Beech Tree News Network

When Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run hit the airwaves in the summer of 1975, it wasn’t just a breakout album-it was a roaring, full-throttle tribute to working-class life, capturing the frustration, hope and restless energy of Americans chasing something better down the highway.

Released in the shadow of Vietnam, Watergate, and a sputtering economy, Born to Run landed as America’s post-war optimism was cracking.  Factory towns were fading, blue-collar families were squeezed and the American Dream felt increasingly out of reach.  Springsteen, just shy of 26 years old when it was released, channeled his own working-class coming-of-age experiences in Freehold, New Jersey, into a deeply personal album that reflected his hopes and dreams.  It was, as he told Rolling Stone, a project he wanted to feel “full of possibilities and full of fear”.

After two initial albums that were critically praised but anemic in sales, “Born to Run is his turning point” said Jim Cullen, author of Born in the U.S.A: Springsteen in American Life.  “He’s realizing his class and circumstances have created difficulties for his parents and the people he grew up with.  He wants to seriously grapple with that.”

The album wasn’t just an artistic and commercial breakthrough, it was a turning point when Springsteen evolved from a scrappy bar-band poet into a national voice, securing his place in American rock & roll.

By the mid-‘70’s, America was still reeling from the aftershocks of a deep recession, inflation and unemployment remained high.  The energy crisis sent gas lines stretching around the block.  Steady factory jobs that had once powered upward mobility in America were disappearing, causing many proud working-class neighborhoods to fall into decay.  As that foundation of postwar prosperity gave way, a deeper sense of disillusionment took hold-fueled by the trauma of Vietnam and lasting mistrust left in the wake of Watergate.

The 1970’s are famous for bell-bottoms and the rise of disco, but it was also an era of economic struggle and cultural change.  Little of that era’s pop music spoke to that reality.  Glam rock, disco, soft pop and arena metal, mostly escapist and often emotionally detached, ruled the airwaves.  But with Born to Run, Springsteen pulled hard in the opposite direction.  Channeling his cultural heroes-the dusty defiance of folk legend Woody Guthrie, the lyrical fire of folk-rock icon Bob Dylan and the aching realism of author John Steinbeck-Springsteen wrote with empathy about characters trying to move past dead-end towns, broken homes and invisible ceilings.

It wasn’t fiction for him.  “I grew up in this dumpy, two-story, two-family house next door to this gas station.”  Springsteen recalled to rock & roll critic and music historian Dave Marsh in the book Bruce Springsteen, Two Hearts: The Definitive Biography, 1972-2003. “And my father, he worked a lotta different places, worked in a rug mill for a while, drove a cab for a while and he was a guard down at the jail for a while.”  His father, often angry and drained, would turn off the lights at night and sit in the kitchen with a six-pack.  Springsteen related, while his mother-who worked steadily as a legal secretary-watched tv until she fell asleep.  He and his sister often felt literally trapped in the dark.

That upbringing shaped the writing of “Born to Run”.  With his first two albums, both released in 1973, Springsteen chronicled teen life on the beaches and boardwalks of the New Jersey shore.  In Born to Run, Springsteen begins addressing more serious themes.  Musically, he underscores the dual expression of despair and hope. 

The album became Springsteen’s golden ticket.  After being released on August 25, 1975, the album garnered rave reviews.  Rolling Stone called it “a magnificent album that pays off on every bet ever placed on Springsteen”.  The album reached #3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, easily outselling his earlier albums.  The themes the album addressed-struggle, dignity, escape and the cost of staying put-have echoed through Springsteen’s work ever since.  Springsteen’s exploration of the working class will always carry a particular irony-since the singer has admitted he’s “never had a real job in his life”.  (www.history.com Gregory Wakerman).  

Here is the link to my vlog this week: https://youtu.be/djNKrrvvFks?feature=shared