The song is, in fact, not patriotic at all. It's about a man who was born in a crappy New Jersey industrial town, got sent to Vietnam, saw his friends get killed there, and then couldn't even get a job when he came back due to the massive social problems. When he finally did get a job, it doomed him to a life of living in the aforementioned crappy town with nothing better on the horizon. As such, I can't help but laugh when people do the whole "Support the troops tribute video with Born in the USA in the background" thing.Born down in a dead man's town,
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.
You end up like a dog thats been beat too much,
Till you spend half your life just to cover it up.
Born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
Born in the USA.
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.
Born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
I was born in the USA.
Come back home to the refinery,
Hiring man said "Son if it was up to me..."
Went down to see my VA man,
He said "Son, don't you understand?"
I had a buddy at Khe Sahn,
Fighting off the Viet Cong,
They're still there, he's all gone.
He had a woman he met in Saigon,
I got a picture of him in her arms.
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary,
Out by the gas fires of the refinery,
I'm ten years down the road,
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go.
Born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
Born in the USA,
I'm a long-gone daddy in the USA now.
Born in the USA,
Born in the USA,
Born in the USA,
I'm a cool-rockin' daddy in the USA now.
Another favourite is "Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young. Once again, people go on and on about how it's such a wonderful song about freedom and democracy and how awesome America is. In fact, it got massive airplay after 9/11 so rednecks could go all "Aw hell yeah I love America!" What do you say we take a look at the lyrics?
The song is, in fact, about the social problems such as drug addiction and homelessness in post-Cold War America. It also openly criticizes how the American government ignores social welfare programs and the environment while pumping tons of money into the military-industrial complex, and how most Americans don't care as long as they have their consumer goods. The kicker? People go on about how American the song is, when in fact Neil Young is Canadian.There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
But there's a warnin' sign on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them
So I try to forget it, any way I can.
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.
I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
Under an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away, and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life, and what she's done to it
There's one more kid that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.
We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.
These are just two examples of songs that people constantly misinterpret as being about one thing when they're about something else entirely. These happen to be particularly funny examples, but I'm sure there are others. Get to it.
