NJ moment when Bruce, then musicians after him, turned political

People express increasing disgust with celebrities who give their political opinions, pontificate on government matters, and endorse candidates. With Taylor Swift being dragged into the 2024 election by AI faking her endorsement of Trump and her setting the record straight that she is a Harris woman, it doesn’t look like this sort of thing is going away anytime soon.

It was, arguably, right here in New Jersey where this all started happening in a big way.

In a visit to the Garden State in September of 1984, Ronald Reagan said the following at a campaign stop:

“We’ve come to Hammonton, just as we went to Elizabeth and Hoboken…because you’re what America is all about. America’s future rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire — New Jersey’s own, Bruce Springsteen.”

Around this time, a campaign advisor asked to use Bruce’s song “Born in the U.S.A.” as a patriotic, uplifting image in Reagan’s campaign. Not only was Springsteen not a fan of Reagan, but he was greatly bothered that the words of his song were so horribly ignored and misunderstood.

While set to up-tempo rock music, the lyrics themselves painted an American story of desperation and disenfranchisement.

“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 the yellow man”

The plight of mental health issues among veterans being ignored was touched on.

“I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there; he's all gone”

As well as vets unable to survive economically.

“Come back home to the refinery
The hiring man says, "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand"

So when Reagan and the campaign took this dark song meant to make America hold a mirror up to itself so dramatically wrong, Springsteen not only wouldn’t allow the campaign to use it, he began using his voice and not just his lyrics to express his social and political opinions.

Many other artists followed suit over the years. Is it wrong for artists to express their views when you’re paying to hear them sing? Or was it our fault all along for misunderstanding what they were saying through their art and needing it spelled out for us? Perhaps it’s a bit of both.

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Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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