In her 2019 song “London Boy,” Taylor Swift talks about being a thoroughly American girl in love with someone from across the pond. Listing her patriotic bona fides, she asserts, “And you know I love Springsteen, faded blue jeans…” Because what’s more American than Bruce Springsteen and faded blue jeans!?
Where am I going with this? Stay with me.
Last week, I had the pleasure of welcoming Levi Strauss & Co. Historian and Director of Archives Tracey Panek to campus to tour our new building, set to open this Spring, and to talk all things public history. (Sidenote: it’s so important that we in the field are always comparing notes, staying abreast of evolving best practices, and collaborating with our peers to ensure we are stewarding our collections as well as possible and reaching the widest possible audiences with our work.)
Tracey was particularly interested in chatting about the jeans Bruce wore on the cover of 1984’s Born in the USA. These jeans have since February 2024 been on display in our “Music America” traveling exhibit. They just arrived home to the Springsteen Center and will be viewable to the public when we open.
A visitor looks at the Born in the USA outfit at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, while “Music America” was there in 2024.
Here’s what Tracey, THE expert on American denim, had to say about the iconic jeans:
“I first got up close and personal with the Levi’s® 501® jeans that Bruce Springsteen famously wore on the cover of his Born in the USA album at a visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. The Levi’s® are almost as iconic as Bruce himself. The 501® jean, or waist overall as it was originally called, was displayed on the back side. This meant that the front button fly was not visible. When Levi Strauss & Co. received a US Patent for riveting pockets in work pants in 1873 (the birth of the modern blue jean), the zipper had not yet been invented.
Like Bruce’s album, Levi’s® were born in the USA—invented in the American West, made with 100% American cotton, and strengthened with the addition of copper rivets. They were first worn by blue collar workers; the kind Bruce often sang about. Miners, cowboys, or engineers needed strong Levi’s® work pants for the tough outdoor work they were doing.
That’s why I was so excited to see Bruce’s faded and worn Levi’s®. They have tears in the front two knees, a rip on the back left pocket. The red Levi’s® Tab on the right back pocket is almost a nub. Bruce lived in his Levi’s®. He worked in them. His Levi’s® are an American original. No nonsense. Hard working. Enduring. Just like The Boss.”
Springsteen Center archivist, Graciela, highlights the Levi’s tab on Bruce’s jeans (with freshly washed and dried hands, of course).
These Levi’s almost weren’t featured quite so prominently on the album cover. While visiting the East Coast, Tracey caught me giving a talk where we checked out some alternate album covers that show what Born in the USA might have looked like had Bruce not decided that his Levi’s would be front and center. But as he noted in a 1984 Rolling Stone interview, “We took a lot of different types of pictures, and in the end, the picture of my ass looked better, than the picture of my face, so that’s what went on the cover.”
Born in the USA cover, left; followed by three alternate album covers. Courtesy Tracey Panek.
When Taylor Swift sings about loving “Springsteen, faded blue jeans,” she’s naming a kind of shorthand for Americanness—one built not on abstraction, but on tangible people and items and lived experiences. Bruce Springsteen and Levi’s share a common language: work, wear, endurance, and self-invention. One tells the stories; the other clothes the people living them.
That’s why objects like these jeans matter—and why we collect them. Artifacts anchor myth to material reality. They remind us that cultural icons are made of real choices, real labor, and real lives. Bruce’s Levi’s help us to tell fuller, more human stories about who we are, where we’ve been, and how music and material culture together shape our national identity.
Tracey and I bundled up against the cold and in our personal protective gear visiting the construction site as the boardwalk goes in. Courtesy Tracey Panek.
As Levi Strauss & Co. Historian and Director of Archives, Tracey manages and preserves the company archives—mostly Levi’s® garments dating from 1873 to present. She answers questions about company history and products from Levi’s® employees and fans alike; documents and shares Levi’s® stories with the media and others, as well as oversees The Vault, the company museum at its world headquarters in San Francisco. She regularly hunts for unique vintage Levi’s® garments and unusual Levi’s® to add to the Archives, and narrates the video series From the Levi’s® Archives on YouTube and From the Levi’s® Archives on TikTok.
Melissa Ziobro
Director of Curatorial Affairs
Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music
Monmouth University
January 21, 2026