Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Darkness, The River, Nebraska, and Berlin ’88

Get in touch!Factories closing, marriages cracking, the glitter of the ’80s hiding a lot of hurt—Part 3 lives right in that gap between the American dream and the American day-to-day. Bruce digs into Darkness, The River, and Nebraska, writing about people who rarely get a mic: laid-off workers, young couples in over their heads, neighbors hanging on by their fingernails. Then Born in the U.S.A. turns into a worldwide roar, and politicians try to strip the songs of their doubts and their compassion. We end in East Berlin, 1988, with Springsteen singing to a divided crowd about freedom and walls coming down, and we ask: what if this kind of complicated, honest patriotism was the version we measured ourselves against instead of the cheap, loud kind?Music in this Episode: Bruce Spingsteen (With and Without) the E Street BandI Fought the Law - LiveBadlandsThe Promised LandProve it All Night - Live from Hammersmith Odeon. 1978The Ties That BindThe River album medley: Point Blank/ The River/ Hungry Heart/ Cadillac Ranch/ I'm a Rocker/ Drive All NightAtlantic CityJohnny 99Born in the USABorn in the USA Nebraska era demoDownbound TrainDancing in the DarkChimes of Freedom - Live in East Berlin 1988Archival InterviewsLetter to You era interviewNPR/ Loren Anki - Born in the USANPR/ Terry Gross