American Song
American Song is a podcast that traces the origins and development of American - and ultimately world-wide - forms of modern musical entertainment. Over time, we will trace every major genre from its origins through the current day.American Song looks at the development of our music through the lens of social, political, and economic changes that were occurring in each case, and we'll feature the most important musicians in each genre.Every episode is chock-full of the music we love and where possible, we include archival interviews so you can hear about, in the actual words and voices of these great musicians and singers, the motives and passions that drove their creativity.
American Song
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part Three: Darkness, The River, Nebraska, and Berlin ’88
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 Band
- I Fought the Law - Live
- Badlands
- The Promised Land
- Prove it All Night - Live from Hammersmith Odeon. 1978
- The Ties That Bind
- The River album medley: Point Blank/ The River/ Hungry Heart/ Cadillac Ranch/ I'm a Rocker/ Drive All Night
- Atlantic City
- Johnny 99
- Born in the USA
- Born in the USA Nebraska era demo
- Downbound Train
- Dancing in the Dark
- Chimes of Freedom - Live in East Berlin 1988
Archival Interviews
- Letter to You era interview
- NPR/ Loren Anki - Born in the USA
- NPR/ Terry Gross
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