Born in the U.S.A.

[pinboy3niner]

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. (4:43)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZD4ezDbbu4

[abq e streeter]

1. Never could decide whether to laugh or be furious at the attempts by the right to claim this song

as a rah-rah jingoistic anthem. I do know that they tried, and many people who to this day apparently never bothered listening to the story in it, believe that's what it is. I do get pretty angry when confronted personally with that intentional distortion, such as when they crank it up to play over the 4th of July fireworks at the ballgames here, but somehow manage to conveniently skip all the lines about being "born in a dead man's town" etc.

[peekaloo]

2. wasn't there a rumbling about the cover art?

seemed like Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeee was pissing on the flag. Got the flag wavers all confused-ed. }(

[NewJeffCT]

3. I don't remember that

but, it wouldn't surprise me

[abq e streeter]

5. Yeah, seems to me some rightwinger somewhere tried to make that claim

[pinboy3niner]

4. I had to laugh out loud earlier this year...

...when, watching a streamed rally for Michelle Bachmann, I saw Mitt Romney take the stage--with Fogerty's 'Fortunate Son' playing loudly in the background. They must have figured that if it mentioned flag-waving, it must be a patriotic song. :rofl:

[baldguy]

6. The hallmark of a conservative mind - the total lack of understanding of irony.

They just don't "get" it.

[abq e streeter]

7. Yep--have seen that on a commercial too...purposely twisting the message of a song

to its exact opposite. Same song in one case....I remember some pants commercial (Levis?) playing the "some folks are born to wave the flag, ooh they're red white and blue..." and of course stopping right there. And I even remember a report on some network news show about Queen Elizabeth's 50th anniversary as queen or something, with the "news" person saying how the queen even was part of pop culture by playing the Sex Pistols "God Save The Queen" and then, I'm sure due to a simple oversight, neglecting to play the "fascist regime" part of it...
I find this funny too, yet at the same time it angers me to see artistic creations cynically used by others for propagandizing in direct opposition to the artist's intentions.OK; it's freakin' new years eve; off my high horse ......have a good new year, Pinboy and anyone else reading my semi-coherent rambling.....