Classics Revisited: Bruce Springsteen ‘Born to Run’

***Note from the Editor: Our old friend Jared Davis has done a review or two for ohmpark in the past as our Louisiana corespondent, but he is moving to Atlanta this summer and will be doing this new series “Classics Revisited”. With Bonnaroo next week, this seems like an appropriate record to start with. Enjoy:

I realize that this album at this time might be considered cliché. After all Springsteen did just play this past Super Bowl and if I remember correctly he opened with “10th Avenue Freeze-Out.” One of the band members is the bandleader for Conan O’Brian and another band member was a member of The Soprano’s cast. But that doesn’t change the fact the sound of this album is timeless as well as the lyrical content. Hell, the look that Springsteen has on the cover is still worn today by many hipsters. It also seems a lot of young people haven’t heard much Springsteen, and if they have they’ve only heard a few songs and labeled it dad-rock and put it to the side. Well it would be good to familiar yourself with his music, you might end up like The Arcade Fire and make a career off stealing his sound (the first time I heard “Keep the Car Running” I thought it was a long lost Springsteen B-side). Enough with the introduction let’s get to the album.

There are 2 themes to the album: a lyrical theme and a musical theme and they both compliment each other to make the sound of the album epic. The musical theme is that of the Wall of Sound technique that was invented/perfected by Phil Spector. A lot of critics and fans complain about this and think it clutters up the sound but I don’t feel this way at all. In fact I didn’t even really notice the similarities of the production techniques until I read about this album and found out that’s the sound Springsteen was going for. Once I did know that though, it was obvious that that’s the sound he’s going for. I realize people say the Wall of Sound only works for girl groups and straight pop music but I think it works perfectly here to give the album a giant larger-than-life feel. I mean can you imagine a Born to Run: Naked album, that would be awful.

The lyrical theme is a theme that can still be felt today, the feeling escaping and moving to a big city to follow your dreams. This is the feeling that every hipster in small town/suburbia America deals with every day. Just look at hipsterrunnoff and you’ll see at least 5 posts about “feeling trapped in suburbia”, well that’s what The Boss is talking about this whole album just about. The two tracks that confront this the best are the opening track “Thunder Road” (covered by Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Tortoise) and the title track “Born to Run.”  On “Thunder Road” Springsteen tells the story of two teenagers (male and female) contemplating whether or not to just ditch the town their living in and head out on the open road but it’s a love story as well. Some of the lines on this song are some of Springsteen’s more memorable lines, lines like “Don’t turn me home again, I just can’t face myself alone again” which is really just a glorified way of saying don’t send me home to masturbate again, and the famous line “You ain’t a beauty but hey you’re alright, Oh and that’s alright with me” is a feeling that any male over the age of 12 has felt. The song closes with a line of hope “It’s a town full of losers And I’m pulling out of here to win.” Ending the first track and starting the album off with a bright outlook.

“Born to Run” is a great tale about the same thing just about but the sound is completely different. This song is the epitome of the Wall of Sound on this album. It took 6 months to record and is the reason a member of the mob joined the band (wait, I was just told that The Soprano’s wasn’t a reality show…). The drums have that 60’s Spector beat/sound thanks to Max Weinberg joining the band on this album. The guitar tone during the solo, Oh Lord the guitar tone, how did you get that tone Bruce? Is it that crazy Fender you have on the cover? Well however he got it I’m glad he did because he turns this song into a full blown rocker when he hits that solo. “Born to Run” has a glockenspiel just like “Thunder Road” to help give it that Wall of Sound feel, which in 1975 there probably wasn’t a song in the top 40 that had a glockenspiel in it other than this. Hell, there probably hasn’t been another song in the top 40 since then to have a glockenspiel in it. The sax solo adds to the grand sound of the song, which is probably why they let Clarence Clemons be on the cover; well sort of be on the cover (on the vinyl it folds out to reveal more of him). The guitar hook is as catchy as Springsteen ever gets, and the break down is beautiful. Bruce’s vocal performance is as strong as he ever got as well. This song to me is the epitome of Bruce Springsteen. I could talk about other songs but I’m not the type to do a song by song review. Just know every song on here is good and none sound out of place.

This album was re-released in 2005 as a 30th anniversary edition CD which can be found at any store. It can easily be found if you know how to use rapidshare/google/bittorrent. But really the only way to listen to this album is on vinyl. I’m not saying that to sound like a pretentious asshole. I’m saying that because the album is set-up as a 2 sided album with each side starting with inspiring songs about escape (“Thunder Road”, “Born to Run”) and ending with gloomy songs of defeat and struggle (“Backstreets”, “Jungleland”). Besides you should be able to get it at any flea market or used record store for cheap it’s not a rarity in any sense. Do yourself a favor and pick this classic up.

Buy Born To Run

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