Bruce Springsteen
Born To Run

THE REVIEW

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.