Born in the U.S.A.

Columbia, under Sony. He was born here. The country did not bring him all the way home.

Columbia released it. Sony owns Columbia. The chorus is so strong that campaigns tried to keep it and drop the verses. The verses are a man who did what he was asked, came home to no job, and will not let the shout erase him.

Play the verses. If you only shout the title, you are the person the song is about, from the other side of the desk.

The eight

Industry
8/10
The drum is a trap, and he knew people would miss the lyric. He sang it anyway.
Household
6/10
A brother in a jail, a man who cannot get hired. The house is damaged.
Piety
4/10
No hymn. A charge.
Courage
8/10
He says the ugly return out loud.
Republic
9/10
A citizen, used. The duty ran one way.
Temperance
6/10
Anger, held to the facts.
Truth
10/10
The verses are the truth. The shout is not a celebration.
Stewardship
8/10
A song a house should hear before it waves anything.

Live historicallyRead one verse out loud before anyone claps. Ask what the town owes the person in it.

Song · Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and YouTube Music · 1988

Elektra · Warner Music Group

Fast Car

Elektra, under Warner. Work, a drunk father, a hope that the car is a way to a real house.

Elektra released it. Warner Music Group owns Elektra. The record is a grocery store, a father who drinks on the couch, and a plan to become the kind of people who have a house that holds. The plan may not work. The wanting is not foolish.

This is one to play when the house is tempted to call poor people a style. It is a person, with a shift.

The eight

Industry
8/10
The story is built like a life, not a hook. That is harder.
Household
8/10
A father, a job, a checkout counter, a wish for a family that works.
Piety
5/10
No chapel. The hope is treated as sacred anyway.
Courage
7/10
She keeps driving after the plan frays.
Republic
7/10
A town with bad wages and a parent who will not get up. That is civic, said from a kitchen.
Temperance
7/10
The drink is the father's failure, not the song's fun.
Truth
9/10
Nothing in it is prettied past recognition.
Stewardship
8/10
A life a house can recognize, and should not look away from.

Live historicallyPlay it once, all the way through, and ask who in this town is still waiting for the car to mean something.