Born to Run

Today is Bruce Springteen's 60th birthday, as the Sports Guy has taken great pains to point out on twitter.  I find it shocking that Springsteen’s only 60. How is he still that young? In recent years, the Boss has seemed kind of ancient; not exactly past his expiration date, but certainly long enough in the tooth to be celebrated as rock’s Methuselah-like patriarch.

Anyway, in honor of Springsteen's 60th, Slate recounts the story behind Bruce's magnus opus, "Born to Run," truly one of the greatest rock albums of all time and certainly the best to come out of the Garden State. I forget sometimes that Springsteen labored over this album, particularly its title track, the Boss’s signature song. I forget, too, that if Springsteen hadn’t come through with a commercially viable album—his third and possibly final one with Sony— he would today most likely be sharing the bill with Southside Johnny on Mike'd Up. 

It’s true. Before the success of "Born to Run," Sony, Springsteen's record label, was set to drop him, which, pre-Internet, would have been, for all intents and purposes, the end of Springsteen's career. The Boss's firing would have changed the trajectory of American music, and, on a more personal note, severely hindered my uncle’s social life throughout the 1980s, when he spent the better part of every summer attending Springsteen concerts, up and down the Jersey shore. Really, we all would have missed out. No album or piece of art impacted my adolescent world view or calibrated my expectations of all that was yet to come than "Born to Run," with the possible exception of Slaughterhouse Five, Pearl Jam’s "Ten," and, at certain moments, The Baltimore Cathechism. I honestly do not know who I would be, or how I would experience the world, without having heard this album. How often do you get to say that about anything?

Which is why the album's backstory is so interesting. Backed into a corner, Springsteen knew he had a good idea in "Born to Run," but he couldn’t quite nail it down, no matter how many times he tried, or how many instruments he introduced, including, oddly, a glockenspiel.

The alternate mixes of "Born To Run" that are available reveal some of the ways in which Springsteen experimented musically. In one, a female chorus joins him in the background when he sings, "get out while we're young," "got to know how it feels," and "walk in the sun." Musically, the strings at various points are more prominent than they would be in the final version. It's easy to see why Bruce rejected this mix: The chorus and strings make the song too ethereal and distance it from the driving force of the beat. In another mix, Springsteen's lead vocal is doubled, the chorus is still intact, and the strings at the end of the song are even more pronounced. Two other mixes play with the balance of strings and bass. At one point, the band experimented with different sound effects such as streetcars and drag racing.

The earliest live version of the song that is available dates from July 13, 1974, at the Bottom Line in New York, more than a year before a string of shows at the same venue that would astonish the industry. While musically the song is almost set, lyrically it is dramatically different from the final version, so much so that its meaning shifts. After "runaway American dream," Springsteen sings, "At night we stop and tremble in the heat/ With murder in our dreams." The song is darker. He is not singing to Wendy, whose name does not appear. The second verse opens, "So close your tired eyes little one/ And crawl within my reach. ... [W]e'll ride tonight on the beach/ Out where the surfers, sad, wet, and cold/ As they watch the skies/ There'll be a silence to match their own."

Eventually, though, he got it right. Springsteen credits Stevie Van Zandt with saving the song. A simple major/minor chord adjustment, suggested about six months after Springsteen first started writing the tune, made all the difference, according to the Boss. "Steve’s greatest contribution to my music."

Here's a clip of Springsteen explaining the difficulty he had in composing the song and a selection of the song's aborted arrangements. 

And here's an early, somewhat disturbing version of "Thunder Road," which was originally called "Wings for Wheels," a pretty terrible title. 

If He's the Boss, I Quit

This pains me to admit this, but Springsteen was incredibly lame last night. I was with him at the start, despite the contrived recreation of his iconic "Born to Run" album cover; "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" was a great choice as an opener. I was with him, too, after the chicken fingers and guacamole comment. I stuck with him after his sliding crotch shot. And, of course, during his solid performance of "Born to Run." Not so much for the rest of the set, which featured an abbreviated version of his new single, "Working on a Dream," and an even hokier version of the hokey "Glory Days"-- complete with altered lyrics about football and Hail Mary passes. Then there was the flag-throwing referee, which was about as cool as a middle-age man hitting on a teenage girl. Or about as cool as a middle-age man calling out, "I'm going to Disneyland."

I'm afraid we've stumbled into a terrible new era of Springsteen: "Vegas Bruce."

15 Minutes with the Boss

Bruce Springsteen swears he's going to limit his Super Bowl halftime performance to a very un-Bruce-like 12 minutes. Although he's played short sets before, I just can't see him getting his mini-concert in under the NFL-mandated 720 seconds. I fully expect him to go off script, at least a little bit.    

For all of Springsteen's anti-establishment shtick, he's always been a professional and, at least to me, always seemed more than happy to work within the parameters established by the network suits or, more recently, the Inaugural event planners above him. A rebel with a yeoman's work ethic, Springsteen is a rabble-rouser in name only: he's the kind of blue-collar worker who will help organize a union strike, but also make sure to punch out on his way to the picket line. That's just the way he's built; it's the middle-class Jersey boy in him. 

Springsteen, then, will take some liberties Sunday night, but he's not about to ruin the party.

I figure he and the E Street Band will play for about 15 minutes, which should give them just enough time for three, maybe four songs. Springsteen's known for engaging the audience in between songs, so the fourth song is, in gamblers' parlance, definitely the over.

Speaking of gambling, the odds are already up for which songs Springsteen is going to play. So, in the proud WGASIG tradition of spouting off about things, I'm going to pick Springsteen's set, which, given the Boss's lengthy oeuvre, is kind of like trying to divine the penultimate paragraph of President Obama's 2012 Democratic Convention speech. But I'll give it a shot. 

Opening Song: "Promised Land"

Not only has Springsteen been opening recent shows with "Promised Land," but the song's imagery, if not exactly the lyrics, fits the theme of the night. It's also guaranteed to get the place rocking because 1.) everybody knows it and 2.) it's a great freakin' song. 

Second Song: "Radio Nowhere"

The opening track of "Magic," this is yet another stadium-rocker Springsteen can pull out of his hat when he wants to work the audience into a frenzy. "Is anybody alive out there?" Although far from his greatest tune, I'd be surprised if he didn't play it Sunday night. Incidentally, a friend of mine recently admitted he thought this was a Pearl Jam song. I understand his confusion. 

Third Song: "My Lucky Day"

This is when Springsteen takes it down a notch—and promotes his new record at the same time! Like "Promised Land," this new song capitalizes on the night's theme, without speaking directly to it. I figure he'll either play it or producers will save it for the cheesy montage at the end of the game. ("Big man, cue the confetti!") Either way, chances are you'll hear it at some point Sunday night.

Closing Song: "Born to Run"

What? You were expecting "Born in the U.S.A."? Highly unlikely. Despite the fact that he hasn't watched a football game since Terry Bradshaw was behind center for the Steelers, Springsteen understands the significance of the event. He's not going to call up a song about Vietnam veterans struggling to survive in the great old U.S. of A on football's biggest night. The Boss is not big on irony.

He won't play "Glory Days" either. That's about washed-up high school baseball players, not concussed former football players. He'll save "Glory Days" for the next time he plays Fenway Park.

Springsteen knows how to put on a good show, which means he usually gives the people exactly what they want. "Born to Run" is that song, and he's going to play it.

You can take it to the bank.