era that seems so very far removed from where we ended up decades later.

that tape sounded like the beginning of something when i first heard it. but it wasn't. it was a harbinger of the end. and the end is where we are now.

[Ryan McSweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a music nerd and someone who grew up listening to Bruce, this rocked unbelievably hard.

[Harry Ramble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steven Hyden is the poet laureate of aging dads who grew up reading music reviews in Rolling Stone and Spin, then read Pitchfork until the references stopped making sense. Here, he tackles Springsteen's biggest seller and is wise enough to try to place it in a larger context of America's political polarization. The album hasn't aged well (yes, yes, we know, The Killers) and few Springsteen fans would put this album in their top five for the artist.

The problem is that Hyden, a perfectly fine music writer, is not a political writer. The first 200 of these 235 pages cover well-trodden ground related to the Nebraska / Born In The USA duality, alternate tracklists and takes, Springsteen's love of Elvis and Dylan, the marketing, videos and tour supporting the album, "Bossmania," and Springsteen's presentation in the media of the day. Other writers (Dave Marsh, Clinton Heylin) have covered this stuff better.

Only the last 35 pages (in a chapter deceptively titled "Reborn In The USA") deal substantially with the powerful backlash against Springsteen and his music that has been growing in the US (but not Europe) for the last thirty years or so. Yes, he looked like the last lonely man in the middle in that Jeep ad. Yes, he looked like an ass with Barack Obama in those podcasts. Yes, he comes off as smug very often now.

But Hyden is just covering the basics here, and rushing to the end of a fairly short book, which is a lost opportunity. He could have greatly expanded this portion of the book and covered some new ground. Every Springsteen fan knows at least a few former fans who loathe the man now. Why not go out and talk to some of them? Why not talk to police officers who stood and turned their backs on him during shows? Why not dig deeper into the fact that Springsteen struggles to sell out a single show in Omaha, but encounters eighty thousand rabid fans in Milan singing every word to every song, no matter how obscure? Why not talk to some of those fans? Why not talk about how the parliamentary-style governments of Europe have preserved a middle long lost in America?

My sense is the politics just don't interest the author much. But the world really didn't need a note-for-note, day-by-day rehash of Springsteen's 7th best album.

[carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5* THE BOSS!!!!!! (could have been an essay but i enjoyed it anyway) i do like how the author never misses a chance to call bruce sexy

[Daniel Folk · Rating 4 out of 5]

more of a personal editorial on his impact than anything else. I do wholeheartedly agree with the authors viewpoint on his album live 75/85.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really can’t recommend this book enough. Both as a walk down the nostalgia lane of the 80’s and 90’s but also for its insightful commentary into how not only the Born in the USA album, but Bruce Springsteen himself attempted to always find some kind of common ground that unites all Americans.
This isn’t to say that his songs when carefully listened to aren’t stinging criticisms of Reagan’s America and inequality, but they are more about how most of us try to rise above the hand we’re dealt and pick each other up.
Whether America was like this in the 80’s (or has ever been like this) is certainly up for debate. But as the author points out, the aspiration alone is incredibly powerful.
For as the willingness to find common ground amongst ourselves diminishes every year, it is the aspiration that provides us with a road map to a better life for everyone
When Barack Obama asked Springsteen on their podcast, ‘How do you think we can bridge these divides?’, he answered:

“Well, there are some practical things that would just seem like common sense. Politically connecting across party lines, rediscovering common experience, the love of the country, a new national identity that includes a multicultural picture of the United States that’s real today, rooted in common sense, ideals and just seeing each other as Americans again, whether it’s blue, red, black, white. Those are hard, hard things to do, and anyway we cut it, it’s a long walk home”

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was the epitome of, “it could’ve been an email.” Take out email, put an essay. There was a lot to like here, and some fun and interesting facts. It really captured what the feeling was in 1984 and 1985 when Bruce was doing the.BITUSA tour. Even though I went to shows on that tour, I was so young and did not fully understand the larger impact. This book also made me look up some songs I didn’t really know (outtakes from the Born in the USA album). And wish that I had bootlegs of some of the stops. My problem here was that I ultimately don’t think that he proved his thesis in a satisfying manner. This book was all over the place. It was like a bunch of ideas thrown up in the air and then laid out how they landed. I would get really into some sections and then completely out of others. The herky-jerky nature of the placement of things drove me a little crazy. Also, not for nothing, several typos and grammatical errors. So…a mixed bag, but I’m glad I read it.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

They say you should learn something new every day. Today I learned a full length book by a critic (or in this case more a fanboy) is not a good idea. At best this should have been an article but at 220 pages plus, it’s about 205 pages too long. The 15 pages would have sufficed to convey the writers point; as it is the remaining pages simply cover articles and interviews from other books and magazine while also allowing the author to look down his nose at other music acts he deems unworthy to live on the same planet as his beloved Bruce. Don’t get me wrong - I am a massive fan of Springsteen but somewhere objectivity has to enter a conversation.

[Brett Littman · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its best when sticking to the 80s. The last chapter kinda muddled things. Still entertaining from a 40-something Springsteen nut who first heard Born in the USA on cassette and was at that Upper Darby show in 1995. I can relate.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, another Bruce book. In this one, author Steven Hyden goes back to the summer before first grade and discovering the ubiquitous ‘Born in the USA’ album. It is a joyous recollection of him hearing it for the first time and trying to wrap his six-year-old brain around these clearly adult themes. What was the appeal? Why has it stuck?

Hyden’s enthusiasm continues through the making of the ‘Nebraska’ album (still better than the Warren Zanes book…) and the Boss’ influences (first, Elvis and Dylan; again, Suicide-the-band and cinema). Hyden even proposes an alternate tracklist for ‘BITUSA.’ Rather indulgent, but it’s over quickly. He also rhapsodizes about Huey Lewis and the News’ ‘Sports’ album (the cassette of which I wore out too). The appeal, Hyden theorizes, is that he was searching for a father figure in his single-parent household; my dad was around and yet I loved those groups and their music too. (God love him, he took me to my concerts.) So one size does not fit all in this regard. Besides, men dominated rock. It isn’t that hard to figure it out.

Michael Jackson, music videos, pop culture saturation… I didn’t need a rehash of it, as I was there the first time around. (Another shout out to my dad, who cited the same reason for not watching ‘The Crown.’) The style of the first chapter or two, reverential and almost academia inspired, soon vanishes into the ether. Relying on a need for filler and/or an attempt at context, Hyden falls back into listmaking—an annotated roster of contemporary artists’ albums and their tangential connection to ‘BITUSA’ is included within a chapter, again. We also get extraneous facts about Nielsen ratings of World Series broadcasts. Not. Necessary.

Moving on. Of course, Springsteen the image dwarfs Springsteen the man or even Springsteen the artist. That’s how fame works. After the ‘BITUSA’ juggernaut, Bruce returns to only slightly larger than life size. He makes other albums with and without the E Street Band, tours, raises a family, stays beloved. Not enough for the author, Hyden spends roughly two pages talking about the Hootie and the Blowfish debut album. (We get it. You’re a music fan.)

As for the ‘End of the Heartland’ in the book’s title, I have to ask: Did somebody get the book cover mixed up with a different volume? Because that not only suggested but explicitly promised an examination of American life and economy and social paradigm shifts over the last 40 years. I turned the page, and it was over. Reagan and Obama made their cameos, but the bulk of the political stuff was covered in the Vietnam years. Switch the two clauses around—‘The End of the Heartland and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA’—and we might be closer to a deal. But not enough. No, not even close.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of Hyden's books, but none more than this one. I am, no matter my reluctance, a Heartlander, and so the end of the Heartland is of particular interest to me. Hyden is right to challenge the way that the monoculture narrative has been overfit to all sorts of phenomena in the 20th century, but he's also right to suggest that Born in the U.S.A is a monocultural phenomena.
I especially appreciate how Hyden doesn't even especially love the album like he loves, say, Ten or Kid A or Lost in the Dream. He just appreciates its significance. It was an attempt to do so many things at once, and it succeeded, and it also failed Bruce, and caused him to go "back in the ditch," as Neil Young would say about Tonight's the Night.

[Zachary Barker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have finished reading “There Was Nothing You Could Do”: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” and the End of the Heartland” by Steven Hyden.

This book is written by a music critic and self-confessed fan of Bruce Springsteen’s music. This book is about the legacy of the “Born in the USA” album, written on the occasion of it’s 40th anniversary.

The author makes the controversial point that the Born in the USA album was both Bruce Springsteen’s defining masterpiece, but also one that defined his career for good and ill. Commercially the album was outstanding for him, advancing his status from merely being a well-known successful artist to an international superstar. While the album very much built on lyrical themes Bruce Springsteen had long been concerned about, the struggle of working people, there was also a preoccupation with scaling up the album to reach an unprecedented audience size.

This book is oddly structured. It talks about the Born in the USA album and it’s tracks at the very start like it was something to be got out of the way. Much of the time reading this book felt like an essay in which the album was only a small feature. The main themes of this book seem to be Bruce Springsteen coming to terms with his post Born in the USA fame status and how the country Bruce Springsteen was singing to has changed.

The author’s argument is that the heartland Bruce Springsteen sings about has changed massively along with the attitudes of the people within it. While in 1984 someone like Bruce Springsteen could be shown as a generally accepted unifying figure, American society has become frighteningly polarised especially post 9/11. The author fairly points out that while Bruce Springsteen himself, has made some mistakes while disharmony gathered in the heartland, he isn’t responsible for it.

There is much to enjoy about this book if you take it for what it is and if you are a fan of Bruce Springsteen. This is essentially a personal memoir by a dedicated fan and amateur political commentary on the state of the US in relation to Bruce Springsteen’s music, which is itself often a form of political and social commentary. Frustratingly, it felt like this book wanted to do several things at once and the different stories and tangents could be both illuminating and frustrating. I felt this lack of focus obscured the points the author was trying to make in the chapters. That said, I can’t deny that I found many of the stories about one of my favourite artists interesting. But honestly, if I wanted a reminder that the USA is fractured to a frightening degree I could have just turned on the news.

[Elias Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Hyden's writing and think his perspective is relatively uncommon among rock critics in that he's spent most (all?) of his life in the midwest. This makes him uniquely qualified to write about Springsteen's heartland appeal and the politics that accompany it. I didn't fully comprehend what Hyden's thesis was until the final chapter, a chapter I found notably more thought-provoking than the rest of the book. This was likely due to its relation to present times. I wonder if I would have gotten more out of the book if the last chapter had been the opening chapter. It's possible I am just more personally interested in the present intersection of politics and music than I am with the past retelling. Nevertheless, I still found it a worthwhile read for people interested in Springsteen.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

With "Deliver Me From Nowhere" in theaters and a handful of recent compilations (one compiling several "lost" albums, and the other chronicling the making of Nebraska), I figured it was high time I dove into Hyden's exploration of the Boss and his relationship to our country's devolution into intractable political polarization. It's an interesting angle from which to consider Springsteen's work - is he not the avatar of the American working class? Why then would they turn on him so sharply?

There aren't a lot of answers to be found here or anything, but it's the thought process that keeps things compelling for the duration. The examination of both Springsteen's work and the work of his contemporaries, the cultural response to his work, etc. A great read.