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Rating:
It is known that in the vast world of music, there are bands or solo singers who, having started their career, do not immediately achieve planetary success. Despite various artists creating debut albums that can be considered masterpieces, at the beginning, they are not met with the due warmth. This happened to the young Bruce Springsteen as well, who in the '70s did not gain much success with his first two albums. His two records were met with coldness, and the Boss, at the time, limited himself to playing in clubs and bars around the USA. He needed an album that would establish him at the continental level, an album with which to break into the world of rock n' roll. "I wanted to make a record that had the words of Bob Dylan and the music of Phil Spector. What I desired most, however, was to sing like Roy Orbison," Bruce Springsteen would declare. The album in question is called Born to Run and was released on August 25, 1975, after months of hard work in the studio with the E Street Band, which featured saxophonist Clarence Clemons. This album is pure, genuine rock n' roll.
It opens with Thunder Road, a track that captures you from the first notes. You can perceive the sublimity of the piano accompanied by the harmonica, and the Boss's singing overwhelms you with its warmth but also with its melancholy. Like the other songs on the album, Thunder Road has the American dream as its main theme, and in the lyrics, a classic story is told in which Bruce presents us with a boy who, in an America full of problems, promises a better world, a better life to his girl, despite knowing that many promises will not be kept. Thunder Road is an anthem to escape, to escape understood as a way to win, to achieve happiness. The following song, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, is a beautiful jazz-sounding piece with the ever-present piano's sweet notes being overshadowed by Clarence Clemons's saxophone. Max Weinberg, a member of the E Street Band, keeps the rhythm on the drums. Night, third on the list, is a three-minute, very catchy song with a nice pace, healthy and genuine rock n' roll, which gives way to Backstreets, a poignant work of piano and organ, both played by Roy Bittan, in a poignant introduction that prepares Bruce for the vocals.
The B-side of the album starts with a heavy hitter of the Boss, the track that best describes the artist, the main piece of the entire album, a wonder par excellence: the title track, Born to Run, a rock n' roll piece with a memorable introduction and significant lyrics, which predictably talk about the American dream. We are born to run; we are just vagabonds waiting for a better world, a promised land where we can walk under the sun, the land where everything is okay and where we feel good. She's the One, the second track on the B-side, is dominated by the harpsichord that accompanies Bruce's singing throughout the song. At the end of the song, Clemons takes off with one of his marvelous saxophone solos. She's the One gives way to Meeting Across the River, a marvelous poignant piece in which Bruce's voice couldn't be better, and the piano moves the listener. Closing the album is a considerably lengthy track: in rock n' roll standards, a song shouldn't exceed 5-6 minutes, but there are exceptions, like this piece. Jungleland is very evocative as a song: the lyrics talk about gang fights, a love story, and a night lived intensely. The album closes with this heavy hitter, featuring numerous tempo changes and various solos.
A marvelous album, a sublime album, an album that leaves no stone unturned, pure rock n' roll full of charisma on the one hand, and sweetness on the other. One of the jewels of the '70s, an essential album.
"I have seen the future of rock n' roll, it is called Bruce Springsteen" said journalist Jon Landau after attending a concert by the Boss at the time. And with this phrase, I close this review that I hope you will enjoy.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Thunder Road (04:50)
The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
Darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me
You can hide `neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well, now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow
Back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh-oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey, I know it's late, we can make it if we run
Oh-oh-oh-oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold
Thunder Road
Well I got this guitar
And I've learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win
02 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (03:12)
Tear drops on the city
Bad Scooter searching for his groove
Seem like the whole world walking pretty
And you can't find the room to move
Well, everybody better move over, that's all
'Cause I'm running on the bad side
And I got my back to the wall
Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Well, I was stranded in the jungle
Trying to take in all the heat they was giving
The night is dark but the sidewalk's bright
And lined with the light of the living
From a tenement window a transistor blasts
Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast
I walked into a Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Tenth Avenue freeze-out
And I'm all alone, I'm all alone
And kid you better get the picture
And I'm on my own, I'm on my own
And I can't go home
When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city
All the little pretties raise their hands
I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
With a Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Tenth Avenue freeze-out...
04 Backstreets (06:31)
One soft infested summer
Me and Terry became friends
Trying in vain to breathe
The fire we was born in
Catching rides to the outskirts
Tyin' faith between our teeth
Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house
Getting wasted in the heat
And hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
With a love so hard and filled with defeat
Running for our lives at night on them backstreets
Slow dancing in the dark
On the beach at Stockton's Wing
Where desperate lovers park
We sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings
Huddled in our cars
Waithing for the bells that ring
In the deep heart of the night
They set us loose of everything
To go running on the backstreets
Running on the backstreets
Terry you swore we'd live forever
Taking it on them backstreets together
Endless juke joints and Valentino drag
Where famous dancers scraped the the tears
Up off the streets dressed down in rags
Running into the darkness
Some hurt bad some really dying
At night sometimes it seemed
You could hear that whole damn city crying
Blame it on the lies that killed us
blame it on the truth that ran us down
You can blame it all on me Terry
It don't matter to me now
When the breakdown hit at midnight
There was nothing left to say
But I hated him
And I hated you when you went away
Laying here in the dark
You're like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts
Cring tears of faithlessness
Remember all the movies, Terry
We'd go see
Tring to learn to walk like the heroes
We thought we had to be
And after all this time
To find we're just like all the rest
Stranded in the park
And forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Where we swore forever friends
On the backstreets until the end
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets...
05 Born to Run (04:30)
In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway nine,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin' out over the line
H-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
Yes, girl we were
Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
And strap your hands 'cross my engines
Together we could break this trap
We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back
H-Oh, Will you walk with me out on the wire
`Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta know how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
Babe I want to know if love is real
Oh, can you show me
Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
Girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the street tonight
In an everlasting kiss
One, two, three, four
The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
But there's no place left to hide
Together Wendy we can live with the sadness
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
H-Oh, Someday girl I don't know when
We're gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go
And we'll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
Baby we were born to run
Oh honey, tramps like us
Baby we were born to run
Come on with me, tramps like us
Baby we were born to run
06 She's the One (04:31)
With her killer graces and her secret places
That no boy can fill with her hands on her hips
Oh and that smile on her lips
Because she knows that it kills me
With her soft french cream
Standing in that doorway like a dream
I wish she'd just leave me alone
Because french cream won't soften them boots
And french kisses will not break that heart of stone
With her long hair falling
And her eyes that shine like a midnight sun
Oh-o she's the one, she's the one
That Thunder in your heart
At night when you're kneeling in the dark
It says you're never gonna leave her
But there's this angel in her eyes
That tells such desperate lies
And all you want to do is believe her
And tonight you'll try just one more time
To leave it all behind and to break on through
Oh she can take you, but if she wants to break you
She's gonna find out that ain't so easy to do
And no matter where you sleep tonight or how far you run
Oh-o she's the one, she's the one
Oh-o and just one kiss
She'd fill them long summer nights
With her tenderness that secret pact you made
Back when her love could save you from the bitterness
Oh she's the one, oh she's the one
Oh she's the one, oh she's the one
08 Jungleland (09:34)
The Rangers had a homecoming
In Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine
Over the Jersey State line
Barefoot girl sittin' on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance
And disappear down Flamingo Lane
Well the Maximum Lawmen run down Flamingo
Chasing the Rat and the Barefoot Girl
And the kids round here look just like shadows
Always quiet, holdin' hands
From the churches to the jails
Tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand
Down in Jungleland
The midnight gang's assembled
And picked a renedzvous for the night
They'll meet me 'neath that giant Exxon sign
That brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out on the Turnpike
There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Until the local cops
Cherry tops
Rips this holy night
The street's alive
As secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they vanish unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades
Hustlin' for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted
Explode into rock'n'roll bands
That face off against each other out in the street
Down in Jungleland
In the parking lot the visionaries
Dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancin'
To the records that the DJ plays
Lonely-hearted lovers
Struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on
Just one look
And a whisper, and they're gone
Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines runnin' through a night so tender
In a bedroom locked
In whispers of soft refusal
And then surrender
In the tunnels uptown
The Rat's own dream guns him down
As shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches as the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light
Outside the street's on fire
In a real death waltz
Between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here
Don't write nothin' at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of a knife
They reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded
And not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland
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Other reviews
By Massimof
The history of rock has passed through "Born To Run". It passed through and enriched itself.
"Thunder Road"... makes anyone who listens fall in love after only 10 seconds.
By Rover
"Springsteen has written his dreams into rock legends, if one evening you feel like disappearing down Flamingo Lane too, press play."
"Songs full of passion, shouted with all the breath one has in the body, with that cry when the heart is too swollen with desires, too oppressed by a reality you don’t want."
By Luck94
'Born to Run' highlights some changes compared to the past: the sound has become more solid, massive, and the songs acquire an epic dimension.
Springsteen manages to narrate the end of the American dream, the desire to escape to start anew while there's still time.
