B. Phohi Konyak stands near the border pillar erected on a hill top at Longwa village, on the India Myanmar border in the northeastern India state of Nagaland, Friday, Dec.13, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
An inmate uses a phone as another gives the number to dial at a pay-by-the-minute phone booth set up and run by prisoners at the Regional Penitentiary in Villarica, Paraguay, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. Most inmates’ calls get paid for by their families when they come to visit in person. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)Prisoners reach out from their cell for bread at lunchtime at the Juan de la Vega prison in Emboscada, Paraguay, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Prisoners reach out from their cell for bread at lunchtime at the Juan de la Vega prison in Emboscada, Paraguay, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)A urinal is located along an observation walkway for security guards at the Tacumbu prison in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, July 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)A urinal is located along an observation walkway for security guards at the Tacumbu prison in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, July 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Magali Vargas, 29, strikes a pose while cleaning the floor of the pavilion reserved for transgender inmates at the Regional Penitentiary in Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)Magali Vargas, 29, strikes a pose while cleaning the floor of the pavilion reserved for transgender inmates at the Regional Penitentiary in Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Inmates pray during an evangelical service at the Buen Pastor women’s prison in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Inmates pray during an evangelical service at the Buen Pastor women’s prison in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: I’m 10 years burnin’ down the road; nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go.”
YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, “Born in the USA”BACKSTORY: Springsteen’s most misinterpreted song — misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him — tells the tale of a Vietnam vet who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. The driving, catchy chorus — composed primarily of the words from the song’s title, which made misunderstanding it easier — turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans’ circumstances.
LYRIC: “Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more.”YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, “Born in the USA”