Bruce Springsteen’s “pursuit of immortality” and the 1984 song that saw him achieve it
Immortality is something that many people strive for; not to be ancient vampires living across multiple centuries without being ravaged by time, but to be remembered and coveted in the years following their inevitable departure from this mortal coil. It is an affliction that particularly affects artists, Bruce Springsteen being one such case.
To be fair to ‘The Boss’, at 76 years old, he still seems as spritely and energetic as ever. Massive jaunts across the biggest stages in the world continue year after year, and although it has been a few trips around the sun since his last studio album, in 2022’s Only the Strong Survive, it is difficult to fault the workload of the New Jersey hero. Even a rockstar of Springsteen’s ilk, however, is not so far detached from reality that they truly believe they can live forever.
At the risk of making this supposedly light-hearted article rather existential: human life is fleeting, and one day we will all return to dust. Fear not, though, because music is immortal. When David Bowie passed on back in 2016, for instance, his extensive discography did not go with him, nor did Prince’s or George Michael’s. Hell, it’s been nearly two centuries since Ludwig Van Beethoven died, and audiences still insist on listening to his masterful compositions. As such, musicians are among the few people in society with a real shot at immortality.
Not every musician, of course, is afforded such luxury, and there are pages that could be filled with the names of incredible artists who have sadly been long-forgotten. It seems rather unlikely, though, that Bruce Springsteen’s name will ever be etched onto those pages.
“I was talking to someone a while back,” the songwriter told Classic Rock in 2009. “And said: ‘You look at my house – Bruce Springsteen lives there.’ Someday it’ll be ‘Bruce Springsteen used to live there.’ And someday after that, nobody’s going to remember who lived there. They’ll just drive on by down the highway.”
In his infinite enlightenment, Springsteen added, “That’s the way it plays out. And I’m comfortable with that. The pursuit of immortality, I’ll chase that as hard and fast as the next guy. But I don’t kid myself about how much of it is in store for me.”
While that might be a healthy way of looking at life and mortality, it doesn’t particularly ring true. Such has been the impact of ‘The Boss’ on the landscape of music and songwriting since his earliest emergence in the 1970s that his music, spirit, and impact will long outlive his flesh and bones. If you had to pinpoint the exact moment in his career that his immortal fate was sealed, the release of 1984’s ‘Born In The USA’ is as good a marker as any.
Doomed to forever be misunderstood by blindly patriotic American nationalists and politicians, Springsteen’s ode to the alienation of the Vietnam War and the broader military-industrial complex inherent in the American state only reached number nine in the US charts upon its release, yet it has since come to define Springsteen in the eyes and ears of the masses.
Sure, dedicated Springsteen fans will gladly rattle off a plethora of songs that are superior to ‘Born In The USA’ with impressive ease, but, at least for the layman, that 1984 single is the sound of Bruce Springsteen. The songwriter himself has an expectedly complex relationship with the song, particularly since its original incarnation was much closer to the raw acoustic sound of Nebraska.
Nevertheless, ‘Born In The USA’ appears to be Springsteen’s ticket to immortality, whether he likes it or not.
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