Explore Bruce Springsteen‘s Born To Run (in 5 Minutes)

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(Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen)

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[Narrator] Released in 1975, Born to Run

was Bruce Springsteen's last ditch attempt at stardom

a hemi-powered vehicle to transport

the New Jersey musician from Asbury Park

to rock 'n' roll immortality and it worked.

Originally envisioned as a song cycle,

representing a summer day from sunrise to moonrise,

the album would carry Springsteen

and his motley crew of beach bums around the world.

(camera clacking) The only problem was

that his first two albums had been commercial flops,

he was on the verge of getting dropped by Columbia Records,

and he could only muster enough of a budget

to record a single.

Born to Run was Springsteen's first attempt

to write a song with the studio in mind not the stage.

(projector clacking) Finally able to distill

his tall tales of the Jersey Shore

into a compact form, the song was a creative breakthrough

setting the tone for the album to come

and concisely stating one of the central questions

that Springsteen would explore

for the entirety of his career,

I wanna know if love is real.

Most practically, it convinced Columbia

to let him keep going.

(projector clacking) You just made a hit record,

was the verdict of label president Bruce Lundvall

invited to the studio to hear the single's finished mix.

♪ Oh, Baby this town rips the bones from your back ♪

♪ It's a death trap ♪

♪ It's a suicide rap ♪

♪ We gotta get out while we're young ♪

♪ `Cause tramps like us ♪

♪ Baby we were born to run ♪

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[Narrator] Thunder Road, the album's opening track,

connected to Springsteen's original

day-in-the-life song cycle.

Channeling the optimism

of a summer morning, Springsteen's harmonica is the sound

of the screen door opening,

Roy Bittan's breathless piano arpeggio

soundtracking Mary and her companion

pulling out of here to win,

taking a chance on each other.

(projector clacking) Decades later,

the wistful opening chords on the harmonica

can still cause a European-sized football stadium

to fall silent.

♪ Oh oh, come take my hand ♪

♪ We're riding out tonight ♪

♪ To case the promised land ♪

♪ Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road ♪

♪ Oh, Thunder Road ♪

♪ Oh, Thunder Road ♪

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[Narrator] It's apt that the story

about the E Street Band, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,

resulted in one of the album's greatest legends.

Working with renowned session musicians,

the Brecker Brothers, Springsteen was struggling

with arrangements for the horn part.

Drafting in future E Street Band guitarist,

Miami's Steve Van Zandt, Springsteen's longtime friend

and de facto consigliere, Van Zandt told the Breckers

to put their charts away and sang new parts for each player

with exact timing, phrasing, and inflection.

(projector clacking) Hearing it recorded

as Van Zandt dictated, Springsteen responded,

Time to put the boy on the payroll.

♪ Tenth Avenue freeze-out ♪

♪ Tenth Avenue freeze-out ♪

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[Narrator] Jungleland, the album's finale

is a rock 'n' roll West Side Story,

a breathtaking saga of ambition and noir grandeur.

Springsteen introduces us

to the Magic Rat, (projector clacking)

the barefoot girl,

the Maximum Lawmen, the opera on the Turnpike,

and kids flashing guitars just like switchblades.

♪ Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners ♪

♪ Desperate as the night moves on ♪

♪ And just one look and a whisper ♪

♪ They're gone ♪

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[Narrator] The one indulgence on the record,

Jungleland runs well over nine glorious minutes

leading to what Springsteen himself called,

Clarence Clemons' greatest recorded moment,

a sax solo for the ages.

(Jungleland by Bruce Springsteen)

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Springsteen hated Born to Run when it was finished

chucking an early acetate into a swimming pool.

But decades later in his autobiography,

he acknowledged that Born to Run was the dividing line.

A wild commercial success that put him on the cover

of Time and Newsweek simultaneously,

it initiated a classic and influential period

in Springsteen's songwriting.

Even Springsteen would embrace the album.

When he and the E Street Band

played the Super Bowl in 2009, it was the source

for half of their four-song medley.

With the passion of Springsteen's characters

standing in for the songwriter and vice versa,

Born to Run remains

a high-octane rock 'n' roll milestone.

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