{"id":40277,"date":"2025-08-24T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=40277"},"modified":"2025-08-25T23:47:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:47:53","slug":"bruce-springsteens-born-to-run-still-speaks-to-a-nation-vacillating-between-hope-and-despair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/bruce-springsteens-born-to-run-still-speaks-to-a-nation-vacillating-between-hope-and-despair\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u2018Born to Run\u2019 still speaks to a nation vacillating between hope and despair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Louis P. Masur<\/a>, Rutgers University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was 18 when Bruce Springsteen\u2019s third album, \u201cBorn to Run<\/a>,\u201d was released 50 years ago, and it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d just finished my freshman year in college, and I was lost. My high school girlfriend had broken up with me by letter. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was stuck back in my parents\u2019 apartment in the Bronx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when I dropped the record onto my Panasonic turntable and Springsteen sang, \u201cSo you\u2019re scared and you\u2019re thinking\/That maybe we ain\u2019t that young anymore\u201d on the opening track, \u201cThunder Road<\/a>,\u201d I felt as if he were speaking directly to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no song moved me more than the album\u2019s title track, \u201cBorn to Run<\/a>.\u201d How I longed for that sort of love \u2013 and how I also felt strangled by the \u201crunaway American dream.\u201d The song was about getting out, but also about searching for a companion. I, too, was a \u201cscared and lonely rider\u201d who craved arriving at a special place. Decades later, I combined the personal and the professional and wrote a book about the making and meaning of the album<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All eyes on the Boss<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The album was shaped by the times, particularly the malaise<\/a> of the post-Vietnam and post-Watergate American landscape. There was an energy crisis<\/a>, and it wasn\u2019t only oil that was in short supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The excitement of the 1960s had passed, and rock \u2019n\u2019 roll itself was in the doldrums. Elvis had become a Las Vegas lounge act<\/a>; the Beatles had broken up<\/a>; Bob Dylan had been a recluse since his motorcycle accident in 1966<\/a>. The No. 1 hit in 1975 was \u201cLove Will Keep Us Together<\/a>,\u201d by the Captain and Tennille. Obituaries to rock music appeared regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Springsteen went into the studio feeling the pressure to produce. His first two albums had received good reviews but sold poorly. After seeing a show in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1974, writer Jon Landau proclaimed Springsteen<\/a> \u201cthe future of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.\u201d Springsteen wore the label uneasily, though he had more than enough ambition to try and fulfill the prophecy: He later called<\/a> \u201cBorn to Run,\u201d \u201cmy shot at the title, a 24-year-old kid aiming at the greatest rock \u2019n\u2019 roll record ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the studio, he struggled. It took him six months to record the title song. He kept rewriting the lyrics and experimenting with different sounds. He was composing epics: \u201cTenth Avenue Freeze Out<\/a>,\u201d \u201cBackstreets<\/a>,\u201d \u201cJungleland<\/a>.\u201d And he was trying to tie it all together thematically as his characters searched for love and connection and endured disappointment and heartbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Springsteen was finally done with the album, he hated it. He even threw a test pressing into a pool<\/a>. But Landau, who had come on to co-produce, convinced him to release it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry for the masses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite Springsteen\u2019s apprehension, the response to \u201cBorn to Run\u201d was remarkable. Hundreds of thousands of copies<\/a> flew off the shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Springsteen appeared on the covers of Newsweek<\/a> and Time, where he was hailed as \u201cRock\u2019s New Sensation<\/a>.\u201d Writing in Rolling Stone<\/a>, critic Greil Marcus called it \u201ca magnificent album that pays off on every bet ever placed on him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was backlash from some corners: critics who resented all the hype Springsteen had received and who thought the music bombastic<\/a>. But most agreed with John Rockwell of The New York Times, who praised the album\u2019s songs as<\/a> \u201cpoetry that attains universality. \u2026 You owe it to yourself to buy this record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An operatic drama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The album pulsates between hope and despair. Side 1 carries listeners from the elation of \u201cThunder Road\u201d to the heartbreak of \u201cBackstreets,\u201d and Side 2 repeats the trajectory, from the exhilaration of \u201cBorn to Run\u201d to the anguish of \u201cJungleland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt I knew the characters in these songs \u2013 Mary and Wendy, Terry and Eddie \u2013 and I identified with the narrator\u2019s struggles and dreams. They all wrestled with feeling stuck. They longed for something bigger and more exciting. But what was the price to pay for taking the leap \u2013 whether for love or the open road?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These lyrical, operatic songs about freedom and fate, triumph and tragedy, still resonate, even though today\u2019s music is more likely to emphasize beats, samples and software than extended guitar and saxophone solos. Springsteen continues to tour, and fans young and old fill arenas and stadiums to hear him because rock \u2019n\u2019 roll still has something to say, still makes you shout, still makes you feel alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing to want so much, and to expect so much from music,\u201d Springsteen said in 2005<\/a>, \u201cexcept sometimes it happens \u2013 the Sun Sessions, Highway 61, Sgt. Peppers, the Band, Robert Johnson, Exile on Main Street, Born to Run \u2013 whoops, I meant to leave that one out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fall 1975, I played \u201cBorn to Run\u201d over and over in my dorm room. I\u2019d stare at Eric Meola\u2019s cover photograph<\/a> of a smiling Springsteen in leather jacket and torn T-shirt, his guitar pointing out and upward as he gazes toward his companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who wouldn\u2019t want to join Springsteen and his legendary saxophonist, Clarence Clemons<\/a>, on their journey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That October, I went on a first date with a girl. We\u2019ve been married 44 years, and the stirring declaration from \u201cBorn to Run\u201d has proven true time and again: \u201clove is wild, love is real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Saxophonist Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen and guitarist Steven Van Zandt perform in the U.K. during the European leg of the \u2018Born to Run\u2019 tour. Andrew Putler\/Redferns via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Louis P. Masur<\/a>, Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History, Rutgers University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Louis P. Masur, Rutgers University I was 18 when Bruce Springsteen\u2019s third album, \u201cBorn to Run,\u201d was released 50 years ago, and it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. I\u2019d just finished my freshman year in college, and I was lost. My high school girlfriend had broken up with me by letter. I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":40278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,279,8025,7,10,40,296,36,38],"tags":[6271,7918,16804,9434,2953,885,891,886,860,16802,5588,16803,2121,16805,2309],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40301,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40277\/revisions\/40301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}