ABSTRACT
This chapter challenges one of the most ingrained assumptions in Springsteen Studies. For the past forty years, scholars, journalists, and biographers have discussed the gradual expansion of Springsteen’s political consciousness, charting a linear course from the apolitical “New Dylan” of the early-1970s to the unabashedly political superstar who released Born in the U.S.A. in 1984. However, this chapter introduces previously unexamined songs Springsteen wrote in the late-1960s and early 1970s which illustrate that – like many members of what scholars call the “Vietnam Generation” – Springsteen engaged deeply with the causes, consequences, and politics of the Vietnam War. Springsteen did become more politically conscious between the 1970s and the twenty first century, yet this awareness represents a revistation of the themes and ideas that sat at the heart of his music before he signed with Columbia Records. Analysis of these songs as well as Springsteen’s career in the context of the Vietnam and post-Vietnam era provides new insights into his politics, the meaning of his music, and how working-class Americans responded to the tumultuousness of the 1960s.
