Poll of the week: Born in the USA isn't half bad
Sometimes you can be really surprised by one of these polls. I always had the impression that Born in the USA wasn't terribly popular among the "real" fans... the kind of fans who are crazy enough to frequent a Springsteen website like this. It was the album that broke Bruce to the masses and forever killed whatever was left of the illusion that Bruce was "our little secret". It's only natural that it would spur some resentment among the diehards, many of whom still keep their place in the ranks of Bruce's loyal fan base.
However, apparently their number wasn't enough to make up for the big majority of fans who rank Born in the USA among the top 5 albums. No less than 67% of you thought that it belonged there. What would be interesting to know is whether this majority also consist of people who became fans long after the whole Born in the USA era. Those of you who found Bruce post-E Street Band reunion, those of you to whom The Rising played a bigger role in shaping your fandom than the classic albums of the Seventies and Eighties.
Here's the complete result of the Born in the USA poll:
Born in the USA is Bruce's best selling album. How would you rate it quality-wise?
| It's among his five best albums |  67.4% |
| It's an average album for Bruce |  24.9% |
| It's in his bottom five albums |  3.5% |
| It's his very best album |  3.3% |
| It's his very worst album |  0.9% |
Total votes: 663
This week's poll is about Bruce "affiliates". By Bruce affiliates I mean artists that have somehow become so connected to Bruce that you will hardly see an article about them without Bruce being mentioned in it. Some of them have had albums produced by Bruce or been given songs by him. Others have sung duets with him and perfomed with him live. Some of them are connected to him geographically with the Jersey Shore being their prime turf. Most of them can claim all of those things. But which of them is your favorite? It may be an unfair contest. They are definitely not equally known. But let's give it a chance. And as always with these polls, it's not always about the winner. It's often more interesting to look at the secondary positions.
Let the voting begin!