Wonkette

Black people hate him!

I think you meant Elvis...

Boooooorn in the USA! Boooooooorn in the USA! Booooooooorn in the USA! Boooooooorn in the USA!

This fucker voted for Reagan. He probably loved Nixon, and his ass isn't nearly as perky as he makes it out to be.

Show a little faith, there's magic in the night/ You're not Catherine Denueve in the restored director's cut of Umbrellas of Cherbourg but hey you're all right.

and his ass isn't nearly as perky as he makes it out to be.

Stunt ass. Totally.

Obama - he was Born to Run!

Nooooo --- he hated Reagan! He told the 84 campaign to not play that song anymore, or else he'd sue!

But you're right -- black folks don't get him.

I do like his Pete Seeger covers though...

That album cover always had me wondering...

red hanky in the right back pocket means what now?

As a Canadian I'll interject to point out that French Quebecoises don't get him either. Give them prog rock, or just shut the hell up.

Whoa! Bad mouth The Boss and you spend eternity as a speed bump in an unamed rest stop on the NJ Turnpike.

Hill's blue collar campaign is working, though. She's going to step it up today with some well timed and loud public farts.

Sooo, our new overlords are to be elite rock stars, elite gastronomes, elite writers and elite liberals of every stripe.

I don't know if I can afford to be a Barry supporter any more. A good Chardonnay costs mucho Euros.

@shortsshortsshorts: The Boss was totally NOT into Reagan. He forced the campaign to stop using "Born In the USA" because they thought it was talking about bombing the Soviets or something.

"Born to Run" is probably my favorite album ever. With that:

+ Watch video

Maybe they can combine it with Elmo's dad going to war?

@shortsshortsshorts: Bruce didn't vote for Reagan. Born in the USA was a cynical stab at how screwed Americans were by their government. As Wikipedia notes (FW that is worth): "At a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan said, 'America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire, New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen.' The Reagan campaign briefly used 'Born in the U.S.A.', an anti-Vietnam War song, as a campaign song, without permission, until Springsteen, a lifelong Democrat, insisted that they stop."

The Quebecois don't get much of the English speaking world. I mean, they gave us Celine Dion, and for that, burning in the eternal flames of hell is hardly sufficient.

Springsteen pushed for Estes Kefauver over Stevenson in '56.

Just for historical context.

@Doglessliberal: You haven't heard the last song on his album, Nebraska...
"Reagan to Believe"

@shortsshortsshorts: What others have said about you being misinformed. Also, "Born In The USA" is slightly overhated, although mostly among first and second wave rockists (This is the Idolator version of me talking a little.)

Actually, I used to think Born To Run's lyrics "It's death trap, it's a suicide rap, you gotta get out while you're young" was a pretty good description of life here in New Jersey. Too bad that over the past 20 years it's become pretty fitting for the entire USA.

@SuperUnison: That's a great album yes. I grew up in the Philly area, so I was obligated to love Bruce unthinkingly, but I have to say that The River is one of the best songs ever. Thunder Road pretty good, too.

@JamesMichaelCurley: You mean the "Howard Stern Rest Area" ?

uhm, excuse me but the last time working class people were into bruce springsteen was when reagan was president and bruce was all pumped up on steroids.

@Serolf Divad: It's "shiitake," you faux elitist you.

@SayItWithWookies:
Shiit... I've been exposed!

Has Barry denounced and rejected this elite "rock star" yet?

It is hard to remember with all of this election stuff happening, but our current president is still doing stuff. When I first saw this video, I thought it was just Will Ferrell making one of those "funny or die" skits...

[www.huffingtonpost.com]

1st the jay-z comparison from yesterday and your sister site bit my concept...........now if we could just get the boss on the oprah show...........is the "doglessliberal" a guy or a gal?

Look what I found on the Googlewebs (it's like Springsteen-Reagan all over again):

[www.musicsoundoff.com]
John Mellencamp has asked John McCain to cease playing his terrific song "Our Country" as well as his 1980s hit "Pink Houses" and other songs, because he doesn't exactly approve of the GOP senator's agenda.

"Are you sure you want to use [John's] music?" a letter from Mellencamp's reps to McCain reads. "Logic says the facts might prove to be an embarrassment."

"If [McCain is] such a true conservative, why [is he] playing songs that have a very populist pro-labor message written by a guy who would find no argument if you characterized him as left of center?"

John Mellencamp, 56, ... had been backing Democrat John Edwards.

They should re-shoot the Hillary Soprano's campaign ad and have Silvio Dante come through at the end to wack Hillary, "Because The Boss said so."

Another nail in Bruce's latte-sipping coffin: The furiners love him! I met a group of Irish lads while traveling in Spain and they looooved Bruce. A member of our group had a New Jersey T-shirt and they went wild. They had even spent their previous holiday traveling to NEW JERSEY, like it was a visit to Mecca (although they found Asbury Park a disappointment).

@peaceAllOver: I am a known female, at least my husband says so. I also am, if you go by Jezebel, a traitor to my sex and a self-hater because I think Hillary is a Machiavellian power monger who is not fit to lead. And because I like men in general and do not think they are all evil and mean and make us cry. Why?

@nhunter: its not a red hanky. It's a red hat. A proper working class hero takes off his oily, filthy hat after a hard day's work when he goes into the local watering hole to drink away his pay.

And shouldn't the first line of this post read something more like "The elitism of Barack Obama has reached new heights"? Doesn't the connotation of elitism lean more towards the top than the bottom?

And actually, I am waiting to see who gets the Whitesnake endorsement. The Has-been 80s hair metal vote will swing this election, I just know it.

The Boss was the first rock-star to have an integrated band.

@Johnny Zhivago's Cat: The lyric implies that folks in small New Jersey towns were bitter...

@fornya: in my neighborhood, they snorted their pay, as well. But maybe that was just Philly in the 80s.

@ Doglessliberal - What's your hubby have to do with any of it?

Yeah yeah, whatever. Springsteen is a washed-up has-been. I want to know who hip, modern musicians are endorsing.

So, Wonkette, tell me: who is "Weird Al" voting for?

@peaceAllOver: he can verify I am a known female.

@Naked Bunny with a Whip: I get a Ron Paul vibe from him, no?

@RssDude: All of the misunderstandings over Bruce's politics and the hate that went around for that Mellencamp song just proves that a lot of people really don't listen to the lyrics and apparently, there's also quite a few who aren't familiar with their rocker's politics, either.

@Johnny Zhivago's Cat: Yea, the one with the Christine Todd Whitman two-holer up on the hill.

I'm a huge Springsteen fan, but who gives a shit who he's endorsing for prez. Heidi Montage's endorsement of McCain supersedes Bruce's any day!
My question is: Who is Bob Seger endorsing? How about John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band?

@dogless

what once stood @ 13th and south in philly?

@Magister: speaking of that, here's a random blast from the past: remember when Cat Stevens became Yussuf somebody or other and joined in the condemnation of Salman Rushdie? No more 'Peace Train'....

So a guy dumb enough to live his whole life in Jersey and write about how great it is there thinks someone will listen to his choice of presidents?

Stick to your monotnone songs and leave politics to the bitter poor folk.

@Botswana Meat Commission FC: Wrong about Elvis. That's what I thought until I moved to Memphis. They loved him.

@Doglessliberal: Remember when Sonny Bono smacked his head into a tree?

That was funny.

Sorry, in a bad mood today. Blame it on the "real world."

@Magister: True true. Probably they are too bitter to pay attention to the lyrics, clinging to their guns and religion and trade-protectionist ways.

@Doglessliberal:
Forget Whitesnake, the W.A.S.P. endorsement is the one I'm waiting for.

I want to watch Blackie Lawless announce his pick while wearing a flaming cod-piece, and then have Chris Holmes make his endorsement from atop a floating lounge chair, in his pool, dressed in leather, and swilling a bottle of Jack as his mom looks on horrified.

I drew what I had from the Central Trust/ and I bought me two tickets on that Sonoma County Heirloom Orchards tour, because Sonoma really is too cold and wet for grapes, don't you agree?

@pharmacist:
huh? with all due respect for the boss, there were many integrated bands before he came along. right off the bat sly & the family stone.

@weazel: "Sonoma County Heirloom Orchards tour..." Right. More like "Secret Russian Sex Ring."

...and Benny Goodman.

@pharmacist: Wrong you are, Pharmacist:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Baby, I was born to run to the bathroom about five or six times a night until I got on the Ditropan train!

@scotcon: FURTHER WRONG! BOOKER T AND THE MGs!

@shortsshortsshorts: Oh my god you do not really believe he voted for Reagan, do you? This elite liberal who lectured me (and 15,000 other youngsters) for an hour at the LA Sports Arena in 1984 about how evil Reagan was, and how Reagan is not allowed to use Born In The USA at campaign rallies, and Reagan somehow caused the Vietnam War, which is what Born in the USA is about.

@Doglessliberal:
he can verify I am a known female.

Not good enough. I demand nude photos to confirm sex and evaluate hottitude. In fact, that goes for all of you! Obey! *cracks whip*

I get a Ron Paul vibe from him, no?

Hmm. He does perform a lot of songs about nerds and stalking, so I can see how Paultards come to mind.

@Falstaff's Brother:

That explains the Arcade Fire.

Then again, the french like Jerry Lewis, and the Arcade Fire like Brooce:

+ Watch video

The first integrated band was, obviously, Eddie and the Cruisers.

@Doglessliberal:
Do you remember when Natalie Merchant would no longer play "Peace Train" and I think she even pulled it from subsequent album pressings because she didn't want to put any more money in Cat Stevens' pocket?

@RssDude:
I just really don't understand how anybody can listen to or read Springsteen or Mellencamp lyrics and think that they're somehow Republican, let alone their long histories of being outspoken on a variety of issues. Sure, some of their titles may be open to misinterpretation because they're short, but so was Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land".

Fun fact:

During World War I, Americans called sauerkraut "liberty cabbage."

You joke about whitesnake, but my friend was a airplane mechanic a few years ago, and there was a framed whitesnake poster on Kerry's campaign jet. It was tucked back in a corner of the plane, so no one was sure if it symbolized a friendship between Kerry and Whitesnake, or if Kerry just bought the jet from David Coverdale.

Actually, it was Jimmie Rodgers studio band in New York in the 1920s, with Louis Armstrong! [en.wikipedia.org]

@Ken Layne: No. I don't believe he was into Reagan. Jeebus. The last song on Nebraska was "Reason to Believe," not "Reagan to Believe." I may not listen to him anymore, but I respect the man.

It would've been awesome if Springsteen had quit after "Nebraska," and become a Muslim.

... booker t and the mgs ... love ... hendrix ... allman brothers ... not even close.

Born In The USA kinda skates the edge, in that when you make an image/character there are gonna be listeners who want to put it on, and would would like to go off and kill some Vietnamese in a war. The testosterone of the performance kinda rubs both ways too. I don't think he intended to do it, but he's into drama, he couldn't resist.

That being said, it's the the clumsiest, clunkiest, ugliest song ever written. It sounds like Roger Daltrey's solo work. SO bad.

@norbizness: Shush, you.

The Turnpike smells like urine...YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

I see smoke plumes not clouds...YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

Mobsters run my state...YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

I'm an old has been...YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

(How fucking hard is it to write a Springstein song?)

If memory serves, Springsteen endorsed Kerry in 2004. I don't think it helped Kerry with the blue collars.

@illnoise:
Had the world only known of this I'm convinced Kerry would have won.

I don't think Suburbman respects any song that doesn't end with "I told you once, you son-of-a-bitch, I'm the best that's ever been."

@PrairiePossum: It did help Kerry find common ground with them--now they all are screwed by Dubya.

Springstein hasn't been 'blue collar' since he moved to Rumson about 30 years ago. He and Bon Jovi, (another phony).

Bon Jovi to a reporter maybe 15 years ago -