4/5
Talk In The USA.
Born to run. For President. Or driving all night in your car. All the way to an iconic album tuned into the stereo heartland of a runaway American dream. All the way to the promised land. The one President Barack Obama (who recently released his third autobiography after 'Dreams From My Father' and 'The Audacity Of Hope' in 'The Promised Land') brought us with the change he made. The one Bruce Springsteen (who has just followed his 'Springsteen On Broadway' run and 'Western Stars' movie with his latest 'Letter To You' album) always sang about, strapping on his boots for the blue jeans of America's working man, woven into the pressed consciousness like denim. Now the former Commander and Chief and the Boss meet in the land of hope and dreams...that looks somewhat like Springsteen's ranch as the former leader of the free world is affectionately called "brother B"...if there is anyone who could get away with that and still make it sound so respectful...it's Bruce. But post-Trump, in former vice, Biden's America, working and podcasting on a dream, for 'Rengades: Born In The USA', Obama and Springsteen could be anywhere. Your office for a break at lunch. Your car as you drive all night. Live in your living room with today's paper as the love of your life on your lap rests her head after you both put the kids to bed. Together these two are with you like they have been through America's opportunities and it's oppression. Its hope and its hurt. Its dreams and its nightmares. Its past and its present. Every step of the way for this train that carries both losers and winners. When Springsteen who came back after 'The Rising', post 9/11 when a fan from a passing car in New York shouted, "WE NEED YOU", returned with that 'Working On A Dream', 'Magic', fellow Jersey boy Jon Stewart was doing the same thing with 'The Daily Show' (like the terrific Trevor Noah does today), knowing something special was coming from a young man running with 'The Audacity Of Hope' because Rosa Parks sat. Back then in a real time to be alive I compared the Springsteen/Stewart New Jersey singer and journalist storyteller combo as a modern day Muhammed Ali (who here Springsteen actually lists at the top of his American heroes) and Howard Cossell, but now with these renegades you have something else. Like Kennedy joined the party. Or Martin Luther King Jr. and Bob Dylan got together. Or better yet Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen themselves actually. Because these two 'Renegades' are their own men and legend. One that 'Born In The USA' will live and be told on in the great American songbook and world history.
Putting all the world to rights in Springsteen's home studio. Surrounded by more guitars craning their necks like giraffes than a forest of Gibson's. Bruce and Barack get to work and talk it out. First they talk about how they first became fast friends, the Boss joining the then presidential candidate on his campaign trail, rocking the vote. But it's not longer before they get into deeper issues like race in America, or what it means to be a man in this so called land of the free. How sweet the sound when Obama recalls and replays the time he sang 'Amazing Grace' so beautifully after another tragic shooting. Because, quite simply, there was just nothing else he could say or do for perhaps his most famous speech. They even talk about their favourite music growin' up and serendae each other sweetly like the time me and Mrs. Jones had a thing, "gooooing on." it's the perfect soundtrack to tune into like the two of them talking as they ditch the Presidents Secret Service detail and hit the open road like a Springsteen song. In all the romanticism from a man who couldn't drive until he was 25 (it's OK Boss, I'm 35...and still can't). All before the loss of innocence that comes when you run out of gas in your youth and the road is still long in this life. This is when 'Every Man For Himself' they talk about class divides and how hard it is when this country, industry and society puts more on wealth than someone's worth. All in as they mock those 80's Michael Douglas, Gekko 'Wall Street' phones bring a time the bandana of Springsteen was 'Born In The USA' and Obama was trying to make a dollar. There's no sense in consumerism over the compelling vision of a person's foresight, but it's hard to forewarn when we're so used to this life that runs on likes instead of love like it was currency for these current affairs. On this open, long and winding highway without a road map, it's especially hard when you don't know where you're going, or when you have no one to guide you. When these two brother B's talk about their relationship (or lack of one) with their respective fathers that's when these American men and 'Wrestling With Ghosts' and if you can relate when it comes to your relatives, this might just haunt you into the night your listening to it in. The lack of the human touch of a man in the house didn't stop these two from being leaders however. From the boss of all bosses to the President of Presidents, from the spotlight stage to the Oval Office.
And then how about how they're actually fathers themselves as Bruce tunes his guitar and Barack sits back with his arms folded. Or wrapped around his guitar like you would think it was the thing he loved most in this world. But think again. On one of the most heartfelt and beautiful episodes of this first season of spoken word, the two men reveal they would be nothing...nothing without their women or their girls. Michelle and Patti grounded these great gentlemen and showed these Kings of their respective arenas who really wore the crown in the throne of their home. Barack calls both their families, "the most important anchor" and after several miscarriages, when Michelle gave birth to their first child, Malia, Obama truly found and realized what "the baseline of unconditional love" was, is and will always be. The Boss himself said that after Patti experienced bleeding during pregnancy he would have moved a lion in the waiting room, or anything they asked him too for his heaven and earth. And that is love. From two men who have it in abundance. From song and speech, the crowds that show at their rallies in concert, to the ones they have in their huge hearts. But when you look in the eyes of something that means more than you. That's when you know just what it takes to be a real man. And these two are tougher than the rest giving the world hope, when other born into this USA just claim they want to make it great again. These two could retire into the wind with all they have built at home, but its clear its sending them on a path to the open road to a better America they've been working on like a dream for years. They got to that promised land once before, but if we didn't know then, we surely do now, that once you get there you have to keep going...or you just may lose it all in the end. But just like these States looking to be United once again, we can always get it back. And what podcast called 'Born In The USA' would be a real state of discourse without Springsteen talking about his seminal hit of the same name that's been taken the wrong way. Yes it's patriotic, but what patriot doesn't question its country when it's not waving the flag for everybody? Springsteen talks about writing the song after meeting wheelchair bound Vietnam vet Ron Kovic inadvertently at a roadside motel just after picking up his book 'Born On The Fourth Of July' (that turned into Tom Cruise's most powerful performance) at a drugstore and reading it along the road. And the pair talk about how much it means more now and how different too in this appropriating age were they even debate Elvis, The Beatles and Chuck Berry. That's right before bringing it all together they get to the "center of America"...Lincoln. All he wrote, all he addressed, all he freed and all he gave now. In these two men. Like these two men. The real American way. One thing that these renegades give you in these times 'a changing like Bob Dylan (who Barack says is "a little bit like Picasso" as they wrap up this series with their musical, sporting, political and spiritual American heroes) and Sam Cooke told us about is hope. And that's not something that's born in just the U.S.A., but all our hearts too. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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