June 4, 1984
Well, it happened again.
Someone mentioned a moment and I had a great time recalling moments from an amazing day.
June 4, 1984 was the day when Born in the USA was released.
In those days, you had to actually go buy the music.
Only one song had actually leaked from the record:
“Dancing in the Dark.”
We made plans to go buy the cassette the moment it was released. A little interesting tidbit for you, Born in the USA was the first work of music that was ever pressed onto a compact disc.
Tom Rybak was the driver. My brother John sat in the middle and I was pressed against the door. We listened to Darkness on the way to the McKinley Mall.
We had to stand in a line.
(First time I ever stood in a line to buy music - not the last - the next 5 Bruce records went the same way).
We made the drive back to North Collins.
I was reading the lyrics.
John was singing them!
He’d never heard the song before...and he was off-tune, singing along. I wasn’t about to say anything because John is strong, and I’m not, but Tom started laughing, and so did I.
What happened after that was simply amazing.
One hit after another:
Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA, I’m On Fire, My Hometown, No Surrender, Cover Me, Darlington County, Downbound Train, Bobby Jean and Glory Days.
Bruce went from our favorite singer to seemingly everyone’s favorite. He was everywhere, wearing a bandanna, selling out show after show.
We listened to it so often those first six months that it remains the one record that I don’t listen to much at all, 34 years later.
In September of that year we went to Bruce at Memorial Auditorium. That concert was life-changing.
The next school year continued to be All-Bruce all the time.
My college buddies didn’t tire of Born in the USA. We listened constantly. On the way to golf, on the way back.
George liked Glory Days, Fluffy didn’t know any of the words, Jim (who had a politically incorrect nickname) loved Darlington County.
Bruce didn’t even get a number 1 off the record.
Prince, Michael Jackson and Madonna were all huge then too, but the record sold 34 million copies.
Ronald Reagan tried to use BITUSA for his political campaign. Bruce stopped that really quickly.
And this past March, I sat in a theater in New York and listened to Bruce tell the story of his Mom and the Alzheimer’s that’s stripped her of so many things, but laughed when he said that when she heard music, she automatically danced.
“She’d dance with a broomstick.”
And now, she’s dancing in the dark.
34 years.
What a piece of music it turned out to be...
...and to think...
...the first time I ever heard Born in the USA, I barely heard Bruce because my brother was singing it, off-key.
Someone mentioned a moment and I had a great time recalling moments from an amazing day.
June 4, 1984 was the day when Born in the USA was released.
In those days, you had to actually go buy the music.
Only one song had actually leaked from the record:
“Dancing in the Dark.”
We made plans to go buy the cassette the moment it was released. A little interesting tidbit for you, Born in the USA was the first work of music that was ever pressed onto a compact disc.
Tom Rybak was the driver. My brother John sat in the middle and I was pressed against the door. We listened to Darkness on the way to the McKinley Mall.
We had to stand in a line.
(First time I ever stood in a line to buy music - not the last - the next 5 Bruce records went the same way).
We made the drive back to North Collins.
I was reading the lyrics.
John was singing them!
He’d never heard the song before...and he was off-tune, singing along. I wasn’t about to say anything because John is strong, and I’m not, but Tom started laughing, and so did I.
What happened after that was simply amazing.
One hit after another:
Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA, I’m On Fire, My Hometown, No Surrender, Cover Me, Darlington County, Downbound Train, Bobby Jean and Glory Days.
Bruce went from our favorite singer to seemingly everyone’s favorite. He was everywhere, wearing a bandanna, selling out show after show.
We listened to it so often those first six months that it remains the one record that I don’t listen to much at all, 34 years later.
In September of that year we went to Bruce at Memorial Auditorium. That concert was life-changing.
The next school year continued to be All-Bruce all the time.
My college buddies didn’t tire of Born in the USA. We listened constantly. On the way to golf, on the way back.
George liked Glory Days, Fluffy didn’t know any of the words, Jim (who had a politically incorrect nickname) loved Darlington County.
Bruce didn’t even get a number 1 off the record.
Prince, Michael Jackson and Madonna were all huge then too, but the record sold 34 million copies.
Ronald Reagan tried to use BITUSA for his political campaign. Bruce stopped that really quickly.
And this past March, I sat in a theater in New York and listened to Bruce tell the story of his Mom and the Alzheimer’s that’s stripped her of so many things, but laughed when he said that when she heard music, she automatically danced.
“She’d dance with a broomstick.”
And now, she’s dancing in the dark.
34 years.
What a piece of music it turned out to be...
...and to think...
...the first time I ever heard Born in the USA, I barely heard Bruce because my brother was singing it, off-key.
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