Bruce Springsteen originally meant for a version of what became his signature album to come out two years earlier than it did. In January 1982, he assembled the E Street Band at Power Station studios in midtown Manhattan to begin work on his sixth album. Over the next five months they put down the motherlode of material that Springsteen had demoed at his New Jersey home on a four-track tape recorder. Among these were all but four of the songs destined to comprise Born In The USA (My Hometown, No Surrender, Bobby Jean and Dancing In The Dark were recorded during sessions the following year).
The problem back then, as far as Springsteen saw it, was that he had two very different records going on. One was spare and spooked, the other made up of taut, punchy tracks with rallying choruses. Briefly he conceived of a double album, but decided against repeating himself after 1980’s double The River.
