A track-by-track look to celebrate 40th anniversary of Springsteen's 'Born in the U.S.A.'

On June 4, 1984, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band made the proclamation: We are “Born in the U.S.A.”

The now legendary album presented central themes of Springsteen’s work — community, friendship, economic disparity and patriotism — and framed them in a bigger, bolder way. The result was a generational work that produced seven hit singles and has sold more than 25 million copies.

Produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt and Chuck Plotkin, the album made the band superstars and established the Boss as an ’80s music icon.

The “Born in the U.S.A.” tour started with a rehearsal show at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park on June 8, 1984, four days after the album's June 4 release. The band would travel across North America to Australia, Japan and Europe before coming back to the U.S. in August 1985 to play stadiums.

The album will receive a 40th anniversary red vinyl release on Friday, June 14, from Sony Music. The special edition will include a gatefold sleeve and booklet with archival material from the era, new liner notes penned by Erik Flannigan, and a four-color lithograph.

Here's a track-by-track analysis of the record:

'Born in the U.S.A.'

The song “Born in the U.S.A.”  is one of Springsteen’s greatest artistic and commercial successes, and his most misunderstood work.

The track is about the mistreatment Vietnam veterans received back home in the ’70s and early ’80s, and the inequitable attainment of the American dream. Then-president Ronald Reagan misunderstand the concept.

“America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts,” said Reagan during a 1984 campaign stop in Hammonton. “It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own, Bruce Springsteen.”

Springsteen rebutted onstage by saying Reagan wasn’t familiar with his work.

The album's third single, the song’s signature sound is Max Weinberg’s crackling snare-drum beat. Springsteen called it Weinberg’s “greatest recorded moment” in his “Born to Run” memoir.

More: Bruce Springsteen has message to fans after postponed shows in Europe: 'We will be back'

'Cover Me'

Slick guitars and an upbeat Texas blues structure makes “Cover Me” stand out as a unique work. It’s not quite rock, it’s not quite R&B, but has a wallop of a hook and tons of appeal. Springsteen apparently plays both the crisp rhythm guitar and the Stevie Ray Vaughan-style wailing guitar lead.

The second single, the Boss delivered a great R&B-influenced lead vocal with lots of screams, yelps and emotion. Fun fact: It was originally written for Donna Summer.

'Darlington County'

Roy Bittan must get exhausted after he plays this one. Springsteen assumes a Southern twang in his voice for this rocking jamboree, which features plenty of "sha-la-las," Bittan’s Jerry Lee Lewis-style piano banging, and a rare, for “Born in the U.S.A.," sax solo from Clarence Clemons.

'Working on the Highway'

This Eddie Cochran-style hoedown is pure musical joy fronting a rather ominous tale. The song's protagonist is serving time by working on the highway, “Cool Hand Luke” style, because he was caught with an underage girlfriend.

“Son can’t you see that she’s just a little girl, she don’t know nothing about this cruel, cruel world,” dad says.

That leaves the singer and warden to “go swinging on the Charlotte County road gang.”

More: Bruce Springsteen dedicates 'My Hometown' to his 'homies' in Freehold and Ireland

'Downbound Train'

This working man’s noir track is darkly framed by early use of Bittan’s Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, which adds an ominous shade to the story of a lost soul who lost his job, then lost his girl. He now wanders on the rails, figuratively and otherwise, of an unfulfilled life.

'I’m on Fire'

When a rock ’n’ roll singer sings that he or she is on fire, it’s usually with a scream, yelp or guttural growl. In the compelling and mesmerizing “I’m on Fire,’’ Springsteen delivered the line with a sense of resignation. Passion and fulfillment are a paradox, locked in a box that the hottest fire in the furnace can’t burn open.

The sparse arrangement of “I’m on Fire’’ of a scratchy guitar, drum rim tap and mournful synthesizers adds a dimension of solitude that compels the listener. The fourth single, the Boss starred as a forlorn car mechanic in the John Sayles-directed video, which won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.

'No Surrender'

“No Surrender” features a take-no-prisoners 4/4 beat from drummer Max Weinberg, and one of the most iconic lines in rock ’n’ roll history.

“We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school,” sings Springsteen.

“No Surrender” had an important slot on the original album release as it opened Side 2. The song continues to have a significant role in the band's world as it’s played nightly on the current tour.

'Bobby Jean'

Roy Bittan’s wonderfully crafted, majestic piano line that’s tinged with tragedy is the star of the song, but the track is actually about Steven Van Zandt. The Boss and Little Steven had a falling out over Van Zandt’s role in the E Street Band in the early ’80s, and he subsequently left, missing the huge “Born in the U.S.A.’’ arena and stadium tour. He didn't return until the Reunion Tour of 1999.

“We liked the same music, we liked the same bands, we liked the same clothes,’’ sings Springsteen on the track.

That was true to a point, but Springsteen and Van Zandt are sartorially very different these days. The Boss opts for workwear basics on stage, while Van Zandt takes on a Beau Brummell-goes-psychedelic look.

'I'm Goin’ Down'

“I’m Goin’ Down,” released as the sixth single on Aug. 27, 1985, stands out from the other “Born in the U.S.A.” tracks as it doesn’t sound like other songs on the record. Instead, it has the live vibrancy of “The River’’ songs.

Repetition is the name of the game on “I’m Goin’ Down” as the Boss repeats “down” more than 50 times. Add in the bop-a-lops at the end, and it’s very apparent that the lyrics are secondary to the mesmerizing vibe.

'Glory Days'

The irony of this good-time barroom rocker about reminiscing is that the Boss wrote it when he was in his early 30s — hardly a period in life to look backward. Yet the sentiment was so artfully crafted that it’s become a signature song that’s performed often in concert.

The album's fifth single, Springsteen often adds a line of fait accompli these days. As he sang recently at the American Music Honors event at Monmouth University in West Long Branch: “hope when I get older I don’t sit around thinking about it, but that’s just what I (blanking) do!”

Who’s the “speedball” thrower whom Springsteen meets walking out of the bar? It’s Joe DePugh of Freehold, a teammate of Springsteen in Babe Ruth League baseball, said Freehold historian Kevin Coyne. The two met by chance at the Headliner in Neptune in 1973.

'Dancing in the Dark'

We can partly thank the Asbury Park club scene for the success of “Dancing in the Dark.” Springsteen wanted to check out the appeal of the new track, written and recorded late for inclusion on “Born in the U.S.A.,” so he took a copy to the Club Xanadu, now the site of Porta, in Asbury Park. He gave it to the deejay who played it, and the dance floor took off.

A performance video, co-starring a then-unknown Courteney Cox, also took off on MTV. It was the album’s first single, released on May 9, 1984, and it served as a statement that this was Springsteen and E Street Band striking a new musical chord of danceable grooves, synthesizer shades and deejay remixes.

'My Hometown'

In 1973 it was “Greetings from Asbury Park.” Eleven years later, Springsteen brought the focus to “My Hometown,” otherwise known as Freehold. There, Springsteen recalls actual events of Freehold in his lifetime, and gives them a universality that only an artist of the highest caliber could. Family, race relations, economic plight, and a tetherable connection to place called home are all in “My Hometown," the album's seventh and final single.

The song's protagonist faces a decision of whether or not to leave his hometown for better economic opportunity elsewhere. In Springsteen's case, he didn’t leave. The Boss now lives 15 minutes way in Colts Neck, and he’s often seen around town when not on tour.

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A. celebrates 40th anniversary