Born To Run released 40 years ago today

Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album was released August 25, 2015. My favorite Springsteen songs, "Born to Run" and "Thunder Road" are full of lines that knock me out. I still listen and shake my head at his storytelling.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this article from The Atlantic: Born to Run and the Decline of the American Dream. It gives some background on Springsteen's formative years and what was going on socio-politically when he wrote the Born to Run album.

Tipping my hat to The Boss. ​

Angry Guy said:

Born to run, retired to pasture.

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Not by me. I'm listening to it as I type this.

Maze Runner said:

What a class act. I know a band back there, almost made the big time but not quite, now all have day jobs but still play the occasional gig, and Bruce has never forgotten them. Still shares the stage with him when he can. He's a truly generous guy. Love Born to Run, and Hungry Heart.

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He really is a voice of the people. I saw him in 2012 at the LA Sports Arena, and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine played a few songs--the two of them were electric together. So much of his concert and commentary was about sticking up for the disenfranchised.

Hungry Heart--another great one!

Sophia said:

Thunder Road does have a lot of great lines. It was a song that my English teacher, when I was around 14, gave our class as an example of love poetry (along with more typical, accepted stuff) because of those early lines, before, "Well, I've got this guitar, and I've learned how to make it talk." Lots of his lyrics really hook me. Human Touch is one of my favourite ever songs, but I like a lot of them.

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Even the opening of Thunder Road gets me:
The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays

40 years. I didn't realise I was so old.

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I know. I'm old enough to remember when Born to Run was playing on the radio.

cmhbob said:

It's probably sacrilegious, but I'd love to hear Meat Loaf do Jungleland.

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I love this idea.

cmhbob said:

I'd love to see a collaboration between Meat Loaf (and Jim Steinman, obviously), Springsteen, and Bob Seger. The combination of voices, lyrics, and music would be astounding.

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This gives me goosebumps.

Max Vaehling said:

I was a big Springsteen fan in the eighties, hated him in the nineties and am okay with him now. Back when, this was my favorite album because it rocked best among the early ones and still had that strong sense of storytelling that I loved. Actually, I love it more now than I did then.

I'm not a fan of when he hit it big, soon after Born To Run.. There's something that happens to your music when you start playing those really large ausdiences. You can't communicate as intimately and have to rely on larger gestures and one-beat interactions, or you'll lose them. It shows both in his music (most obviously) and his lyrics which moved from those intricate stories with lots of in-line rhyming and fancy character names towards broader, more general strokes. From a storyteller to a wandeirng preacher, if you will. Still got nothing but respect or the guy, it's just that most of what he did the last 30 years isn't for me. Born to Run marks the end of that first phase and still stands out because of that, although it took him a while to fully become that other Bruce Springsteen.

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For me Born to Run contains my favorite Springsteen music. Truthfully, I'd rather not sit around and listen to his social justice music, but I do think it's so important that people like Springsteen write songs and sing about the things that matter. When I saw him in concert, that was pretty much the focus. He asks the questions: How did we get here? How do we keep making the same mistakes over and over? Why do corporate interests keep winning over the people? So I totally get where you're coming from.

Vito said:

I think "Born to Run" is a masterpiece, just amazing from start to finish. I can't think of anything else to say about it that hasn't been said many times before, so I'll just shout...Bruce! Bruuuuuuce!! Brooooooooooooooooooooose!!!

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*waves lighter*

poetinahat said:

When I came of rock 'n' roll age as a boy in Ohio, I went straight to Zeppelin and Aerosmith, then from there to punk, ska, and "alternative". Springsteen wasn't part of the plan - the people who liked him were people who didn't like me - or vice versa. He was too popular with mainstream people - the Camaro crowd - which meant I didn't want to know. The irony of it all is funny now: I avoided the music shallow people listened to, on that principle alone.

I'm mature enough now (I hope) to be able to appreciate music even if it's popular. A lot of music, like Springsteen and Billy Joel - and even Dylan - I really heard for the first time at about forty, because I'm free to make up my own mind, without trying to spite parents or peers. And different things are important to me now, like performing with passion.

In that respect, I appreciate Springsteen now, because I allowed myself to, and his presence resonates with me now. My late arrival is my fault, not his, and I'm glad I got there in time.

He might not be my favorite, but he's a white-hat guy on my Hat Scale of Musicians. That is, regardless of whether I listen to him often, I like the idea of him, and I'm happy to see him succeed.

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I have a habit of discovering musicians ten years after everyone else has. I was a kid when Born to Run came out, so my knowledge of Springsteen's music at that time was limited to the background, hearing it on the radio and being aware of it. I remember reading the LA Times music reviews and not really "getting" why Robert Hillburn was so madly in love with him. It's not until I listened to the songs as an adult and really focused on the lyrics that I got what all the fuss was about. (That happens to me a lot with songs. I may have heard something a hundred times without paying attention to the words, then one day, I really listen, and it knocks me out. This happened with some of Dylan's music, and the Eagles. I don't think I realized what phenomenal lyricists Henley and Frey were until I saw their concert where they told the history of the band through song and little introductory stories. That was an incredible experience.)