, 1984’s million-selling, seven top-ten-hits album that turned Springsteen into an international superstar. Then, of course, there’s Born in the U.S.A. On those records, the characters were yearning for escape, looking for a way out, trying to make sense of their lives. Yet just two years later, when he produced 1975’s Born to Run - and later, 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town - Springsteen knew who and what he wanted to write about. While on tour in 2015, Springsteen would describe his first four albums as “outsider records.” Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, from 1973, were full of tales of Jersey Shore legends and had strong moments, but were musically and lyrically unfocused, the work of a young songwriter trying to find his voice. Just as important, he’s exalted the “the majesty, the mystery, the ministry - of rock and roll!” as he used to declare onstage, capturing the heat and joy of a busy dance floor on a Saturday night, and his wholehearted belief in rock music as nothing less than a genuine force of liberation. He has explored the dark side of the American dream, broken promises, and the possibilities of salvation and redemption. The themes and characters he established on that song formed the basis of his work and persona, and for the past 43 years he’s continued to write about love, faith, hope, struggle, meaning, and identity. That’s when he finally figured out how to combine the crackle and power of the epic songs he wrote with the skill of compression, distilling the energy into a brisk 4:31 without losing impact.įiguring out how to make “Born to Run” work affected Springsteen’s songwriting process not only for the rest of the album of the same name, but for the rest of his career. It took Springsteen six months to turn that phrase, “Born to Run,” into a song, and it was a watershed moment for his work: the first time he wrote a song with the studio in mind rather than how it would sound onstage. In 1974, a random phrase popped into Bruce Springsteen’s head as he was writing, one that seemed to match the music he was hearing in his mind. This article was originally published in 2016 and has been updated to reflect Springsteen’s latest work, now including 2020’s Letter to You.
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