Boss' Third Album Deserving of 30-Year Anniversary Bash

By Chuck Darrow
The Courier-Post
(Cherry Hill, NJ)
November 15, 2005


Young Americans by David Bowie.

A Night at the Opera by Queen.

Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin.

Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.

Fleetwood Mac by Fleetwood Mac.

All of these albums were released in 1975. But none have received the big-bang 30th anniversary treatment afforded another vintage-'75 LP, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.

Today, Columbia Records releases a three-CD package featuring a remastered version of Springsteen's third long-player, a behind-the-scenes "making of" DVD and -- perhaps best of all -- a DVD of a 1975 concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon, which just happened to be Bruce's first British performance.

At first thought, this doesn't seem fair. After all, it can be argued the above-named works are just as culturally significant, not to mention revered, as Born to Run. At the time, they certainly were as commercially successful, if not more so.

For instance, A Night At the Opera contains "Bohemian Rhapsody," Queen's bizarro mini-suite that has become a pop culture touchstone.

And Fleetwood Mac marked the transformation of the journeyman '60s blues-rock outfit into one of the chart-topping giants of all time, thanks to the addition of guitarist-composer Lindsay Buckingham and his then-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks. It's the home of such songs as "Over My Head," "Say You Love Me" and "Rhiannon."

It's also true that Born to Run predated Springsteen's true international breakout album, Born In the USA, by nine years.

So why does Born to Run deserve all the fuss? Maybe because when you get down to it, it's not only musically superior to those other platters but, it can be argued, far more important in the overall scheme of things.

Born to Run is that rarest of albums, one which contains absolutely no filler; it's about as close to musically and lyrically flawless as any collection of original songs ever recorded.

From the vaguely mournful harmonica line that announces the album's opening track, "Thunder Road," to the primal-scream ride out that closes "Jungleland," the eighth and final cut, Born to Run delivers in ways most albums -- even those as celebrated as the above -- cannot and do not.

You want unbridled exuberance that truly leaps from the speakers? Try cranking up the title track or "She's the One," with its grab-you-by-the-throat "Bo Diddley" beat.

Looking instead for last-chance desperation? Listen to "Meeting Across the River," a noirish tale of a two-bit hustler dreaming of that elusive score that will make everything right. It's told in the first person and punctuated by guest trumpeter Randy Brecker's Bernard Herrmannesque soloing. And it is definitely not the work of just another rock 'n' roll songsmith, but of someone with a novelist's eye and a poet's soul.

And then there's the emotionally searing "Jungleland," another look at those on society's margins that is as musically complex as anything ever rendered by The Boss and his astonishing aggregation of supporting instrumentalists collectively known as the E Street Band.

Quite simply, as brilliant as any other of 1975's top LPs may be, they simply don't measure up to Born to Run.

But there's another reason why, three decades later, Born to Run merits such celebration. The LP almost single-handedly returned rock music to its rightful owner, the United States of America.

From the moment on Feb. 9, 1964 The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, the English had a stranglehold on what had been to that point a uniquely American musical form. The "British Invasion" of the mid-'60s (which gave us the Fab Four and Rolling Stones, among others) led to the turn-of-the'70s emergence of such chart-topping, album-oriented artists as Bowie, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Yes.

During that time span, it seemed everyone's ears were tuned to a U.K. frequency (even with Yankee exceptions like Jimi Hendrix and The Doors making their indelible marks).

The sound conjured on Born to Run was truly made in the USA: Springsteen's New Jersey-inspired characters and settings were channeled through a sonic brew that was equal parts Bob Dylan, Gary "U.S." Bonds and Phil Spector -- Americans all.

So, to answer the doubters' questions, yeah, Born to Run deserves this week's hoopla.

And then some.