Bruce Springsteen: No Surrender Meaning

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No Surrender Lyrics

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just...

1. anonymous

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   Sep 29th 2016 report

   I think its means to not become a square but always remember what we promised, to stand up for our dreams and fight for them.
2. anonymous

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   Sep 19th 2016 report

   ?, just because The chorus has "no retreat baby no surrender" in it doesn't mean it is an anti war song.
3. anonymous

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   Jul 30th 2016 report

   I think it's about not letting the bad things that happen to you destroy who you are. Maybe it refers to a war, and someone standing up for peace, cause that's what they belive in.
4. kooljohn176

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   Jun 5th 2015 report

   A great Bruce Springsteen anti war song. The ''Music'' of this cat in this song is i believe about staying true to yourself and your brother in the spiritual fight not to sell out your dreams or your soul to any evil godless causes of the so called machine that wants to chew you up and spit you out. It's so true many times when Bruce sang ''We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school'', especially when they took the spirit of God out of the public schools and replace it with monkey slime.
5. Anonymosity

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   Mar 21st 2013 report

   Not a bad review from Anonymous, but they've missed the most critical fact guiding this song.
   
   "Born in the USA," the song, was originally a ball-breaking scream against the Vietnam War and the subsequent bad treatment of the war's veterans'. Springsteen was convinced by his manager and the record label that, popped up, it could be a huge hit. Bruce had a tough decision to make, because changing the song this way would take the emphasis off the war theme, and the irony out of its chorus.
   
   In the end he wanted the hit, but his guitarist, and lifelong friend & soulmate, Little Steven, was a purist. Steve refused to support the song and left the E Street Band in protest. He formed his own band, with moderate success. "No Surrender" is a song about friendship, loss, anger, and forgiveness. The critical line in the song is in its chorus, "we made our promise. We swore we'd always remember - no retreat baby, no surrender." Kind of like, no hard feelings.
6. anonymous

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   Jun 11th 2011 report

   No surrender is a song that is as authentic as you get. Its from Springsteen's soul, powerful and a direct way of lashing out against the world of social competition and strict schooling and training for success. The drive to do better, to be more popular, to outdo one another is what Springsteen lashes out against, saying "follow your own dreams now". He wants to say, be yourself, live your own life, don't surrender to the American way of trying to be the rich and the cool, but to stand "like soldiers in a winter night with a vow to defend...your sisters voice across the open yards" Springsteen hearkens to the family, romance, and to not be caught up in the frantic race for possessions and gold that he "swears blood brothers" against "the wind". The song in addition finds solace in a lover, clinging to that person and seeking refuge from "the war outside still raging".
   
   Its a song of love, of strength, and a preaching that "no surrender" against the materialistic and uncaring world outside. Above all, its pure Bruce Springsteen.

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