Thiscomes interestingly timed after that bullshit the other day where Aaron Lewis was whining about being later than everyone else to realise “Born in the USA” actually wasn’t the ra-ra anthem he thought it was… this is the so-called “Electric Nebraska” version; having done the home recordings that turned into the Nebraska album, Bruce then tried to work up full band versions of those songs but wasn’t happy with the results and scrapped them (until now, with an expanded Nebraska featuring those E Street Band recordings coming out soon). However, the sessions had produced a number of other songs that would be reworked for Born in the USA, including the title track… whether or not the 1982 version above is better as such than the 1984 one is obviously a matter of taste, though I think it might actually be. And, either way, it’s different enough in its approach that even Aaron Lewis might realise the bitterness underpinning it.
