Old Enough to Forget

When Bruce Springsteen dropped Born in the U.S.A. in 1984, I was turning 21. It was a victory of sorts against the forces of Michael Jackson's Thriller , which was somehow still managing to pull singles a couple of years after it came out. Here was Bruce, just being The Boss, and somehow his newly acquired biceps, along with a catchy song and video for "Dancing in the Dark" (I can't explain why I hear The Cars' "Moving in Stereo" in my head whenever I think of this song), propelled him and the album into the upper stratosphere, going 17 times platinum in the U.S.A. and selling over 30 million copies worldwide. That's a hell of a feat for an essentially average album with some good songs, but it wasn't something I lost my shit over when I heard his songs on the radio. Truth is, I was never really a big fan. Sure, I kind of liked "Born to Run," but his music felt old . Yeah, I know this borders on blasphemy, but like I said, it was a ver...