Revisiting Tennyson led me to Springsteen—and to the uneasy thought that we often hear only what we want to hear.
A poem or a song may acquire an identity of its own, quite unlike what the poet or singer intended. I was reading a biography of Lord Tennyson when an account of his famous poem The Charge of the Light Brigade reminded me of a Bruce Springsteen classic, Born in the USA Both became crowd favourites, embraced by readers or listeners who were swept away by the poetry or music, drowning out the protest or bitterness in the words.
Alfred Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria in 1850, following the death of William Wordsworth. Three years later, in October 1853, the Crimean War broke out, pitting Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Tennyson, as Poet Laureate, felt duty-bound to write about affairs of state and found his inspiration in the charge of the Light Brigade.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The tragedy occurred during the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, when the Allies were trying to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol from the Russians. A brigade of British light cavalry—nearly seven hundred troops armed only with lances and sabres, riding unarmoured horses—was sent on a suicidal charge against fifty Russian heavy guns positioned at the end of a narrow, mile-long valley that Tennyson would call the “valley of Death”. A total of 271 officers and troopers were killed or injured, and 335 horses were lost. Tennyson read about the charge in The Times, which both condemned its futility and praised the soldiers’ heroism.
Tennyson took the same line, calling the attack a mistake but honouring the soldiers’ courage and obedience:
Forward, the Light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.”
(Here’s the complete poem.).
Tennyson wrote the poem in his house overlooking the sea on the Isle of Wight, and his wife, Emily, sent it to their friend John Forster for publication in his liberal newspaper, The Examiner.
The poem proved immensely popular. “The poem hugely increased Tennyson’s public profile, partly because it was taken—and largely misunderstood—as a triumphant song of noble patriotism,” writes Richard Holmes in The Boundless Deep. Two thousand copies were printed as leaflets and sent to British troops in Crimea, including survivors of the charge. The poem honours their heroism with exuberant, headlong, dactylic lines that sweep readers along:
“When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!”
Born in the USA
“Born in the USA remains one of my greatest and most misunderstood pieces of music,” Bruce Springsteen writes in his autobiography, Born to Run. “The combination of its ‘down’ blue verses and its ‘up’ declarative choruses… was too seemingly conflicting… for some of its more carefree, less discerning listeners. Records are often auditory Rorschach tests; we hear what we want to hear.”
(Here are the complete lyrics.)
He recalls recording the song about a disillusioned Vietnam veteran at the Hit Factory in New York: “I had lyrics, a great title, two chords, a synth riff, but no real arrangement. It was our second take… I started singing… Max Weinberg gave his greatest recorded drum performance. Four minutes and thirty-nine seconds later, Born in the USA was in the can… we listened to lightning in a bottle.”
Springsteen knew immediately he had recorded something extraordinary. “More than ten years after the Vietnam War, I wrote my soldier’s story. It was a protest song… a GI blues, the verses an accounting, the choruses a declaration of the one sure thing that could not be denied—birthplace.”
He has defended the contrast between sombre verses and triumphant music, even though it led many to misread the song as a patriotic anthem. “If I had tried to undercut the music, the record might have been more easily understood, but not as satisfying.”
I agree. Born in the USA is unforgettable precisely because of its exuberant sound and soaring choral refrain.
Springsteen notes that much of the album was recorded live with the band in three weeks. Tracks completed in that burst included Born in the USA, Working on the Highway, Downbound Train, Darlington County, Glory Days, I’m on Fire, and Cover Me. He then took a break to record Nebraska.
When he returned after a fallow period, the remaining songs came slowly: “like the last drops of water from a temporarily dry well.” Eventually, Bobby Jean, No Surrender, and Dancing in the Dark completed the album. “The rains had come… The wait was worth it.”
I agree again. I love all the tracks, especially Born in the USA and Dancing in the Dark.
Springsteen describes Dancing in the Dark as “my song about my own alienation, fatigue, and desire to get out… and live.” It became the track that carried him furthest into the pop mainstream.
“Sometimes records dictate their own personalities,” he writes. “You just have to let them be.” Amen.