Bruce Springsteen Born To Run by: Justin Pearsall Mon:03-Sep-07 Label: Columbia Year: 1975 WB rating 93 out of 100

In 1975, Springsteen released his third album Born to Run. Already heralded as an artist of considerable promise (mentioned in the same breathe as Morrison and The Band and promoted with a “New Dylan” campaign by Columbia Records) even Springsteen’s most ardent supporters could not have predicted just how quickly his ascension would occur. Although the continuum between folk-rock debut Greetings From Asbury Park, N.Y and The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle (the two albums recorded just eight months apart) suggested evolution, Born to Run was a quantum leap, defining the E-Street band as one of the most talented and versatile in rock and certifying Springsteen’s rep as a “street poet”.

But at the time the success of the album was no certainty, and in ways Born to Run represents a fork-in-the-road for Springsteen’s commercial ambitions. More elaborate than prior recordings, the record’s embittered tone and dramatic sound is purposefully heavy handed. And while history justifies this decision, at the time (especially as an artist lacking commercial validation) the magnitude of the record was a considerable gamble.

In hindsight Born to Run is undoubtedly one of the great triumphs and a testament to belief in artistic vision (Columbia Records had the album’s cost hidden from them as Springsteen and band layered tracks and experimented with arrangements, instrumentation and production). Commercially and artistically it is a stunning success, selling over six million copies in the US alone, unquestionably influential (see The Hold Steady and Okkervil River) and deservedly regarded as one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

Highlights are everywhere. ‘Thunder Road’s recitation of escape, of first-footing into the unknown, introduces not only the sorts of characters experienced on Born to Run but also the musical context; classic rock boiling over into dramatic crescendos, Springsteen spitting heartache and chance: “There were ghosts in the eyes/Of all the boys you sent away/They haunt this dusty beach road/In the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets”.

‘Born to Run’ is both a narrative and musical reappraisal of the themes of ‘Thunder Road’, reflecting Springsteen’s desire to get out of Asbury Park, the all-or-nothing subject matter emboldened by the song’s aggression and drummer Ernest “Boom” Carter’s style-heavy performance. While such tracks are indicative of the record as rock icon, the album is equally as a vital in ballad form. Set across the backdrop of solitary trumpet and the ever-present touch of Roy Bittan’s piano, the theme of escapism takes on a more desperate, downtrodden path as Springsteen’s protagonist struggles in low-level crime searching for unlikely pay off.

While the cover shot of Springsteen leaning on the E-Street band’s Clarence Clemons has been analysed countless times as a metaphor for the singer’s reliance on his supporting musicians, The Boss is undoubtedly the star of this album. From his impassioned, guttural vocal performance on ‘Backstreets’ through to the reflective ‘Meeting Across The River’, Born to Run exemplifies some of the most mesmerising vocal performances in music history. And while Clemons’ wailing sax, Roy Bittan’s classic key work and the no-frills stomp of Max Weinberg and Garry Tallent’s rhythmic section demonstrates a chemistry and inner magic that have been largely insurmountable, the flawless songwriting and nine-to-five narration are all Springsteen.

Described by Springsteen during an NPR interview as “the end of the songs for his youth”, Born to Run’s vitality is still as evident today as it was over 30 years ago. It is an album that sets the benchmark for all rock music; a poetic, aggressive and dynamic masterwork.