Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
“I saw rock 'n' roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” Born to Run is the third album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was released on August 25, 1975 through Columbia Records. It captured the heaviness of Springsteen's earlier releases while displaying a more diverse range of influences. With this album, Springsteen finally achieved what had eluded him with his first two: both critical and commercial success. Tracks like "Born To Run," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Jungleland" and "Thunder Road" have since become classic rock standards. Where his first albums had been recorded on the cheap in less than a week, this one took more than a year. Columbia Records made a huge investment in producing and promoting the album, considering it Springsteen's last chance to make it big. The investment paid off, as the album is now in the Library of Congress registry of historic recordings. Born to Run was a critical and commercial success and became Springsteen's breakthrough album. It peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, eventually selling six million copies in the US by the year 2000. Two singles were released from the album: "Born to Run" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"; the first helped Springsteen to reach mainstream popularity. The tracks "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" became staples of album-oriented rock radio and Springsteen concert high points. It entered the album chart three times: when it was released, ten years later when Born In The U.S.A. was released, and again in 2005 when the 30th anniversary edition was released.
<b>100 Best Albums</b> Bruce Springsteen’s third album is as close to a perfect record as he would ever make. His first two efforts had featured epic tales, populated with wild characters. But with <i>Born to Run</i>, released in 1975, he finally cracked the cypher on how to compress and tighten those long-form stories—making the songs easier for listeners to absorb, and for radio DJs to spin. Springsteen envisioned <i>Born to Run</i> as a song cycle, one that starts at daybreak and ends at dawn, with the harmonica in “Thunder Road” acting as reveille, and with “Jungleland” at the end bringing the curtain down—in more ways than one. In between, there’s plenty of drama and noir, with Springsteen’s vivid characters getting into trouble down dark alleys, where they fight for freedom (or, at least, redemption). The mid-album highlight is the title track, which Springsteen would later pinpoint as the moment he learned to successfully combine power and emotion—lyrically <i>and</i> musically—in a shorter form, while still delivering the same impact his longer epics did. “Born to Run” became an anthem for FM rock radio, with stations in cities like Cleveland and New York playing it at 5 pm on Fridays to commemorate the start of the weekend. <i>Born To Run</i> also marks the first record in which Springsteen had more impact on the album’s overall sound. He sought help in its arrangement and production from his good friend Steven Van Zandt, as well as the music writer Jon Landau (who’d later become Springsteen’s manager). Together, they fashioned a record that sounded like a grittier, more fantastical version of Phil Spector’s infamous Wall of Sound. Perhaps most importantly, though, <i>Born to Run</i> was the album that solidified the lineup of the E Street Band: Pianist Roy Bittan and drummer Max Weinberg had recently joined the group, giving Springsteen a backing team that not only had solid musical chops, but also an energy that matched the challenge in front of them. <i>Born to Run</i> manages to feel exhilarating, heartbreaking, thoughtful and tragic—the truly defining moment for Springsteen as a performer and as a songwriter.
