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Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ At 45: Celebrating Music’s Version Of ‘On The Road’ And ‘The Wild One’

Steve Baltin 

Forty-five years ago this Tuesday (August 25) Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band released Born To Run. By now the album is well established in rock legend. After two well-received but not commercially successful releases, the young New Jersey rocker, who had already been hailed by his eventual manager Jon Landau as "Rock and roll's future" and who was supposed to be the bridge between the rock of Elvis Presley and the folk of Bob Dylan. was in make or break mode with the third album.

We all know what happened. Born To Run became the massive breakthrough everyone was expecting, landing Springsteen simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek and literally changing the face of rock for the next five decades. Because of course Springsteen and his band went on to become one of the biggest and most successful rock acts of all time and on multiple occasions — during the Born In The U.S.A. run of the mid-'80s and The Rising in the early aughts — becoming the face of rock.

But it is quite probable that if Born To Run doesn't become the monster success and the critical landmark it is today, widely regarded as one of the great albums in rock history, all of the future success does not happen the way it did.

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Without question Born To Run paved the way for the next 45 years of stardom and started the Bruce Springsteen legend. So what is it about that album? I admit as a diehard Springsteen fan I have declared that my favorite album of all time for so long I don't think about the record anymore. It is just engrained in my musical soul.

It's hard to say though that it is a better album than its masterful follow up, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, and speaking with countless artists over the years the favorite album by the many musicians who call themselves Springsteen fans is likely Nebraska, for its bravery and the stark grittiness of both the songwriting and the storytelling. And of course for the generation that came of age in the '80s Born In The U.S.A. is one of the quintessential albums of the decade.

That is also not to slight his later work as The Rising is one of the best albums this century by any artist and Working On A Dream is also a masterpiece. And last year’s Western Stars would be many artists’ best work. But there is something about Born To Run that just captures his audience so greatly,.

But as I started to think about honoring my favorite album of all time for its forty-fifth anniversary I actually thought about the album for the first time in some time, what makes Born To Run so special.

Of course there are countless musical highlights in the eight-song collection. That quick guitar solo in the opening "Thunder Road"; the epic Clarence Clemons  sax solo in the closing "Jungleland"; the Bo Diddley-beat in "She's The One"; the raucous anthemic energy of "Born To Run" that would make it arguably the greatest live song of time; Professor Roy Bittan's haunting piano intro to the side one closer, "Backstreets," another candidate for greatest live song of all time; the playful fervor of "Night"; the understated elegance of "Meeting Across The River" and of course the unbridled jubilation of the autobiographical "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."

You don't get to be regarded as one of the consensus best rock albums of all time without delivering top to bottom and one through eight there is no filler on this album. There are at least four certified Springsteen classics in the title track, "Jungleland," "Thunder Road" and "Backstreets." That is half the album and the other four tracks are all standouts in their own way.

The year plus spent in the studio perfecting the Phil Spector-like wall of sound is also well-documented. And in every musical respect the album was a smash success. But of course you can say the same about the Beatles' Revolver, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and countless other landmark albums that are also considered among the elite records of all time.

One thing that distinguishes Born To Run is the incredible lyricism. Springsteen is widely regarded as one of the great lyricists ever in rock. And Born To Run is filled with great moments, like "Backstreets," "At night sometimes it seemed you could hear the whole damn city crying/Blame it on the lies that killed us/Blame it on the truth that ran us down." Or "Born To Run," the iconic passage, "It's a death trap, a suicide rap/Oh baby we gotta get out while we're still young."

On the whole Born To Run is a masterfully written collection. Yet, in 1975. my vote for best year ever in album rock with Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, Patti Smith's debut, Horses, Aerosmith's Toys In The Attic, David Bowie's Young Americans, Queen's A Night At The Opera, John Lennon's Rock And Roll, Roxy Music's Siren, Steely Dan's Katy Lied and many more, the best lyrical album of the year by far is Bob Dylan's incredible Blood On The Tracks. "If You See Her Say Hello" off that album is in contention for the best rock song ever written.

So if other albums can match Born To Run sonically and lyrically what is it that makes it arguably the greatest album of all time?

Just go to the opening line of the album in "Thunder Road":

"The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch as Roy Orbison's singing for the lonely."

That isn't an album opening. That is a literary opening. Raymond Carver or Anne Beattie would have been proud to start a short story that way. It could be the intro to a Larry McMurtry novel.

Or go to the closing "Jungleland." "Well the maximum lawman run down Flamingo/Chasing the rat and the barefoot girl/And the kids round here look just like shadows/Always quiet, holding hands/From the churches to the jails/Tonight all is silence in the world."

That is a movie scene. Hell, the whole song is like Martin Scorese's interpretation of West Side Story. Just look at this passage.

"Well the midnight gangs assembled/And picked a rendezvous for the night/They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign/That brings this fair city light/Man there's an opera out on the turnpike/There's a ballet being fought out in the alley."

In six of the eight songs Springsteen uses named characters. That wasn't new for him. He did it frequently on his first two albums, proving himself a master storyteller. And the stage was set for the novel-esque Born To Run in "New York City Serenade," the finale of The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, where he writes of Billy and Diamond Jackie.

But Born To Run is a gigantic leap forward in creating a narrative. From the "soft infested summers" of "Backstreets" to "throwing the money on the bed" in "Meeting Across The River" and the dark night and bright sidewalk of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," Springsteen continually paints vivid pictures of a whole world.

Where the songs on the first two albums were short stories or anthology episodes of a TV series, Born To Run is a novel or a film. From that opening scene of "Thunder Road," every song is a detailed entry into a world of mystery, of dreams, of desperation, of passion, of the yearning for freedom, of romance, of loneliness, of hope, of escape.

There had been concept albums before Born To Run, notably the Who's Tommy and Quadrophenia, both of which were made into films. But no album has ever painted such a cinematic picture before or since the way Born To Run does.

It is music's equivalent of Jack Kerouac's On the Road or The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, the ultimate tale of youth trying to find their way in the world to adulthood. As Springsteen sings in the title track, “I want to know if love is wild, babe/I want to know if love is real.”

Every minute, every detail, every scene takes us into the world Springsteen and The E Street Band dreamed up on Born To Run. And 45 years that world later is as vibrant, exciting, compelling, alluring, intoxicating and inviting as it was August 25 of 1975.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/s...ld-one/#651e5d7763f9

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The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

Last edited by Oats
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