Born 6 Years Ago

Today being the 6th Anniversary of the Iraq War along with my post below about Born in the USA made me think of when Dave took me & Op to meet Bruce - Dave bopping in the room and easily settling onto the arm of a couch and me & Op standing, looking petrified like we knew we were about to be forced with a gun to kiss each other. Anyway, that show was on March 7, 2003, so 12 days before the official kick-off to the war.

Now, for a few years up to this point Bruce has been playing Born in the USA in what some consider it's original form, the solo 12-string slide guitar version that was meant for Nebraska. So when between songs Bruce started talking about the war and I picked up that he was gonna play the song, I kinda thought "piss break." But he was talking about the mistake we were making, and then a fucking vein almost popped out of his forehead and he said "This is a song called Born in the USA" and Max' snare snapped and what followed was one of the angriest 5-6 minutes I've ever seen in a show before or since. Full-on band. Dude spit every word. And it wasn't cute, and nobody sang along, and it wasn't "anthemic." It's the song I most remember from that show, and it was bone-shattering. Like it was meant to be. Like it always was.