When Bruce Springsteen and producer Jon Landau first began exchanging verbal blows over Springsteen’s upcoming record, neither man would have any way of knowing just how monumental a hit Born in the U.S.A. would become. Then again, if Landau hadn’t started a fight in the first place, that might not have been the case for Springsteen’s seventh studio album. After all, just like he says in the song: “You can’t start a fire / you can’t start a fire without a spark.”
In this scenario, Springsteen’s songwriting was the fire, and Landau’s not-so-subtle insistence was the spark. That fateful day in 1983, the producer told his client that the album Springsteen was working on had no material worth turning into a single. “When I used the word single, in my own mind, I meant it in a much bigger sense,” Landau explained in Dave Marsh’s Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. I wanted something that was more direct than any one thing that was on the record. A song where a person who is a Bruce fan, who stayed with you on Nebraska…a song where that guy’s gonna say, ‘Yeah, that’s Bruce.’”
Springsteen said he didn’t have any songs like that. Landau countered that he needed one. “Look,” Springsteen replied. “I’ve written seventy songs. You want another one, you write it.”
But of course, Landau wasn’t the one who would end up writing Springsteen’s biggest hit off Born in the U.S.A. The Boss took care of it.
Bruce Springsteen Wrote This Hit After a Particularly Testy Moment
As close friends and professional colleagues, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau have enjoyed a unique relationship in which they can push each other’s boundaries without overstepping them completely. Even still, both Landau and Springsteen recall the moment of their fateful fight at the New York City residential hotel as “weird.” Landau added, “It was a very explosive few moments, and it subsided very quickly, and we went off and worked on the mix. It was as close as we get to almost the atmosphere of an argument. But it didn’t hang in the air at all.”
That Springsteen would take Landau’s pushing the wrong way isn’t all that surprising. The rock ‘n’ roller was struggling under the weight of his previous records. He had far too much material for his next album, none of which was worthy of a single, apparently. It was a frustrating place for Springsteen to be in artistically. Landau certainly risked pushing his client too far. Fortunately for the two men (and all of us), Springsteen found a way to channel his emotions into a song.
The song Springsteen would create out of that anger was “Dancing in the Dark”. He already had the first opening line, “I get up in the morning.” Except Springsteen was a rock ‘n’ roller. He woke up in the evening. “Well, how do I feel about that?” Springsteen said. “And I ain’t got nothin’ to say.” Talking about the song years later, Springsteen said, “It was just like my heart spoke straight through my mouth without even having to pass through my brain. The chorus just poured out of me.”
That chorus broke into the top ten around the globe, proving both men right in their own ways.
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