“I wanted to make the greatest rock record that I’d ever heard.”
That’s Bruce Springsteen describing Born to Run — which seems to have fulfilled this hope, as it’s still going strong for its 50th anniversary.
Released Aug. 25, 1975, the Boss’s third album became his breakout — a perfect suite of eight magnificently engineered gems. Now considered a classic — and in keeping with its creator’s lofty ambitions, truly one of rock’s great LPs — Born to Run includes the title hit and another “Hot 100” charter, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” But really, every song is great. Personal faves include “Meeting Across the River” (of which more later), the wistful “Thunder Road” and the soaring, climactic “Jungleland” — running nearly 10 minutes.
Mired at the time in my own prog-rock preferences (Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull), I didn’t join the Springsteen bandwagon till 1980. Late that year, a close college friend — who also happened to hail from Springsteen territory in Oakhurst, NJ — urged me to catch a show on The River tour; and I was hooked.
For me, it was a triple-whammy of expert musicianship, fiery lyrics and rip-roaring three-hour concerts that earned Springsteen the well-deserved title “hardest-working man in rock ’n’ roll.”
Springsteen may be the finest lyricist this country ever produced — better and more accessible than Dylan, in this writer’s not-so-humble opinion. Just take another look at “Born to Run,” even without the music; or “Jungleland,” which offers my single favorite Boss line: “Barefoot girl sittin’ on the hood of a Dodge / Drinkin’ warm beer in the soft summer rain.” It’s got maybe one too many adjectives; but as an evocation of a dreamy adolescent time gone by — so characteristic of Springsteen’s work — you can’t beat it.
In my teaching career at Loyalsock, I had success in English class covering several Springsteen poems. “Cautious Man,” from his later Tunnel of Love, is a heart-wrenching ode to marital commitment — a sober, real-world contrast to the “you’re all my hopes & dreams” motif that pervades most love songs in the pop world. And from Born to Run, the quiet, melancholy, doomed-loser tragedy of “Meeting Across the River” makes a terrific intro to the poetic style called “dramatic monologue.”
In that genre, a first-person narrator argues vehemently for himself while unwittingly revealing — to both the reader and a silent listener — a very different truth. With “Meeting,” the low-rent drug-runner insists that he and his partner are about to hit the big-time; yet line after line presages his impending two-bit demise — so the titular river could be the Styx, with a dark destination “on the other side.”
Musically, Born to Run was reportedly brutal to record, with Springsteen so insistent on perfection that, for example, his guitar parts in “Thunder Road” and Clarence Clemons’ sax solo in “Jungleland” took, respectively, 13 and 16 hours to record. (Yes, hours.) Fans should read the long, loving saga of its creation at the album’s excellent Wikipedia page.
I’ll finish instead with my own story of that 1980 concert, which opened with a blazing three-song overture that left every single person in the venue not only on their feet, but actually standing on their chairs. In the ensuing interlude, Springsteen told the crowd, “It’s going to be a long night; why don’t you all sit down.” At which point, 20,000 people did — in unison.
He played 90 minutes. Then took a break and played another 90.
Followed by a five-song encore.
One highlight involved a young man who managed to get Bruce’s attention from the floor near the stage. After talking briefly with this fan, Springsteen asked for a spotlight there, as the man wanted to propose to his girlfriend while the band played “I Wanna Marry You.” Surrounded in glowing light, the couple slow-danced through that tune, after which Bruce wanted to know, “What’d she say?” And who could possibly say no with a set-up like that? So thousands of people cheered this very touching engagement.
Here’s hoping their marriage is still thriving after all those years.
That is certainly the case with Born to Run.
