Bruce Springsteen shirt vintage USA single stitch Neil Young Bob Dylan Tom Petty

Description: "We took a lot of different types of pictures, and in the end, the picture of my ass looked better than the picture of my face...I didn't have any secret message."--Bruce Springsteen It was 1950s rockabilly meets 1980s rock 'n roll, and it dominated the charts in '84-'85, a few years after the birth of Mtv--a basic cable channel that was, at that time, still primarily devoted to this new artform call the "music video." So if you were young in the mid-80s, this was where you learned what was hot, and Springsteen's latest album was, as they say, "burning up the charts." Born in the USA spawned seven hit singles and several iconic videos, including "Dancing in the Dark," directed by none other than Brian De Palma (and featuring a very young and eerily androgynous Courtney Cox). It's not a concept album per se, but it's definitely heavy on blue collar themes, including deindustrialization, capital flight, and the plight of the working stiff, slaving away in some oil refinery by day and drinking his blues away at the local dive by night. This was Reagan's America, what was left of it, and Springsteen didn't make much of an effort to hide behind symbolic language and clever metaphors. There was no time for that; the country he loved was being consumed by avarice and greed. The working stiff was being played for a fool, always a week away from a promotion and a raise, only to find out later that all that talk about "company loyalty" had been bullsh*t. There'd be no raise and soon there wouldn't even be a job, for the money that should have gone into feeding his family had instead gone toward financing the new plant in Juarez, where the cost of labor was much cheaper, and more importantly, where the brass wouldn't have to worry about unions. Sacrifice a little now and it'll pay off later, the American dream, nothing more than an insideous scam. But here's the funny thing. Not only was the title track one of the album's biggest hits, but "Born in the USA" was widely embraced as a tribute to the heartland, a new national anthem--when in reality it was nothing of the sort. The lyrics tell the story of a young guy who gets in trouble with the law (a "hometown jam") and he's given a choice: go to prison or go to Vietnam. Historically speaking, this was hardly usual, so off he goes to Southeast Asia; and whatever he experiences over there is left up to the imagination--a lacuna that we're meant to fill in for ourselves--but we can imagine that it probably wasn't good. But the real tragedy is waiting for him back home, to where he returns only to find that the country he'd been willing to lay down his life for has now forsaken him. He can't even get a job at the local refinery. It was an all too common story back then, the ramifications of which we still see today. It's tragically common to see an elderly homeless man on a street corner in the city, wearing an army jacket and holding a cardboard sign--and this was precisely Springsteen's point, whether the dimbulbs on Reagan's reelection team realized it or not, for "Born in the USA" was played regularly at republican rallies, proving once again that irony was dead, even in the 80s. But here's the really funny thing. Springsteen's commentary on the cover art notwithstanding, it does kinda look suspect, no? Look at it: the way the right arm is sort of silhouetted, hanging in, as though he were...relieving himself, right in front of that flag. Draw your own conclusions, but one thing's for sure: "Born in the USA" ain't no jingoistic bumper sticker; it's a punk song. And it couldn't have been more prescient. The final verse ties it all together. All the factories are closing down and being replaced by penetentiaries--no irony there--and our hero is left stranded, "nowhere to run" and "nowhere to go." Now the tee itself is obviously an original (in fact, Courtney Cox can be seen wearing the same one in the video for "Dancing in the Dark")--only better; whereas later prints have the tour dates as the back-hit, this rare "pre-tour" version has the cover art on both sides. Pretty goddamn dope. Here's the last I'll say about it. Springsteen spent all day with none other than the world famous Annie Leibovitz, whom the record company had hired to shoot the cover art. By his own admission they had taken "a lot of different types of pictures"--and this is the one they decided on? The one that looks suspiciously like he's micturating on the American flag? No "secret message"? You sure? Aight Bruce, whatever you say. Dylan played it coy too, you know.

Price: 99 USD

Location: Westwood, Massachusetts

End Time: 2024-09-15T03:01:33.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD