American Dream: Springsteen VS Stallone

Great Men are great fans of America. I took a less than cannonball run speed coast to coast road trip a few years ago and C-Bomb spent some of his formative years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Presumably he was baptised and learned to swim in the warm brown waters of the Mississippi, the Old Miss, the Old Man…

The American Dream is a simple one – that anyone no matter their background can through their own ingenuity, hard work and strength of will – become somebody. This creates a dichotomy of equality and aspiration, all men might be born equal but that don’t necessarily mean that they die equal. This contradiction seems to me to inform the lurches and crises of confidence that have typified post civil rights America. 2 men also seem to illustrate the choices and dilemmas that have faced the recent generations of Americans who were the first not guaranteed to enjoy a better standard of living than their parents. 2 men whose work have scratched at the neuroses of an entire nation and illustrate that nation and its people at their best and worst. A nation that schizophrenically holds both Charlton Heston and Woody Guthrie as heroes.

Springsteen and Stallone (like many Americans it must be said) can trace their heritage to poor Catholic parts of Europe and their work has been informed by an immigrant’s hope for the American dream as well as being let down by its reality. Born 3 years apart, their films and music have grown and matured in subject matter, if not style. Reflecting the roller coaster of American confidence from the mid 70’s to the fall of the Berlin Wall which encompasses the duo’s high water mark in both critical and commercial success.

Released in 1975 Born to Run is already honest enough to realise that not every one gets to live home-coming-queen-happy-ever-after. In Thunder Road - Mary’s Graduation Dress lies in rags at their feet and she is pragmatically described as “You aint a beauty, but hey you're alright…” The songs protagonist knows he has found his level, living in a small town, full of losers but still harbours dreams of pulling out of there. These themes are echoed, albeit more sexily, in the album’s title track. Wendy is invited to wrap her legs round his velvet ribs as the 2 tramps run from their death trap - suicide rap home town. So, to Springsteen the American Dream is broken but still worth a shot – particularly to young lovers who still posses enthusiasm for the risk of the future. Not for them the morkish nostalgia of Happy Days.

This last shot, death or glory optimism is reflected in both the story and making of Rocky. Desperate to star in his own script Stallone resorted to selling his beloved dogs (later bought back at many times the price) before selling the script to a studio happy to cast him. A complete unknown he was, just like his on screen persona, thrust directly into stardom. Rocky differs from Born to Run in that we actually find out how the adventure (happily) ends for Rocky and Adrienne. However, it is Rocky just like Springsteen’s hero and never the girl who plans their escape from familiar claustrophobic neighbourhoods. I’m not sure how Susan Sarandon who auditioned for the part of Adrienne would have managed such a mute part. Luckily, she was considered too pretty to play a girl who like Mary ain’t a beauty. Written during un-certain economic times - in both the album and film, success isn’t obviously material – The fast cars of “Night” are vessels of escape not symbols of affluence. Ultimately, both Springsteen’s hero’s and Rocky’s real child-like victory it is the fact that he just once gets to win and make off with the girl.

The desperate optimism of Born to Run and Rocky loses nerve and hope by the time First Blood and Nebraska are released and reveal isolation in the American heartlands. Both Nebraska and First Blood relocate from the urban North East to the stark, desolate, and neighbouring mid west states of Nebraska and Colorado. Both are uncompromising in their assertion that sometimes you just lose, and are filled with nasty, dysfunctional characters. Both examine the relationship between law and people alone on the edges of society.

John Rambo and Frankie in Highway Patrolman (and I’d include Frankie Teardrop in that as well, Springsteen has been a long time admirer of Suicide) have always seemed to me to be the same guy: Vietnam Vet malcontents hustled from small town to small town grating against law and order and a country that is essentially embarrassed by them. The major difference being Frankie has his brother to look out for him while Rambo’s only family is the army in the shape of Col Trautman. Jonny 99 justifies his crimes as being economic but freely asks the judge “So if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head” hinting at the psychological misanthropy that explodes throughout First Blood.

The dichotomy of equality and aspiration, of freedom and control run throughout both Nebraska and First Blood. The distinction of right and wrong, the forces of law and lawlessness are clear, just not which exactly is which. Can we trust the Highway Patrolman who literally lets his brother away with murder? Whose side are you on when the mysterious narrator with a clear conscience “Bout the things that I done” pleads “Mr State Trooper, please don’t stop me”? The confusion between right and wrong is most apparent in the original novel of First Blood where Rambo and Small town cop Teasle take alternate chapters – both become just and unjust, to be admired and equally reviled. Industrial decay and living with guilt, but not hope, make these the darkest offerings from Stallone and Springsteen – doubly so when you consider the bedroom technology used to record Nebraska and the never ending grey-green of First Blood’s cinematography.

Only the last song on Nebraska as it shakes its confused head and proclaims “at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe” hints at the glorious Technicolor to come.

Stallone & Springsteen’s reaction to Reagan era America is interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly, at first glance they were very similar but at heart almost exactly opposed and secondly despite these differences of how similarly America reacted to them.

The obvious difference between pre Born in the USA Springsteen and Stallone to their superstar versions is that they were bigger. In all ways; artistically, in ambition and most obviously physically. Stallone had always been a physical actor and it would have been impossible for him to realistically play a boxer or run through the streets with an M60 with out the gravity to do so. But by Rambo First Blood part 2 he had become almost pneumatic. Springsteen had also gone through a strict exercise regime as if he wanted to literally fill big stadiums. For 2 years he was not seen out of tight fitting jeans and cut off white t-shirt. In 1984 the muscular bellow to Wendy to strap her hands to his engines suddenly made perfect sense.

His music also became stronger and testosterone direct. Gone the gentle chime of percussion and piano – replaced by the electronic honk of synths and air-punch inducing snare. John Rambo’s damaged isolation no longer poked at American’s guilt; now he just blew stuff up (albeit it in an exciting and computer game inspiring way).

Rambo and Born in the USA catapulted Springsteen and Stallone into international mainstream success and created them as icons of Reagan’s new macho patriotism.

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about." – Ronald Reagan on Campaign in Sept 1984.

Shortly after the Lebanon hostage crises Reagan joked with reporters that he’d just seen Rambo and so “…knew what to do next time.”

The Reagan campaign also used the song Born in the USA as their campaign song but Springsteen rebuffed any offer of supporting the republican presidency. Stallone however had no qualms and gleefully played for the anti commie new patriotism that swept the USA. The introduction of everyday politics into their work highlights the significant difference between the 2 men and their relationship to the American Dream.

Vietnam was the subject for the song Born in the USA and Rambo 2 and both fed from new American confidence in scope and style but it is in their message that the difference between these men becomes apparent. Rambo effectively puts Vietnam to bed for Americans; the disaffected vet received salvation from a successful mission and even gets to exert revenge on the meddling politicians that were the cause of it all anyway. This neatly reflects the new swagger of US foreign policy and the strictly “hands-off” attitude of Reaganomics.

While Springsteen’s music had enough pomp and aggressive-majesty to become the soundtrack for Rambo, there was no glory in its lyrics which remained true to the themes of Born to Run and Nebraska.

The narrator of Born in the USA was more specifically born in a dead man town – he spent half his life just covering up and when caught ended up like his brother in the Army. Unlike Highway Patrolman his brother never came back to look out for him and unlike the 1975 version of himself, he’s got nowhere to run. The message is darker and more cynical than ever before but the musical and visual packaging blinded 100’s of Millions into playing it loud at their 4^th July BBQ’s.

The irony of a direct attack on American’s negative views on their war veteran’s camouflaged as jingoistic stadium rock is reflected in Rambo. The all American hero who single handed rescues them from their Viet-guilt is in fact one of the very people they wished to brush under the carpet of forgotten history.

Rambo and Born in The USA confirmed both as worldwide stars and represent their synchronicity with popular culture and the politics of the time like never before or since. A fact admitted by Stallone when retrospectively discussing his films of the period – “Cobra could have been something more too--Bruce Springsteen with a badge!”

After these glory days, both suffered a mixed late 80’s and 90’s, The associations with ripped T-Shirt America were hard to shake off in glasnost era ironyland. Stallone’s forays into comedy were to be polite; awful. Released in the same year as Stop! Or my Mom will Shoot, Human Touch & Lucky Town were recorded while living in Los Angeles (a far cry from blue collar New Jersey) and contain songs filled with Springsteen claiming happiness and contentment. This change of emphasis drew mixed commercial and critical success and has been subsequently described by Springsteen during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech- “I mean, you can imagine that if everything had gone great… I would have written just happy songs – and I tried it in the early '90s and it didn't work; the public didn't like it”

There were high-spots for both men however. Springsteen’s live vocal take on the video for Streets of Philadelphia needs to be heard to be believed and earned an Oscar. Stallone rightfully gained both weight and plaudits while holding his own amongst acting heavyweights such as De Niro and Keitel in Copland. It is telling that as his small town cop needing to be portrayed as humble and almost folksy, often spends time listening to The River by Springsteen, now a bye-word for honest American values.

The 21^st Century saw Stallone & Springsteen return to their roots. Springsteen reacted to 9/11 with his best work in years and free from the bombast of the 1980’s, cemented his position as the working man’s conscience of America. Stallone re-visited both the Rambo and Rocky characters to create if not a return to form then his most fulfilling movies in years.

Having lived through the same times, both men’s careers can, I think, be used as a cultural and emotional barometer for America. They also highlight what a gloriously confused and confusing place it can be. A place where patriotism can be enjoyed without irony. Patriotism that can be intelligent and considered even while it is macho and vulgar. The American Dream is based on a constitutionally secure equality (Springsteen introduces his cover of This Land is Your Land by reminding audience members “Unless everybody wins no-body wins”) but is informed and driven by selfish aspiration. For every Gordon Gecko there our thousands upon thousands of Tom Joad. Where the line is drawn between the two is the subject for a man’s politics or his conscience, but if anyone wants to understand, sing or make films about America they have to consider it.