Album Review: Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A. by Various Artists

Various ArtistsDead Man’s Town:A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A.(Thirty Tigers)Rating: 4 out of 5 stars “Born down in a dead man’s town/first kick I took was when I hit the ground/You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much/then you spend half your life trying to cover it up” aren’t exactly the kind of lyrics that scream multi-platinum sales. But add glossy production, thunderous arrangements and Bruce Springsteen’s gruff, boomy vocals and the result was his biggest seller to date, one that moved over 30 million copies worldwide. Coming after the sparse Nebraska, Springsteen’s 1984 release Born in the U.S.A.

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I’m all about appreciating the past. Let’s applaud nostalgia! Revisit the glory days, but do it yourself—don’t send your protégé niece or nephew to pay tribute at your adored baseball diamond of yesteryear just so you can nervously shift in your rocking chair as they sloppily recount their experience, wearing the red clay you once found so familiar now so foreign smudged on their knees. That’s unfortunately how Dead Man’s Town: A Tribute To Born In The USA goes about relishing Bruce Springsteen’s impossibly perfect Born In The USA on its 30th anniversary.

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When Bruce Springsteen's album Born in the U.S.A. was released in the summer of 1984, it became an immediate smash hit and confirmed Springsteen's status as one of the biggest and most important stars in American rock. But it was also a widely misunderstood work, especially the title song, embraced by many as a patriotic celebration of America when it was in fact a bitter condemnation by Springsteen of how his nation betrayed the soldiers who returned from Vietnam with few options and little hope.

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There are artists that truly deserve the praise laid upon them, that warrant tributes to them or their works. Hank Williams, Dylan, Guthrie, Holly, Cash, Van Zandt, all of these larger than life figures have had tribute albums recorded of their music as homages to the mark they left on the musical landscape and the souls of those moved by their words. The latest to be added to the tribute catalog is The Boss himself Bruce Springsteen.

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