Born to Run - Springsteen, Bruce (Cassette 1987)

"and I'm pulling out of here to win." That closing line of "Thunder Road" sets the tone for one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded.

"Born to Run" was released in my senior year of high school and I figured that, between the cover stories on Time and Newsweek and my fixation on King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, I would let this one pass by. In other words, this album left no mark on me when it was initially released.

A few years later one of my fraternity brothers had a spare ticket to a Springsteen concert at Northwestern and he dragged me along. After that, I was hooked. I had never seen or heard such a combination of energy, style, emotion, and sheer power. That three a half hour 1978 show still remains the best concert I have ever seen, and that includes five other Springsteen shows.

That leads us to a discussion of "Born to Run", Springsteen's 1975 break-out album and still arguably his best effort. The album opens with the lilting harmonica/piano duet of "Thunder Road", a duet that gradually transforms into an avalanche of sound and emotion. The song, my vote for the best rock and roll tune of all time, eschews the usual A/A/B/A structure of rock tunes, never repeats a refrain or verse, and sweeps the listener along as instrument piles upon instrument, the pace accelerates, and Clarence Clemons finishes off with a majestic if straightforward sax solo. The song is carefully-crafted structure of three very distinct components, a marriage of desperation and hope, with hope winning out this time.

"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" follows, a somewhat cliched but popular song about Bruce joining up with Clarence. The third tune, "Night", is the weakest on the album and is merely filler. The first side concludes with the extraordinary "Backstreets", an eight-minute tragedy of busted love on the beach with Springsteen bleeding his guts out as he wails "at night sometimes it seemed you could hear that whole damn city crying."

The second side begins with the rock anthem "Born to Run", never a favorite of mine but some people like it, which then mashes into the show-stopper "She's the One". The pace suddenly changes with the halting "Meeting Across the River", sung in the first person about a loser who is about to meet his doom and featuring some beautiful horn work by one of the Brecker brothers. The album concludes with "Jungleland", another concert anthem dominated by Clemons' sax solo two thirds of the way through.

Between the wall-of-sound production, the superb writing, and the musicianship, this remains after all these years one of those desert island albums. Springsteen fans (and I'm not a megafan) don't have to be convinced of the greatness of this album. People who aren't fans should forget about "Born in the U.S.A." and Springsteen's reputation as a rock icon and give this album a long, honest listen. Look, even my wife likes this album. Give it a spin already.