A scrapped movie and a Tokyo record store: How Joan Jett ended up with a credit for 1984’s ‘Born in the USA’
“Bruce is nothing if not a control freak,” were the ringing words of director Paul Schrader, bemoaning the fact that Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t work with him. It was down to Joan Jett to save the day.
The year was 1984, and having worked up quite the screenwriting streak with Martin Scorsese, Schrader naturally had his sights set on The Boss to become his next great Hollywood star. It was flattering, sure, but the man himself was not so forthcoming to the idea. It would mean he would have to give up direction and creative vision to someone else. In short, it was never going to happen.
At the very least, Springsteen did take a flash of inspiration from the title Schrader pitched him, Born in the USA. That notion flooded his brain with all sorts of ideas far from the filmic world, and he knew he had to strike while the iron was hot. But in return, and to sweeten him up after turning him down, the singer told the director he would write a song for the soundtrack.
That was where ‘Light of Day’ emerged from the fray, and Joan Jett took over the reins both in her film debut and responsibility for performing the track. Yet because of the issues Springsteen presented, the film in its original form took far longer to make than intended, Michael J Fox took over the role he would have played, and it ended up changing its title to Light of Day before its eventual release in 1987.
In the meantime, after The Boss had declined his starring role, the future of the film was very much on the rocks for Schrader after it was scrapped by Paramount, and so he headed to Japan for a bit of respite. “So now I’m in Tokyo,” he later recalled. “I go into a record store, I pick up an album, and sure enough, there it is, Born in the USA! I looked inside, and he credited me.”
Evidently, something about Schrader’s influence had fired a cannon off in The Boss’s brain, from which he created one of his most iconic albums. But in a lot of ways, for an artist like Jett who was caught in the middle, the by-product of his record was only par for the course. In her own world, Springsteen had already crafted her an opportunity much more seismic.
When he wrote ‘Light of Day’ all those years before, he could never have imagined it would be for the suitors of a rock icon making the leap to the big screen for the first time, alongside an actor attempting to make himself a name among some serious fodder. However, for Jett, it was the catalyst of a new beginning that would truly change her forever.
She was, of course, already a bona fide rock icon by that point, but the ability to be rubber-stamped by a legend like Springsteen while he was taking on a new venture was only more fuel to the point that she was on a blazing trajectory. The song became a staple of her live performances from there on out – and eventually, it did for The Boss, too.
Although Light of Day ended up as something very different to what Schrader had initially planned, it actually worked out far better in terms of the boost it provided to both Springsteen and Jett, respectively. On one hand, you got an iconic album out of it. On the other, Jett can take a small credit in knowing she sent The Boss on that journey. Let’s call it even.
