Born In The U.S.A. - Studio Sessions - Phases

Recording Phases

Phase One Sessions (including the 'Electric Nebraska sessions')

Recorded at Power Station studios and The Hit Factory, New York, January to May, 1982
Recording Engineer: Toby Scott

During May 1982, Springsteen made a decision to release ten of the seventeen songs from his January 1982 solo demo tape as his next official album – quite a radical decision for its time. The E Street Band sessions came to a halt and Springsteen focused his attention for the next couple of months on overseeing final preparations of Nebraska. However, mixing of the band material continued through June, alongside the Nebraska tracks. In fact, Springsteen even considered putting both albums out as a double record. "I had these two extremely different recording experiences going," he told Mark Hagen in an interview for Mojo magazine published in January 1999. "I was going to put them out at the same time as a double record. I didn't know what to do." An album sequence for the band album was compiled, as follows:

Songs / Phase 1

Possible Album Tracks
Side One	Side Two
BORN IN THE U.S.A.	WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY
MURDER INCORPORATED	DARLINGTON COUNTY
DOWNBOUND TRAIN	FRANKIE
DOWN, DOWN, DOWN (a.k.a. I'm Goin' Down)	I'M ON FIRE
GLORY DAYS	THIS HARD LAND
MY LOVE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN

The May-July 1982 period also saw the effective departure of Steve Van Zandt as a member of The E Street Band (although a formal announcement wasn't made until May 1984). Van Zandt put together his band (The Disciples Of Soul) in June 1982 and the group made its live debut in July. At the same time, he changed his stage name from “Miami Steve” to “Little Steven”, to reflect his change of status to a full-time solo artist. He also spent the summer putting the finishing touches on a debut solo album that he had largely completed in the fall of 1981. Van Zandt began a U.S.A./European tour with The Disciples Of Soul that would continue for almost twelve months. Van Zandt’s involvement with the remainder of the Born In The U.S.A. sessions would be minor.

Following his decision to release Nebraska and stop recording with the band, Springsteen spent the summer of 1982 in New Jersey making numerous guest appearances, that became affectionately known as his '1982 Jersey Shore Bar Tour'. However, that came to an end in early October, soon after the release of Nebraska. Springsteen spent nearly all of the next five months (November 1982-March 1983) in Los Angeles, returning to New Jersey only for about two weeks during this period to attend Van Zandt’s wedding (December 31) and the closing night party for Clarence’s short-lived club Big Man’s West (January 8). During November-December 1982 Bruce had Mike Batlan install a home recording studio at his house in Los Angeles. Springsteen recorded more than an album's worth of songs over the early months of 1983, playing all the instruments himself (except for a drum machine). These became the second phase of the Born In The U.S.A. sessions.

Phase Two Sessions

Recorded at Thrill Hill Recording, Hollywood Hills (Springsteen’s Los Angeles home studio), mid-January to late April 1983
Recording Engineer: Mike Batlan

Springsteen has mentioned that at one point in early 1983 he gave consideration to releasing the best of these above-mentioned Los Angeles home studio recordings as a thematic follow-up to the Nebraska album. This album concept is not known to have ever been given a working title because Springsteen quickly abandoned the concept. Although none of these Los Angeles recordings ultimately ended up on the album, two of them (“Shut Out The Light” and “Johnny Bye Bye”) were issued as b-sides in 1984-5. Although still unreleased “The Klansman”, “Unsatisfied Heart” and “Richfield Whistle” are among Bruce's most compelling. Soon after abandoning the idea of the above-mentioned album brief consideration was given to combining tracks from both the Phase One and Phase Two – with a tentative album title of “Murder Incorporated”. A document exists from around March 1983 revealing Springsteen's then-selections for the so-called “Murder Incorporated” album, as well his choices for b-sides. This tracklisting appears to have been produced prior to the undertaking of the Phase Three Sessions. Springsteen's selections (all of which had been recorded at this stage) were as follows:

Songs / Phase 2

Possible Album Tracks	Possible Single B-Sides
BORN IN THE U.S.A.	SUGARLAND
MURDER INCORPORATED	FOLLOW THAT DREAM
DOWNBOUND TRAIN	DON'T BACK DOWN
MY LOVE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN	ONE LOVE
GLORY DAYS	LITTLE GIRL (LIKE YOU)
THIS HARD LAND
JOHNNY BYE BYE
FRANKIE
I'M GOIN DOWN
WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY
I'M ON FIRE

Springsteen didn't settle for the above-mentioned song line-up but instead opted for more sessions. Bruce began a new round of recording with The E Street Band at The Hit Factory in New York in May 1983. It appears to have been their first studio get-together in nearly a year. Steve Van Zandt, who was busy at the time recording his second solo album and touring with his own group, doesn't seem to have been present during much of these May-June 1983 E Street Band sessions.

Phase Three Sessions

Recorded at The Hit Factory (New York City), May thru June 1983
Recording Engineer: Toby Scott

Following the end of the Phase Three sessions in June 1983 major mixing sessions took place. Some in CBS were talking of a possible of a pre-Christmas release. With three sessions phases now complete there was certainly no shortage of outstanding material to pick from. On July 26-27 Springsteen compiled a twelve-song album sequence comprised of three songs carried over from the 1982 sequence, four from the early 1983 sessions and five from the recent E Street Band sessions. The July 1983 album sequence reads as follows:

Songs / Phase 3

Possible Album Tracks
Side One	Side Two
BORN IN THE U.S.A.	SUGARLAND
CYNTHIA	MY LOVE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN
NONE BUT THE BRAVE	FOLLOW THAT DREAM
DROP ON DOWN AND COVER ME	MY HOMETOWN
SHUT OUT THE LIGHT	GLORY DAYS
JOHNNY BYE BYE	JANEY, DON'T YOU LOSE HEART

However, as had been in the case in March, Bruce decided to hold off and continue writing more songs. He felt that his selection lacked cohesion, and the sound quality of the garage tracks jarred in comparison to the studio tracks. This resulted in yet another final phase of scattered studio sessions from autumn 1983 into the early months of 1984. Due to extremely tight security at the time little is known about this final session period and precious little unofficial audio has ever leaked out.

All too aware that Springsteen was having difficulties making the final selection, Jon Landau took the unique step of creating his own ideal album, based on what had been recorded to date. As can be seen from the above track list, Bruce had all but abandoned what Landau felt were his best songs, those recorded in the early sessions in May 1982. Landau's selection covered eleven songs with the May 1982 songs forming the backbone; "Born In The U.S.A.", "I'm Goin' Down", "Cover Me", "My Hometown" and "Bobby Jean" on side one, with "My Love Will Not Let You Down", "Follow That Dream", "Glory Days", "Protection", "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" and "I'm On Fire" on the flip-side.

Phase Four Sessions (Final Born In the U.S.A. sessions)

Recorded at The Hit Factory (New York City), September 1983 thru February 1984
Recording Engineer: Toby Scott

Suffering from writer's block, Bruce finally listened to Jon Landau, and figured out his sequence. "…in the end, I circled back to my original group of songs, he wrote in Born To Run, "there I found a naturalism and aliveness that couldn't be argued with. They weren't exactly what I'd been looking for, but they were what I had."

Unfortunately, precious little studio material has leaked out from this period, but it did produce perhaps Springsteen's best known song, "Dancing In The Dark", the last track recorded in February 1984. In the months before that he was still writing new material, even after all this time in the studio, with curious titles like "Refrigerator Blues", "Ida Rose (No One Knows)" and "Swoop Man" all of which were cut at the Hit Factory but remain in the vaults.

Bruce said in Born To Run, "My Born in the USA songs were direct and fun and stealthily carried the undercurrents of Nebraska. With my record greatly enhanced by the explosiveness of Bob Clearmountain’s mixes, I was ready for my close-up. Onstage, this music swept over my audience with joyous abandon. We had hit after hit and in 1985, along with Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson and the stars of disco, I was a bona fide mainstream radio superstar".