“Born in the U.S.A.” as it appears on Tracks and as it could’ve appeared on Nebraska. Music- and performance-wise, this version is more “in character”… but the version that the Gipper co-opted for his 1984 Presidential campaign is, I think, a lot more complex and subversive. This version here is the sound you expect for desperate words like these, and, as such, makes the song a bit one-dimensional and indignant. But the shouted, mainstream, swing-for-the-fences stadium rock of the more famous version from Born in the U.S.A. tells another part of the story more eloquently than the lyrics do: by 1984, the country had moved on and done its best to forget the man in the song. All that aside, this version still rips—it’s great writing and performance from a man who believed what he was singing.