Ad Disclosure
Happy 50th Anniversary to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” One of the Worst Albums Ever Recorded
Published:
Quick aside here to shout out THE BOSS:
This is a perfect Springsteen tweet. It really sums up the fervent delusion with The Boss, because the first sentence talks about “one of the greatest rock albums in music history,” then the three instruments mentioned are harmonica, piano, and saxophone. Nothing says ROCK like harmonica, piano, and sax.
Therein lies the rub, because Bruce doesn’t play rock music. He plays a version of Heartland Americana that’s more adjacent to folk and blues than anything resembling the rock music of that era. Of course you hear the derivative Ike Turner and Chuck Berry vibes in the music, but in this case, when “rock” was splitting off into various interpretations in the late 60s and early 70s, a lot of bands prioritized guitar, bass, and drums while the E Street Band did not. Most of what is upfront in the Born to Run song writing and album mix is piano and sax with wussy clean guitar rhythms. Every once in a while you hear a decent guitar lead before it disappears prematurely. Go about three minutes through Jungleland for a good example of a tease.
There is so much to hate about this album, it’s hard to know where to start. Thunder Road is the opener, and it begins with Bruce mumbling over over piano and harmonica for 90 seconds before someone mercifully hits a drum. Then there’s Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, which shows some promise at times, but is really more of a soul song than a rock song. The album finally starts to display some balls with the underrated third track, Night, which at least has some tempo to it. It only lasts about three minutes though, then we’re slowing it down with Backstreets, featuring more piano wankery, but at least there’s a guitar solo at the 3:33 mark. Unfortunately it’s only 19 seconds long, but better than nothing. Then you’ve got the overrated title track, which builds but never really goes anywhere, bookending two side B filler tracks with Jungleland salvaging a D+ album grade.
The other thing is that Bruce can’t sing, which makes it tough to get into the music itself, which isn’t very good to begin with.
I think the thing that offends me in particular about Springsteen is that those of you who are 50+ got to experience the height of the 1970s music scene, when so many great bands were making so much great music. Even in 1975 alone, when Born to Run came out, Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti, Queen released A Night at the Opera, and Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here. Aerosmith dropped Toys in the Attic and Black Sabbath was on to Sabotage. You had prime ZZ Top and Deep Purple and David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac and all of that, and your favorite artist was BRUCE? For who? For what! We millennials would have killed to be alive during that era. Imagine wasting it listening to The Boss mumble on about his friend being a good baseball player in high school. Listening to Bruce in the 1970s would have been like wasting the 90s listening to Dave Matthews Band (shout out to that one reader who has seen Dave 47 times in Camden).
If you’d like to hear more Bruce slander, I recommended our Pulitzer-winning column from a few years back, titled Someone has to Say it: Bruce Springsteen Totally Stinks.
Note: I’ll fight any Philadelphia sports writer who comes to Springsteen’s defense. Send location.
Play the song!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com