Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just to cover it up now

Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Born in the USA now

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my VA man
He said, "Son, don't you understand now?"
(Ok)
(No, no)
(No, no, no)

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

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the USA
I was born in the USA now
Born in the USA
I'm a long gone Daddy in the USA now
Born in the USA
Born in the USA
Born in the USA
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the USA now

(Oh, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
(Oh, no, no)
(Oh, no, no, no)
Hey
(Oh, no, no)
Woo


Lyrics submitted by oofus

Born in the U.S.A. Lyrics as written by Bruce Springsteen

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Born in the U.S.A. song meanings
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  • +4
    General Comment

    I haven't read ALL the comments, but this is a very sophisticated lyric. It tugs you every which way. Certainly there's sympathy for the Vietnam vet, but the narrator's line about going to a "foreign land to go and kill the yellow man" reflects not just the government's policy miscalculation, but its racist underpinning, which the narrator fully adopts and endorses.

    The line about "they're still there, he's all gone", is heartbreaking, and yet bears within it resentment of enemies still living in what is in fact their home country, in which the narrator was an invader.

    From the first verse, the narrator's been fucked his whole life, and by the final verse, of what does he have to boast? The simple geographically accident that he was born here; to the extent that amounts to patriotism, it is patriotism as empty gesture a desperate grab for self-worth, from a man whose experience has provided him no reason to be patriotic at all.

    tpksummerson February 22, 2011   Link

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