Bruce Springsteen

Looseleaf manuscript in black ballpoint pen with numerous revisions to the iconic song. 8 ½ inches by 11 inches.

New Jersey’s beloved voice of the working class, Born to Run was a fresh start for The Boss, whose sound and style had matured in its ambition, growing far more complex. To craft the album, Springsteen called on a vast array of musical influences—including Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Phil Spector—and the general feelings of post-Vietnam, Watergate-era cynicism which resonated with a listener base increasingly disillusioned with American life. 

Springsteen grew obsessed with crafting the perfect album—an undertaking which would pay off in dividends as Born to Run exploded into the quintessentially-American sonic masterpiece it is exalted as today. Beyond “certainty and precision,” as put by Lester Bangs in a 1975 issue of Creem, obsession and perfection punctuated Springsteen’s approach to his music, a notion particularly palpable on the album’s title track. A perfectionist through and through, Springsteen spent six months writing, reworking, and ultimately recording “Born to Run”—a laborious and iterative process that took nearly half of the album’s total production time and yielded some 150 versions along the way. This version reveals a song that is close to completion.

Both the song and the album wrestle with familiar tropes—of lust, romance, the open road, dead ends, adolescent angst—a true celebration of the realities of the American spirit. Throughout, Springsteen does not broach themes fundamentally fresh or different. Rather, he breathes new life into these everyday American scenes, illustrating grand soundscapes through evocative storytelling and impeccable production. 

Deeply American yet universally resonant, both “Born to Run” and the overarching album have cemented their place in the annals of American music—two of the most highly-praised products of the uniquely American musical experience that is rock ’n’ roll.