Buzzin Music Blog

“I have just seen the future of rock and roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
That was the verdict of rock critic Jon Landau on seeing Springsteen perform Born to run for the first time in May 1974.
Born to run first appeared in its studio guise the following year, the title track of this truly classic album. In his constant search for perfection Springsteen had recorded several versions of Born to run, experimenting with various backing tracks including a female chorus. He once said that he was searching for the “Phil Spector wall of sound”, made famous by numerous female groups in the sixties.

Born to run became an instant anthem to the rapidly increasing number of Springsteen fans. It summed up the mood of the whole album as well as the mood of a generation suddenly aware that a new spokesman was emerging.
Curiously, the whole album is terribly under produced a fact later alluded to when Springsteen said that he was never happy with the end product and would some day like to re-record it
Springsteen was 24 years old when he wrote the song and he considered it to be his “shot at the title” his chance to make the greatest rock and roll record ever.
Reflecting the political climate, world wide, in the early seventies, Born to run is a story of two young lovers desperate to find their dream, away from the horrors of every day life. Summed up in the chorus:
“Someday girl, I don’t know when, we`re gonna get to that place where we really want go,
And we`ll walk in the sun, but till then tramps like us baby we we`re born to run.”
The passion of the performance is echoed in the lyrics “I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight in an everlasting kiss”.
The “wall of sound” came courtesey of the excellent E street band featuring the extraordinary talent of Clarence Clemmons on saxophone once again finding common ground with those earlier Spector classics.
The truth is Springsteen was at his best as a live performer. With his excellent E street band and Miami horns et all, the live shows were an incredible feast. Often on stage for four or five hours at a time the band had an incredible energy. That energy was never really apparent in their studio recordings, and as good as Born to run is, in its original format, the best recorded version appeared some ten years later on the triple live boxed set.
There is also an acoustic version, again recorded live, in 1988.

Despite the success of Born to run Springsteen retained a cult status until the release of Born in the USA in 1984 which was a hugely commercial album by his standards. The ever honest springsteen immediatley regretted “having sold out” and vowed to return to his musical roots.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6se90rFN1qI Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band, live version of Born to run.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mfzov0Cq90o Accoustic version live 1988