
There Was Nothing You Could Do
Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland
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Narrated by:
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Steven Hyden
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By:
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Steven Hyden
About this listen
A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic album, Born in the U.S.A.—a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America.
On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general, and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years.
In There Was Nothing You Could Do, veteran rock critic Steven Hyden shows exactly how this record became such a pivotal part of the American tapestry. Alternating between insightful criticism, meticulous journalism, and personal anecdotes, Hyden delves into the songs that made—and didn’t make—the final cut, including the tracks that wound up on its sister album, 1982’s Nebraska. He also investigates the myriad reasons why Springsteen ran from and then embraced the success of his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP, as he carefully toed the line between balancing his commercial ambitions and being co-opted by the machine.
But the book doesn’t stop there. Beyond Springsteen’s own career, Hyden explores the role the album played in a greater historical context, documenting not just where the country was in the tumultuous aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, but offering a dream of what it might become—and a perceptive forecast of what it turned into decades later. As Springsteen himself reluctantly conceded, many of the working-class middle American progressives Springsteen wrote about in 1984 had turned into resentful and scorned Trump voters by the 2010s. And though it wasn’t the future he dreamed of, the cautionary warnings tucked within Springsteen’s heartfelt lyrics prove that the chaotic turmoil of our current moment has been a long time coming.
How did we lose Springsteen’s heartland? And what can listening to this prescient album teach us about the decline of our country? In There Was Nothing You Could Do, Hyden takes listeners on a journey to find out.
©2024 Steven Hyden (P)2024 Hachette BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In 1970, Asbury Park, New Jersey, was ripped apart by race riots that left the once-proud beach town an hour away from Manhattan smoldering, suffering and left for dead. Four years later, a few miles down the coast in Seaside Heights, two bouncers, Jack Roig and Butch Pielka, tired of the daily grind, dreamt of owning their own place. Under-prepared and minimally funded, the two bought the first bar they considered, in a city where no one wanted to be, without setting one foot in the place. They named it the Stone Pony.
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Great content! But who directed this…
- By EmilyH on 07-20-24
By: Nick Corasaniti
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Deliver Me from Nowhere
- The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
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Much more than a “Making of” story…
- By W. Smith on 05-31-23
By: Warren Zanes
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Born to Run
- By: Bruce Springsteen
- Narrated by: Bruce Springsteen
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to this audio the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.
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Me Springsteen's book moved me beyond words...
- By Ellen O'Brien on 12-12-16
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Long Road
- Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation
- By: Steven Hyden
- Narrated by: Ron Hippe
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since Pearl Jam first blasted onto the Seattle grunge scene three decades ago with their debut album, Ten, they have sold 85M+ albums, performed for hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, and have even been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation, music critic and journalist Steven Hyden celebrates the life, career, and music of this legendary group, widely considered to be one of the greatest American rock bands of all time.
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Not feeling it
- By Kindle Customer on 10-08-22
By: Steven Hyden
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Bruce
- By: Peter A. Carlin
- Narrated by: Bobby Cannavale
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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This sweeping biography of Bruce Springsteen features in-depth interviews with family, band members, childhood friends, ex-girlfriends, and a poignant retrospective from the Boss himself. It’s Bruce as his many fans haven’t before seen him - the man behind the myth, describing his life and work in intimate, vivid detail.
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For the most part, this is what I was hoping for
- By Patrick King on 12-11-12
By: Peter A. Carlin
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Bruce Springsteen
- The Stories Behind the Songs
- By: Brian Hiatt
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The legend of Bruce Springsteen may well outlast rock ’n’ roll itself. And for all the muscle and magic of his life-shaking concerts with the E Street Band, his legendary status comes down to the songs. Here, longtime Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt digs into the writing and recording of the songs on Springsteen’s studio albums, from 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ to 2014’s High Hopes (plus all the released outtakes), and offers a unique look at the legendary rocker’s methods, along with historical context and scores of colorful anecdotes.
By: Brian Hiatt
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I Don't Want to Go Home
- The Oral History of the Stone Pony
- By: Nick Corasaniti
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Jim Meskimen
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1970, Asbury Park, New Jersey, was ripped apart by race riots that left the once-proud beach town an hour away from Manhattan smoldering, suffering and left for dead. Four years later, a few miles down the coast in Seaside Heights, two bouncers, Jack Roig and Butch Pielka, tired of the daily grind, dreamt of owning their own place. Under-prepared and minimally funded, the two bought the first bar they considered, in a city where no one wanted to be, without setting one foot in the place. They named it the Stone Pony.
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Great content! But who directed this…
- By EmilyH on 07-20-24
By: Nick Corasaniti
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Where Are Your Boys Tonight?
- The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008
- By: Chris Payne
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Chris Abell
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Music journalist Chris Payne experienced emo's mainstream takeover from sweaty crowds and mosh pits growing up in New Jersey. In Where Are Your Boys Tonight? he offers an authoritative, impassioned, and occasionally absurd account told through interviews with more than 150 people, from the scene's biggest bands, producers, and managers to the teenage fans who helped redefine American music culture.
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I REALLY Wanted to Like This
- By Fuzz414 on 08-18-23
By: Chris Payne
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Twilight of the Gods
- A Journey to the End of Classic Rock
- By: Steven Hyden
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of the critically acclaimed Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me offers an eye-opening and frank assessment of the state of classic rock, assessing its past and future, the impact it has had, and what its loss would mean to an industry, a culture, and a way of life.
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not what I had hoped
- By Tom on 07-18-18
By: Steven Hyden
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Life in the Fast Lane
- The Eagles’ Reckless Ride Down the Rock & Roll Highway
- By: Mick Wall
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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"Surely make you lose your mind . . ." So the Eagles warn us about the outrageous and ruthless lifestyle of the ambitious rock-n-roller. In fact, Don Henley could barely listen to the track "Life in the Fast Lane" when they were recording it. He was so high that it made him sick. The band that embodied the American dream with globe-straddling success, impossibly luxurious lives, and almost supernatural talent also descended into nightmare with betrayal, hate-filled hubris, the skeletons of perceived enemies, brutally discarded lovers and former band mates left unburied in the road behind them.
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Welcome Overview
- By Stephen on 11-09-23
By: Mick Wall
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This Isn't Happening
- Radiohead's "Kid A" and the Beginning of the 21st Century
- By: Steven Hyden
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1999, as the end of an old century loomed, five musicians entered a recording studio in Paris without a deadline. Their band was widely recognized as the best and most forward-thinking in rock, a rarefied status granting them the time, money, and space to make a masterpiece. But Radiohead didn't want to make another rock record. Instead, they set out to create the future.
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Amazing read but…
- By Alexis Feldman on 06-01-21
By: Steven Hyden
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Sellout
- The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007)
- By: Dan Ozzi
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Seasoned music writer Dan Ozzi chronicles this embattled era in punk. Focusing on eleven prominent bands who made the jump from indie to major, Sellout charts the twists and turns of the last “gold rush” of the music industry, where some groups “sold out” and rose to surprise super stardom, while others buckled under mounting pressures. Sellout is both a gripping history of the music industry’s evolution, and a punk rock lover’s guide to the chaotic darlings of the post-grunge era.
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A pedant’s note
- By Luke on 11-21-21
By: Dan Ozzi
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Lou Reed
- The King of New York
- By: Will Hermes
- Narrated by: Will Hermes
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.
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Best Biography I’ve Ever Read
- By Sammy Criscitello on 11-21-24
By: Will Hermes
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Petty: The Biography
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise.
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Tom Petty gets some bio love
- By tru britty on 12-15-15
By: Warren Zanes
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The Greatest Band That Ever Wasn't
- The Story of the Roughest, Toughest, Most Hell-Raising Band to Ever Come Out of the Pacific Northwest, the Screaming Trees
- By: Barrett Martin
- Narrated by: Barrett Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1992, the Screaming Trees were expected to become the next big band to come out of the Seattle music scene during the heyday of grunge. Except it never happened. It wasn't because the band didn't have great songs—indeed, the Trees were revered for their ability to write a great song that was both artistically original and commercially viable, which is no easy task. Other Seattle bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden were fans of the Screaming Trees, playing shows with them and collaborating on albums, long before their own bands broke through into the mainstream.
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Not Quite the Whole Story
- By Gorgatron on 09-18-24
By: Barrett Martin
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The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.
- A Biography
- By: Peter Ames Carlin
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world–with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen.
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Sometimes good guys win
- By Roger D. Plothow on 11-27-24
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Raised in Captivity
- Fictional Nonfiction
- By: Chuck Klosterman
- Narrated by: Chuck Klosterman, Sloane Crosley, Chris Gethard, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Fair warning: Raised in Captivity does not slot into a smooth preexisting groove. If Saul Steinberg and Italo Calvino had adopted a child from a Romanian orphanage and raised him on Gary Larsen and Thomas Bernhard, he would still be nothing like Chuck Klosterman. They might be good company, though. Funny, wise and weird in equal measure, Raised in Captivity bids fair to be one of the most original and exciting story collections in recent memory, a fever graph of our deepest unvoiced hopes, fears and preoccupations.
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Two Favorite Stories: Fluke & Of Course It Is
- By Austin Pierce on 07-30-19
By: Chuck Klosterman
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Led Zeppelin
- The Biography
- By: Bob Spitz
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the definitive New York Times best-selling history of the Beatles comes the authoritative account of the group many call the greatest rock band of all time, arguably the most successful, and certainly one of the most notorious.
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Sex & Drugs & Rock-n-Roll.... in that order.
- By Joe on 01-03-22
By: Bob Spitz
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Dylan Goes Electric!
- Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties
- By: Elijah Wald
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, "Like a Rolling Stone". The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world - Dylan's declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation - and one of the defining moments in 20th-century music.
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Great book/Awful narration
- By DB on 01-04-25
By: Elijah Wald
What listeners say about There Was Nothing You Could Do
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- Jeremy
- 10-26-24
Reads like a college term paper
Wanted this book to be good. But it reads like a college term paper on Springsteen. The author also writes towards a much younger audience, explaining that there was no internet in the 1980s, explaining what MTV is….
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- Houston Attorney
- 09-30-24
Born To Ramble
I’m a fan of Mr. Hyden’s music writing and podcasts. But this is a misfire. Those expecting a head-on history of this album might / probably will be disappointed to hear a book’s-long ramble of a loosely organized thesis that could’ve easily been a single chapter: The Boss’s historic working class anthems were ultimately — yet unknowingly at the time — about the grandfathers of MAGA-ism, and how Springsteen has had to reconcile that with his own populism across the decades. By itself that’s a compelling topic, but it’s told here in a loosey-goosey style without much focus or even in relation to the chapter titles, and the facts of the album’s recording are hard to come by. Stuff like the author’s imaginary sequencing of unreleased tracks seems better suited to one of his tongue in cheek Uproxx articles. Wanted to love this but couldn’t.
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