Greil Marcus on Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere:
When in the midst of White’s bedroom recordings there’s a cut to a record studio where “Born in the U.S.A.” is happening, it’s absolutely there, with the line “Hiring man says, Son, if it was up to me” coming across as a whole novel in those ten words, for the way they’re written, for the way, now, they’re sung.