First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
This is a special Friday Morning Listen in more ways than one. Normally my thoughts and words swirl around that first recording ingested at the start of the weekend. This week though, I've invited a couple of guests to celebrate the 30th Anniversary re-release of Bruce Springsteen's iconic album Born To Run. Though we are all quite different people, our ties to this monumental record draw us together. And yes, I did listen to Born To Run on the way to work this morning....and yesterday and the day before that and...OK, every morning this week!
Please allow Blogcritics Lisa McKay and DJ Radiohead and myself to expose the madness in our souls.
Lisa McKay:
Well, Mark, you got the ball rolling on Tuesday when you described Born to Run as "a nearly perfect record." I agree with that description, and now here I am faced with the challenge of explaining why. Where do I even start?
This is probably the album I've listened to more times than anything else in my collection. I've never grown tired of it. I put it aside, sometimes for months at a time, but it eventually makes its way back into the rotation, and it always sounds fresh instead of nostalgic, unusual for an album that old. I think that for me, part of the impact of this album has to do with the timing of its release. I don't know what you guys were doing thirty years ago, but 1975 was a really huge year in my life. Specifically, between the end of May and the beginning of September of that year, I graduated from college, got married, and started grad school. It was quite literally the year I entered full-fledged adulthood, with all of the simultaneous terror and exhilaration that entails. This was the music that accompanied the transition, so to call it meaningful would be an understatement; Springsteen has, over the course of his life, written the soundtrack to my own. I said earlier that it always sounds fresh; I think that what I meant to say is that in spite of its high familiarity quotient, it never fails to evoke in me the same set of emotions. My favorite venue for listening to this album is my car, with the volume cranked way up.
This is one of those rare albums that never puts a foot wrong. There's no filler here, no tracks to skip over, no sense that you're listening to an emerging artist whose best work may be yet to come. His talent is already in full bloom here, and if he'd never written another song, this would still be one of the best records ever made, because Born to Run contains some of the finest songwriting of Springsteen's (or anyone's) career. From the first track, with Mary dancing across the porch to the radio, to the last, with that barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge, this record is rich with the visual imagery that recalls growing up in working class America, replete with cars, sex and young people looking to escape the dead end destiny of their elders. While none of that was particularly new to rock and roll, Springsteen infused all of it with a much larger theme—the idea that redemption was always a possibility, that the flame of hope was always flickering somewhere and would burn again if only we could find the love that would keep it alive. Not even the small-time loser who narrates "Meeting Across the River" has lost that hope, even if it's just the unrealistic promise of one last chance.
Article comments
1 - Mary K. Williams
Excellent, excellent stuff Lisa/DJ/Mark
I'm sure many will sure in your memories and reactions to these great sounds.
I'm thinking this is one for my Christmas list. Or, next time I'm out at the store - cuz I'm so impatient.
I too - have NO clue what 10th Avenue Freeze Out is. Unless someone shut someone else down on a 10th avenue?
2 - Mary K. Williams
Damn i guess I should preview before I publish. Definitely impatient.
I mean...share not 'sure'. SHeeshh.
3 - Connie Phillips
Mark (and guests to your column)this was just a wonderful read. The memories the three of you tie to the music remind me just how much our favorite music truly does become the soundtrack of our lives.
I too have my own set of memories attached to"Born to Run," and it was a lot of fun to read yours.
There is no denying how much of an impact Bruce and his songs have had on a whole generation. I look forward to reading part two.
4 - Mark Saleski
thanks connie.
you may have to wait 'til the middle of the week because dj radiohead was nearly hospitalized with shock over the intensity of the Live at the Hammersmith DVD.
i haven't heard a complete sentence outa him since!
5 - Connie Phillips
LOL - if it affected him that much, I'm sure it will be WELL worth the wait!
6 - DJRadiohead
Hammersmith.
Thunder.
Die happy. Now.
You. Buy. Will. Now. Go. Yes.
7 - Mark Saleski
i told ya!
8 - DJRadiohead
Getting the opportunity to write about "BTR" had me shuffling through some of the other Springsteen on my iPod (there is a lot).
I rediscovered a few gems I had not listened to in awhile. Do we have any "Missing" fans in here? I love tripping people out with that song because it is so different from most people's image of what Springsteen music sounds like. Plus, the song is sinister all fuck and I love me some sinister.
9 - Mark Saleski
you talking about "You're Missing"?
10 - ClubhouseCancer
Went to across the river to see Bruce last night at the Meadowlands. At one point, sitting at the piano, he said "Happy anniversary... I'm gonna try this one, I don't think I've ever tried it before..." And then...
"Hey, Eddie, can you lend me a few bucks...."
This fresh-as-the-headlines Bruce anecdote is expressly intended to please Mark Saleski. Any other use of this anecdote is prohibited.
11 - Mark Saleski
oooh, that hurts.
here's the setlist from last night:
1. Born In The USA
2. Devils And Dust
3. Atlantic City
4. Long Time Comin'
5. Used Cars
6. Frankie
7. Meeting Across The River
8. Johnny 99
9. Ain't Got You
10. Brilliant Disguise
11. Maria's Bed
12. Cautious Man
13. Reno
14. Two For The Road
15. Drive All Night
16. The Rising
17. Lucky Town
18. Jesus Was An Only Son
19. Leah
20. The New Timer
21. Matamoros Banks
(encore)
22. I Wanna Marry You
23. Thundercrack
24. Born To Run
25. The Promised Land
26. Dream Baby Dream
oh, the pain. i missed this tour. what's the instrumentation? is it just bruce?
12 - DJRadiohead
Nope, "Missing." It's on "The Crossing Guard" soundtrack (and if you got the 3-CD version of "The Essential Bruce Springsteen").
You must hear it if you haven't.
13 - ClubhouseCancer
Yeah, just Bruce, on acoustic guitar, dobro, ukelele, (a lot of) piano, organ,electric piano and boot-stomping.
I wasn't totally pleased with the show, but "Thundercrack," "Johnny 99" (on scratchy dobro and sung through a bullet mike) and "Brilliant Disguise" with Patti were worth the price of admission. I'll do a real review if I have time.
14 - Lisa McKay
oh, the pain. i missed this tour. what's the instrumentation? is it just bruce?
It's just Bruce. He accompanies himself at various times on the guitar, harmonica, piano and electric organ. When we saw him in July, he stomped out a beat to one song on an electric drum pad on the floor. A lot of the stuff on these setlists comes from his quieter solo stuff, but the things you're used to hearing in full E Street mode have an incredible power to them when they're stripped of all the noise - it gives you the opportunity to appreciate how truly meaningful the lyrics are, and the emotion he generates in that setting is quite different.
15 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Missing is great! As is this! one of the best Friday Morning Listens ever, up there with the Outsider Music one that introduced me to Jandek!
16 - Joel Hess
First, I'm not prepared to accept that "Born To Run" was released 30 years ago. Didn't I just buy it a couple of months ago?
Wasn't it Time or Newsweek who labeled Springsteen Rock's new troubadour?
All the talk of the cinematic-nature of his music is right on. I have a picture in my mind when I listen to this album (CD?) and I'm in the middle of the movie right there with 'Wendy,' 'Mary,' 'Magic Rat,' 'the Ranger,' or 'the Big Man.'
Thanks Bruce for over 30 years of great stories...er music.
17 - DJRadiohead
Exactly, Duke! Every individual who has not heard "Missing" must acquire a copy. I bought the import single and have the 3-CD 'Essential' package.
It is Bruce like you have never heard him and it defies description.
18 - DJRadiohead
I don't know what took him so long to start playing our new American hymn on this tour, but he's finally playing "Across the Border" on pump organ.
Every church of every faith everywhere in every corner should be singing "Across the Border" until I tell them otherwise. That song and "My City of Ruins" have absolutely ruined my life foreer.
19 - gypsyman
My older brother bought this Born to Run in 75. It was love at first hear for me at 14. The next year we were in Toronto and Bruce showed up to play the old hockey arena.
Here's the hoot, I had won tickets to go see "aack" The Beach Boys who sorry i've never liked, day of the gig I'm so sick I can't get out of bed. My mom feeling sorry for me says I'll buy you a ticket for something else...hot damn says I. The who was sold out, so I picked the next concert..Bruce doing the Born to Run Tour.
January 1977 half the hockey arena so maybe 10,000 people at most...damn neat intimate by todays standards...It was and remains one of the top two rock and roll concerts I've ever seen.
I couldn't remember anything about the set list if you paid me...it was just one long orgasmic experience of what rock and roll should be. The only other band that matched him and E street were the Clash and then it was a toss up.
Really nice memories folks, takes you back to a more innocent time doesn't it. I think Bruce picked up the whole On The Road imagery and carried it into a new generation... Cars and energy and the sexuality of the two fused together is the epitomy of American rock and roll and beat rebellion. Nobody has come close to recapturing that aside from Bruce.
gypsyman