That Album

silverwraith's ( post about Paul Simon's Graceland )

got me to thinking about what That Album is for me.

Like hers, mine was an LP, so like her I was a toddler who know how to operate a record player (without scratching the vinyl) as soon as I was old enough to reach up to it.

Mine was Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., and the title song was the first "favorite song" I remember having. I couldn't have been that old; even though I taught myself to read when I was three I remember not being able to read the words on that record; I just knew which one it was because it had red and white stripes that made it stand out from the rest of my parents' collection.

And, also like silverwraith, I of course had absolutely no idea what the words meant. Now that I look at it, "Born in the U.S.A." is a bitter, cynical song about tragic things ... but I liked the music. I was especially a fan of Max Weinberg, though of course I didn't know that at the time either.

I do remember that, towards the end of the song there is what I now recognize as brushes on a cymbal, building up to a crescendo. I remember that I used to hate that part of the song, and I would dread it coming. It always gave me this weird, tingly feeling, made me shiver. Much later, I would wonder if that was what people meant when they said that things "gave them goosebumps" ... and only then would I realize that that feeling didn't mean I hated that little cymbal thing, it probably meant I loved it.