TRACK LIST:
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | “Thunder Road“ | 4:49 |
| 2. | “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out“ | 3:11 |
| 3. | “Night“ | 3:00 |
| 4. | “Backstreets“ | 6:30 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | “Born to Run“ | 4:30 |
| 2. | “She’s the One“ | 4:30 |
| 3. | “Meeting Across the River“ | 3:18 |
| 4. | “Jungleland“ | 9:34 |
| Total length: | 39:23 | |
Fifty years ago this week I bought a copy of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album. The album had been released on August 25, 1975 and was an immediate hit. “Born to Run,” the single, garnered heavy radio play. But what I did not know before reading Peter Ames Carlin’s new book, Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run, was that Columbia Records was about to drop Bruce Springsteen because his first two albums–Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, while critical successes, disappointed the executives at Columbia with their meager sales.
Springsteen’s career was at risk while he was working on Born to Run–he knew the stakes. It’s clear from Calin’s book, that Springsteen decided to take some risks with Born to Run. He brought in new band members like drummer Max Weinberg. Springsteen also brought in rock columnist Jon Landau to co-produce Born to Run. The risks brought Springsteen and the E Street Band the fame they craved.
Peter Ames Carlin presents the recording process of Born to Run and the twists and turns in Springsteen’s tweaking of the lyrics and the arrangements. Strings were added–then subtracted. Backup singers came and went. The low tech recording equipment of 1975 also caused problems. But the story of how all these problems were overcome to produce a classic album is compelling.
Are you a fan of Born to Run? GRADE: A (for the album and the book)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Prologue — 1
- Chapter 1: Watch the World Explode — 3
- Chapter 2: Nashville — 10
- Chapter 3: Lost in the Flood — 23
- Chapter 4: I Know Where You Live — 33
- Chapter 5: Carnival Weekend — 43
- Chapter 6: Rock ’n’ Roll Future — 52
- Chapter 7: Growing Young with Rock and Roll — 59
- Chapter 8: Walk with Me Out on the Wire — 67
- Chapter 9: Welcome to E Street — 75
- Chapter 10: The Poets Around Here Don’t Write Nothing at All — 87
- Chapter 11: Wings for Wheels — 95
- Chapter 12: The E Street Dance — 102
- Chapter 13: Magic in the Night — 110
- Chapter 14: Like a Vision — 116
- Chapter 15: All the Wonder It Brings — 123
- Chapter 16: Scooter and the Big Man — 129
- Chapter 17: It’s Elephants, Baby! — 138
- Chapter 18: And Then You Were the Psychopath — 147
- Chapter 19: The Heist — 154
- Chapter 20: Tonight in Jungleland — 165
- Chapter 21: Kutztown — 176
- Chapter 22: The Bottom Line — 187
- Chapter 23: Flying by the Seat of My Pants — 199
- Chapter 24: Backlash — 209
- Chapter 25: The Other Thunder Road — 218
- Epilogue — 229
- Acknowledgments — 235
- Bibliography — 249
Can’t believe it’s been 50 years since the Boss graced the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week! Of course I’m a fan. My favorite song on this album is “10th Avenue Freeze Out”—but all the songs are great, classics even.
Deb, I loved BORN TO RUN from the first time I played the album 50 years ago this week. “10th Avenue Freeze Out” is stone cold classic!
I like Springsteen well enough without ever being a real fan. We’ve only bought one or two of his albums.
One highlight, though, was having him as a surprise guest singing “Old Time Rock and Roll” with Bob Seger at Madison Square Garden on December 1, 2011.
Jeff, I regret I never went to a Springsteen concert. Friends who have say the energy is off the charts and the Bruce and the E Street Band played for over three hours!
Yes, I am a fan-although mostly of the early stuff since I don’t listen to any new stuff. Podcasts have ruined me for music.
Patti, I still listen to my music CDs when I’m driving around running errands. But, Nissan doesn’t include CD players in their vehicles anymore…
I had a CD player installed in a car years ago. Wonder if it’s still doable
Maggie, I have a friend who also had a CD player installed in his new Honda. He says it works great!
I’m not a fan but this was certainly one of the more emblematic albums of its time, when record producers rn the roost and a heavily produced record became an art form of sorts in is own right, often far removed from how the music itself sounded when performed live.
Likewise rock critics and rockism had an enormous influence on music and its perception on the album-oriented listeners of the day, which makes the influence of Landau here interesting and also somewhat questionable. I’m reminded of a scene in the semi-autobiographical Paul Simon movie, “One Trick Pony,” where a big gun producer (played by Lou Reed) is brought into the studio by the record company to “fix” Simon’s record by dumping strings, the obligatory heavy sax solo and backup singers into the mix, making it all sound more radio friendly while subsequently ruining the album.
I remember well how this album, much like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” a half decade later, were virtually inescapable on the radio for years afterwards. I also can’t help but think of how popular music, especially rock, of this era had a distinctively “big” sound that I confess was one of its main attractions at the time. So much new music now just sounds like the blandest aural equivalent of Panera soup.
Byron, I love your Penera soup analogy! Yes, like you I find most contemporary music bland and commercial. “Born to Run” ruled the radio stations in Western NY in the mid-1970s. The Big Sound later transitioned to Heavy Metal in the 1980s.
LOVE Bruce Springsteen/Born to Run!
This was the first album Joe gave me because I HAD to hear it.
I saw Bruce and the E Street Band during The River tour.
I just picked up the book last week but I know it won’t disappoint.
Beth, TONIGHT IN JUNGLELAND really takes you behind the scenes of constructing an album in 1975. I’m a fan Bruce Springsteen and Peter Ames Carlin!
Meh! I can take him or leave him!
Bob, I own all of Springsteen’s albums so I’m taking him!