Born In the U.S.A. - Live at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY - June/July 2000

Often misinterpreted as a full-throated patriotic anthem, "Born In The U.S.A." is about the problems Vietnam veterans faced when they returned to America. While veterans of other wars received heroes' welcomes, those who fought in Vietnam were mostly ignored when they returned to their homeland, and many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.

This song was inspired by a chance encounter with Ron Kovic, who was confined to a wheelchair after being shot while fighting in the Vietnam War. Kovic, who enlisted to fight in the war, later protested against it, becoming a leader in the anti-war movement. In 1976 he published a book called Born On The Fourth Of July that told his story. In 1989 it was made into a movie starring Tom Cruise as Kovic. Springsteen picked up a copy of the book in 1980 when he was on a cross-country road trip with a buddy. They were outside of Phoenix and Bruce found it at a drugstore. About two weeks later, Springsteen was in Los Angeles staying at the Sunset Marquis hotel, where remarkably, Kovacs was also staying. They met in the pool area and had a long conversation, with Kovacs inviting Springsteen to join him on a visit to the veterans center in nearby Venice. Bruce accepted the invitation and found the visit quite enlightening. "I'm usually pretty easy with people, but once we were at the center, I didn't know how to respond to what I was seeing," he said during his Springsteen On Broadway residency. "Talking about my own life to these guys seemed frivolous. There was homelessness and drug problems and post-traumatic stress - guys my age dealing with life-changing physical injuries." Springsteen used their stories as the basis for the song. "The verses are just an accounting of events," he said. "The chorus is a declaration of your birthplace, and the right to all the pride and confusion and shame and grace that comes with it."

Springsteen started writing the song in 1981 with the title "Vietnam." He changed the title and the chorus when the director Paul Schrader sent him a script for a movie he was working on called Born In The U.S.A., about a rock band struggling with life and religion. Schrader was hoping Springsteen would appear in the movie. Bruce didn't participate in the film, but he lifted the title for the song, which became "Born In The U.S.A." It went through lots of iterations before it was released as the title track to Springsteen's seventh album in 1984. Unfortunately for Schrader, when he was finally ready to make the movie in 1985, the title "Born In The U.S.A." was too associated with the song. Springsteen made it right by providing the song "Light Of Day," which became the new title for Schrader's movie and the feature song in the film. The movie Light Of Day was released in 1987 with Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox in the lead roles. The song, as performed by Jett and credited to "The Barbusters" - the name of her group in the movie - was released as a single and charted at #33.