Born in the U.S.A. By Annie Leibovitz Steve Fairclough

Investigates the inside story of a bold and iconic album cover shot by Annie Leibovitz

In 1984 Bruce Springsteen’s vibrant musical masterpiece – the album Born in the U.S.A. – helped to reinforce his status as an American hero. It boasted a seemingly hugely patriotic title track and a cover that many mistakenly interpreted as an exercise in flagwaving patriotism.

Rather than tub-thumping about being an American, the US musician had decided he had to protest about

what the then-US government under President Reagan was doing. Many listeners took the song’s chorus to be a celebration of being American – misinterpreting it as almost a musical love letter to the US – while missing the point that the track was a critical viewpoint of the then-US government. Reagan himself also missed the point and incorrectly thought the song was a ‘message of hope.’

However, Springsteen had written Born in the U.S.A. from a place of discontent. He was upset about the issues that the US’s Vietnam veterans encountered when they returned home after serving their country. Lyrics like ‘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’ clearly indicate a degree of realism and cynicism about the US soldiers sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Springsteen was adamant that US

veterans deserved a hero’s welcome for putting their lives on the line for their country, but the reality was very different. Vietnam was the first war from which the US didn’t emerge victorious and there was a feeling that those in power were trying to sweep it, and US military veterans, under the carpet.

Flag backdrop

The album cover used this feeling of discontent to create a landmark shot. Shot by Annie Leibovitz, the image sees Springsteen pictured wearing red, white and blue, in front of a graphic backdrop of the stripes of the US flag. You’d be hard-pressed to come up with an image that shouted ‘USA’ louder than this album cover. The red baseball cap hanging out of the back pocket of his blue jeans also helped to deliver the message that Springsteen was just like your average blue-collar working guy from New Jersey (Springsteen’s own birth state).

Born in the U.S.A. embraced a livelier, more mainstream sound than previous Springsteen albums. His previous LP, 1982’s

Nebraska, had a stark quality, but he maintained that the first half of Born in the U.S.A. was similar, being ‘written very much like

Nebraska – the characters and the stories, the style of writing – except it’s just in the rock-band setting.’

Columbia Records’ art director Andrea Klein had designed the stark, b&w cover for Nebraska which used a 1975 landscape image shot through the window of an old pick-up truck by David Michael Kennedy (who also shot album covers for Billy Idol, Muddy Waters, Willie Nelson and others).

However, after hearing the more rousing music of Born in the U.S.A., Klein recommended that the album have a more bold, colourful cover than

Annie Leibovitz (b.1949) is a US photographer known for her iconic portraits of celebrities. She began her career in 1970 at Rolling Stone, becoming its chief photographer in 1973. She left in 1983. Her images include her shot of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken earlier in the day that Lennon was shot dead, and a nude shot of a pregnant Demi Moore. The Library of Congress has declared her a ‘Living Legend’.

Born in the U.S.A. Far left: The Born in the U.S.A. album cover was shot with Bruce Springsteen standing in front of a 25ft version of the US flag The inner sleeve of Born in the U.S.A. included black & white portraits of all seven members of the E Street Band

Above: A fulllength colour portrait of Bruce Springsteen featured on the inner sleeve credits of

The back cover of the album gives the track listing and includes a photography credit for Annie Leibovitz

The inner sleeve lyric sheet of Born in the U.S.A. featured lyrics placed over an outside portrait of Bruce Springsteen

The cover of the Born in the U.S.A. single featured Bruce Springsteen jumping in the air with his guitar – this one was autographed by Springsteen