Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK:

Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

This week's Recommendation of the Week is an album that was released 51 years ago this August, and, in my opinion, the greatest Rock N Roll album ever recorded. Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen is a Rock N Roll epic, and much like epic sagas and stories of classic literature, it builds character development and crescendos into a tragic but triumphant finale. It is essentially a Rock opera, but not in the standard sense of the term. Many Rock operas, such as Tommy, play out theatrically and are a stage show, with props and showcasing the story of one single protagonist throughout. This is where Born To Run is different, and what makes it more a coming-of-age saga with youth and age symbolically transferring seamlessly into life and death.

This is not a story of a hero, or at least in the traditional format of a “Greek” epic like The Iliad and The Odyssey. This is the story of the “loser”, or in reality, the kid that was supposed to amount to nothing.  It is a beautiful masterpiece that channels Roy Orbison and the tragic passion of the Phil Spector “Wall Of Sound”, while existing lyrically, poetically and spiritually in the worlds of Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman and J.D. Salinger. It is special, timeless and has enough drama to crush a heart, while filled with enough power and action to blow a hole through one's core and crack the Earth.

Autobiographical in its themes, Bruce Springsteen takes us on a journey through his “breaking through” and realizing his dreams despite all the things holding him back. It is an introspective journey through the insecurities, passions, desires and fears of a person “just trying to get out”. This journey sees us through a cinematic saga of dramatic 1950’s imagery of a lost soul in search of his “American Dream”.

At first glance, when you think of Born To Run, it might give you feelings of fist pumping, bravado, toxic patriotism, and “macho” masculinity and chest pounding. It might conjure images of John Wayne or many other manufactured “American Heroes”. Those characters aren’t real and that isn’t this story. This is much more true, genuine and raw. It cuts right to the heart and soul of a person who is in search of their own destiny and their own identity. The level of passion and emotional care that Bruce puts into his characters is astounding. These are real, flawed individuals who are just trying to survive in this world, a world that doesn’t care about their outcome. Their real enemy isn’t outside though, it's inside, and lives deep within.

That is the essence of Born To Run.

Right from the opening notes of “Thunder Road”, we are graced with vivid imagery of perfect, quiet, somewhat mundane life. However, this imagery creates romanticism like no other, with each detail painting the picture as it goes, in vivid colors and hues. It’s dreamlike, borrowing from all the great novels of post-war America, small town 1950’s America. In each of those novelizations, like Salinger’s “Catcher in The Rye” or Kerouac’s “The Town and The City”, we catch a glimpse of simple ideological life, the stuff that 1950’s Americana is made of. These characters, a personification of Bruce and others in his world, aren’t happy with the mundane, the Normal. In this town, the Normal is factory life, family life, and little box houses dotting the streets. It’s being married, kids, bills and work. It’s 9-5, cookouts and 4th of July parades. It’s all those images you know. That’s not to say that is a life of hell, because it isn’t. That’s a good, simple life and one worthy of great admiration. There’s great poetry and romantic ideals to that life for sure. Hell, it’s the definition of the American Dream that inspired generations and one that Hollywood built a legacy upon.

However, our protagonist is young and yearning, agitated and itching for desire, passion, and something more. They are on the inside and see the story differently than our arial view of Norman Rockwell, USA. They see the longing, pain, desire, devastating self-doubt, and disappointment in the faces of their peers, their family, but most of all, themselves. As they look in the mirror each morning, they don’t see a “Rockwellian character”, they see Holden Caulfield, of “Catcher in The Rye” or Sal Paradise in Kerouac’s “On The Road”, bursting inside to find the guts of what life actually is. They want to taste it, feel it and certainly live it, and this town is not a place where that can happen. They must get out before it kills them!

This is how Born To Run begins, with the story of “Thunder Road and the promise and search of the heart and soul. Our “hero” just wants to get in his machine, get his girl, and burst through the gates to the endless expanse of freedom. As the album continues through its journey, we meet many characters, and we see a reflection back on moments of truth for our protagonist. They taste life, blood, sweat, and tears, and suffer loss, dramatic loss. They lose friendships, love, and even dreams along the way. It is a saga that I think we can all feel in our hearts.

In “Backstreets”, my favorite song, we feel what it’s like to live one last, passionate, fleeting moment of a night. It gives a feel of the last day of Summer, where it all needs to be left on the table, where there will be gut wrenching loss and pain, in dramatic cinematic fashion, but it’s all worth it as it’s crucial to the journey. It’s all about to change, and that is the most painful, heartbreaking thing, and it’s so hard to go through it. We all know it, and it is terrifying. But it can turn out to be the most pivotal moments of life. Change is hard, but is crucial to growth and survival. It cuts deep into the heart and soul of what life is made of, and we really feel that in songs like “Backstreets”, “Night”, “She’s The One”, and “Meeting Across the River”.

In “Meeting Across the River”, we see our hero make a deal, a shady deal but a necessary one. It’s scary, but dreams can only be fulfilled with sacrifice, and that is the only way. This deal will set the stage for a final stand, and our protagonist can feel it coming, feel the dream on the horizon, the freedom, the bliss. They are ready to fight to the death for it, and the only way out is through it. Through all the soul searching, we learn that we are all fragile, insecure beings trying to survive in a cruel, harsh place. We are stronger together, but some fights must be done alone, and this is a fight that we can only do alone. When we face our worst enemy, reflected at us through a piece of glass, we must fight that battle alone. This is the heart of Bruce’s music. The battle of the soul within is at the core of all his writings, and with Born To Run, he began a lifetime of writing these truths and teaching us all that it’s okay to feel.

As we conclude our epic battle with “Jungleland”, and the devastation of the wasteland gives way to sunrise, we find ourselves wounded, but not dead. We survived “…Tonight in Jungleland” and we are all the better for it.

The fight for self, for soul, for heart is always worth fighting. Always.

“Born To Run”, the title track, is an anthemic battle cry that acts as an overture to this saga. It’s the story of fighting to the death, spiritually, for what drives us within. It’s a culmination of all the novelizations of this dream, the search for our soul. This is the real America that Bruce sings about. It’s not some homogenized, patriotic march designed to sell flags. It’s a soul searching, gut-wrenching, all-out passion battle for the heart of our fragile souls. It is the battle to understand what it means to be human.

When I reflect on everything I have learned, absorbed, or felt from this album, I take away a very important lesson.

Love and Heart are always worth fighting for and must be fought for.

Bruce Springsteen’s music has been my guide into and throughout adulthood. There are times when I need it more than others, but it never lets me down. It has always been a true friend, confidant, and mentor to me. Bruce Springsteen’s music raised me into adulthood and in a life where I have not had “male role models” or “father figures” to look up to. It has always been there for me when I needed it.

I have lived a life where my role models, my father and my grandfather, did not live up to expectations. I trusted them to show me the way. I wanted to emulate them, to be them and feel connected to them. In return, I was given rejection, a sense and feeling of complete failure, worthlessness, and a life of self-doubt. They made me feel that way in everything I did, with no praise, only scorn and shame.

As I have spent much of my recent life in search of who I am and trying to build on a confidence that is within, as I try to find my way in my own battle. I, like Bruce’s characters, face my biggest enemy each morning when I stare at that piece of glass above the sink. It is a hard battle, and I keep fighting every day and hope I can win this battle.

I believe I can win this battle.

I have learned much over the years from Bruce’s music, and this is his greatest gift, greatest lesson. He has truly taught me so much about myself through his self-reflection. I am grateful and I will always keep listening.

“Born To Run” is the gateway into the journey, as his other albums dig much deeper into these emotions. But it’s a story worth listening to time and time again, and one that everyone can feel a little of. That’s why it’s the greatest Rock N Roll album ever recorded.

I leave you now with a lyric, not from this album, but from “No Surrender”, which has always been a constant truth:

“We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school”

Essential Track: “Backstreets”