{"id":28469,"date":"1984-01-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"1984-01-22T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=28469"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:20:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:20:58","slug":"cover-me-home-free-born-in-the-u-s-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1984\/01\/22\/cover-me-home-free-born-in-the-u-s-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Free: Born in the U.S.A."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D-OkZBtgmS8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>If you&#8217;re not familiar with Home Free, they&#8217;re an American a capella group that won Season 4 of\u00a0<em>The Sing-Off<\/em> on NBC back in 2013. That feat led to a recording contract with Columbia Records, where they became label-mates with Bruce.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks back, they released their latest album on their own label,\u00a0<em>Land of the Free,\u00a0<\/em>a patriotic collection of country and rock classics, capped off with Bruce&#8217;s 1984 protest hit. And I mean patriotic, not jingoistic. As the band pointed out when they debuted their video:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Springsteen once said of his song, &#8216;It did demand of you to hold two contradictory ideas in your mind at one time: that you could both be very critical of your nation and very prideful of your nation simultaneously.&#8217; That&#8217;s a lot of what our album is about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The band strikes that balance well, and the result is one of the most musically and visually creative adaptations of &#8220;Born in the U.S.A.&#8221; to date, just as anthemic as Bruce&#8217;s original and just as critical, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 July 17, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re not familiar with Home Free, they&#8217;re an American a capella group that won Season 4 of\u00a0The Sing-Off on NBC back in 2013. That&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3611,4],"tags":[2237,3232],"class_list":["post-28469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitusa","category-cover-me","tag-born-in-the-u-s-a","tag-home-free"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/homefree.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-7pb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1768,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1984\/01\/23\/cover-me-stanley-clarke-band-born-in-the-usa\/","url_meta":{"origin":28469,"position":0},"title":"Stanley Clarke Band: Born in the U.S.A.","author":"Ken","date":"January 23, 1984","format":false,"excerpt":"Stanley Clarke was one of the first to cover \"Born in the USA,\" and he definitely put his own spin on it.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BITUSA&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BITUSA","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/bitusa\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/R-951850-1622537102-9616.jpg?fit=1200%2C1198&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/R-951850-1622537102-9616.jpg?fit=1200%2C1198&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/R-951850-1622537102-9616.jpg?fit=1200%2C1198&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/R-951850-1622537102-9616.jpg?fit=1200%2C1198&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, 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&quot;BITUSA&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BITUSA","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/bitusa\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/admin-ajax-15.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/admin-ajax-15.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/admin-ajax-15.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/admin-ajax-15.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21176,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1984\/01\/26\/cover-me-jeff-stevens-and-the-bullets-darlington-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":28469,"position":2},"title":"Jeff Stevens and the Bullets: Darlington County","author":"Ken","date":"January 26, 1984","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1987, \"Darlington County\" became the eighth song from Born in the U.S.A. to hit the Billboard charts, but it wasn't Bruce who took it there.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BITUSA&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BITUSA","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/bitusa\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/s-l1200-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/s-l1200-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/s-l1200-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/s-l1200-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/s-l1200-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16218,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/07\/cover-me-mark-lavengood-band-born-in-the-u-s-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":28469,"position":3},"title":"Cover Me, Mark Lavengood Band: Born in the U.S.A.","author":"Ken","date":"March 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Direct from the Mark Lavengood Band's most recent tour, check out their great rendition of Bruce's \"Born in the U.S.A.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/lavengood.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/lavengood.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/lavengood.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/lavengood.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/lavengood.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15116,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1984\/01\/21\/cover-me-win-butler-and-the-preservation-hall-jazz-band-born-in-the-u-s-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":28469,"position":4},"title":"Win Butler and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Born in the U.S.A.","author":"Ken","date":"January 21, 1984","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before the American election of 2016, Win Butler of Arcade Fire reminded \"Jam the Vote\" attendees of what was at stake with his earnest reading of Bruce's \"Born in the U.S.A.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BITUSA&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BITUSA","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/bitusa\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/win-butler-born-in-the-usa-bruce-cover-video.png?fit=807%2C508&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/win-butler-born-in-the-usa-bruce-cover-video.png?fit=807%2C508&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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