Bruce Springsteen - "Born In The USA" (the song remains the same)

Super Bowl LIV is in the books and it was a good game, especially since I won $100 off my friend Drew.  Neither of us particularly cared who won, but the group of people we were with decided that a wager would make the game more entertaining.  I chose Kansas City simply because VT alum Kendall Fuller plays there, and there's no way I could bet against a Hokie.

The halftime show, featuring a double bill of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, was well received by most -- or at least those who aren't afraid of sexy, middle-aged Latin women making a number of political points: kids in cages, a reversible Puerto Rican / USA flag, and a snippet of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".  Yes, that "Born in the USA".  I was going to riff on the segment of "Kashmir" they cleverly snuck in, but I can't pass up the opportunity to address the point that "Born in the USA", while patriotic, is not a jingoistic anthem.  Instead, it is a protest song, a bittersweet acknowledgement that for some the American Dream remains inaccessible.

First, borrowing the Wikipedia page, they managed to squeeze a lot into 14 minutes:

Shakira

1. "She Wolf" (contains elements of "Dare (La La La)")
2. "Empire" / "Ojos Así" (contains elements of "Inevitable" and "Kashmir")
3. "Whenever, Wherever"
4. "I Like It" (with Bad Bunny; contains elements of “En Barranquilla Me Quedo”)
5. "Chantaje" (with Bad Bunny; contains elements of "Callaíta")
6. "Hips Don't Lie"

Jennifer Lopez

7. "Jenny from the Block"
8. "Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)"
9. "Get Right"
10. "Waiting for Tonight"
11. "Que Calor" / "Mi Gente" (with J Balvin; contains elements of "Booty", "El Anillo", "Love Don't Cost a Thing" and "Lento")^[52][53][54]
12. "On the Floor"

Shakira and Jennifer Lopez

13. "Let's Get Loud" / "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" (with Emme Muñiz; contains elements of "Born in the U.S.A.")

While the show was entertaining, outside of the hits I'm not really qualified to review most of their songs.  But the inclusion (at 12:14), however brief, of "Born in the USA" was genius.  The best way to understand the song is to remove the chorus and focus on the remaining stanzas:

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 covering up 

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 

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said "son, if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son, don't you understand?" 

I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off 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

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, to the surprise and/or dismay of some, and referencing Bruce in Shakira's and JLo's celebration was a great way to tap into the powerful history of this song, as well as provide a hat tip to a great 2009 halftime show.

Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the USA" studio version (from the 1984 LP of the same name), 1982 demo version from the "Nebraska" sessions.