Boss Apparently OKs Crew’s Use of ‘U.S.A.’ : Pop Music: 2 Live Crew’s ‘Banned in the U.S.A.’ will be released July 4. Anti-obscenity crusader Jack Thompson blasts the decision and the musicians.

Bruce Springsteen has apparently given permission to the controversial rap group 2 Live Crew to use the melody from his hit song “Born in the U.S.A.” for its new single “Banned in the U.S.A.”--an action that was immediately attacked by Florida anti-obscenity crusader Jack Thompson.

Alan Jacobi, 2 Live Crew’s attorney, said Monday that Springsteen has reviewed the content of 2 Live Crew’s recording and “enthusiastically” approved the use of his music. A source close to Springsteen confirmed that the singer has granted permission for the use of the melody of his best-selling 1984 single.

Jack Thompson, the Coral Gables, Fla., attorney who engineered the campaign that led to a U.S. District Court decision June 6 declaring 2 Live Crew’s “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” album obscene, lashed out at Springsteen.

“Bruce (Springsteen) and Luther (2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell) can go to hell together,” Thompson said in a telephone interview Monday. “Bruce Springsteen is facilitating the sexual abuse of women and the mental molestation of children by giving 2 Live Crew the use of his music.” The 2 Live Crew single is due to be released July Fourth.

Thompson faxed Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau a letter informing him of the 2 Live Crew obscenity ruling and requesting that Springsteen deny use of the music. Said Thompson on Monday: “It sends a clear message to America what Bruce Springsteen thinks of women.”

Jacobi described the single--which is a reaction to the legal furor surrounding the Miami rap group in recent weeks--as “very patriotic (with) no explicit lyrics in it whatsoever.”

Meanwhile, Marine Corps officials confirmed Monday that 2 Live Crew’s “Nasty” album is no longer for sale at base retail outlets in Yuma, Ariz., Beaufort, S.C., and Jacksonville, N.C..

Marine officials said last week that the album also had been removed from shelves at base stores at Camp Pendleton and El Toro in Southern California, but Master Sgt. Steve Merrill, an El Toro base spokesperson, said Monday that no decision has been reached regarding whether to remove it from base stores at air stations in El Toro and Tustin. He said, however, that the album is under review in both installations.

Air Force Col. Carol Habgood, chief of public affairs for the Army and Air Force National Exchange Service Headquarters in Texas, told The Times that the record was never carried in any Army or Air Force retail outlet. Lt. Gregg Smith, a spokesman for the Navy Office of Information in Washington, said that no national mandate has been handed down regarding the stocking of the album at Navy bases around the country.

“Nasty” isn’t the first rap album to be removed from a Marine base store. First Lt. Colleen M. Ryan, spokeswoman for the Marine base in Jacksonville, said that N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” album was removed last year from shelves there after the album--a stark reflection of inner-city gang lifestyle--was deemed to “incite disobedience of civil or military law.”