Born in a dead man's town

This week I am comparing the song "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen and the one covered by Ballboy.

 

 Bruce Springsteen usually exudes raw sexual appeal through both his singing and his live performances. In this song, Springsteen sounds much more serious and takes on a more gritty voice. While the band Ballboy are a Scotland indie band that sounds more sensual and sweet in their version. Springsteen's version emphasizes their instrumentals in the song, with a heavy set of drum sounds in the background and what sounds like a synthesizer. However this is Springsteen's second version, the first one he released was apparently a bit different with the instrumentals. While the band, Ballboy's instrumentals involve an acoustic guitar playing in the background.



The song lyrics are talking about the Vietnam War and the aftereffects on Americans. Springsteen is singing about how people were drafted into fighting in the war. Which is clear from this stanza: "Got in a little hometown jam/ So they put a rifle in my hand/ Sent me off to a foreign land/ To go and kill a yellow man." Springsteen refers to the people in Vietnam as "a yellow man" which I find interesting because he probably considers himself "a white man" and referring to the enemy as a different color seems to promote a type of discrimination. Even though the song seems to be patriotic there are some lyrics that contradict how being an American is a good thing. The best example of this contradiction is the very first stanza: "Born down in a dead man's town/ The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/ You end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ Till you spend half your life just covering up." It seems he is comparing being an American to being treated like a dog. Which really doesn't sound appealing and doesn't sound like a very good thing either.

While Ballboy changed a few lyrics here and there I find it interesting that they are a Scottish band originally from Scotland and the song itself is called "Born in the U.S.A." which is a lyric that they didn't change. One of the lyrics is: "I had a brother at Khe Sahn/ Fighting of the Viet Kong/ Well, they're still there/ But he's all gone, gone, gone." They change the spelling of "Cong" to "Kong" and the original song says gone once. The last stanza of the song is changed as well; the original lyric is: "Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., I'm a long gone daddy in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a." While Ballboy's last lyric is: "I was born in the USA/ I was born in the USA/ I was born in the USA/ I've got nowhere to run/ I've got nowhere to hide." Although Springsteen does say that he's got nowhere to run or go in the second to last stanza, he never says he's got nowhere to hide.

I think both versions are good for different reasons, although it is harder to connect with the Ballboy's version simply because it is clear from their accents that they were not born in the U.S.A. While the song is considered a patriotic song, the Ballboy's version could be misconstrued as them mocking the song since they are technically not Americans. I don't think they are mocking the song in any way, I believe they did a good version of the song because it does sound more happy despite how sad some of the lyrics are. While Springsteen sounds more angry and a little sad in his version which seems to change the meaning of the song even though the lyrics are still basically the same.