Born to Run (song)
| Born to Run | |
|---|---|
| Bruce Springsteen | |
| publication | August 25, 1975 |
| length | 4:30 |
| Genre (s) | Heartland Rock |
| text | Bruce Springsteen |
| music | Bruce Springsteen |
| album | Born to Run |
| Cover versions | |
| 1984 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood |
| 1991 | Big daddy |
| 1993 | Wolfsbane |
| 1995 | Suzi Quatro |
| 2015 | Frank Turner |
Born to Run is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen , and the title track of his album Born to Run . When it was released, music critic Robert Christgau noted that it was influenced by the Wall of Sound and called it "the fulfillment of everything that was ' Be My Baby ' and much more".
Emergence
The song was written in Long Branch, New Jersey , in early 1974 and was Bruce Springsteen's last attempt at success. The year before, he had released two albums that were critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.
The song, written in the first person, is a love letter to a girl named Wendy, for whom the car-loving protagonist has the ability but not the patience to love her. However, Springsteen has noted that the song has a much simpler meaning: to get out of Freehold Borough, New Jersey. US Route 9 in New Jersey is mentioned in the text "jump from cages out on Highway 9" (jumped out of the cage on Highway 9).
In his 1996 book "Songs", he writes that the song was initially composed on a guitar around the opening riff and completed on a piano, like most of the songs on the album "Born to Run". The song is in E major.
In his time before "Born to Run" Springsteen was well known for his monumental live shows, especially in his home region in the northeastern United States. Born to Run was part of his program long before it was released on record. It has been played since May 1974, if not earlier.
The first recording of the song was by Allan Clarke of the British group The Hollies , but the release was postponed so that it would take place after that of Springsteen.
admission
While recording the song, Springsteen first earned his reputation as a perfectionist when he ended up piecing together eleven guitar tracks to get the perfect sound. The recording history and alternative versions and ideas of the arrangements were published in the documentary DVD Wings For Wheels , which was part of the Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition - Edition.
The piece was recorded in 1974 during a tour break at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt . The final version was recorded on August 6th, well before the rest of the album. Ernest Carter and David Sancious are named as drummers on the keyboard instruments. On the rest of the album they were replaced by Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan . They also later played in the E Street Band , which was not mentioned on Springsteen's recordings at the time. There is also a version, only with Mike Appel as producer. It wasn't until the following year, when work on the album got stuck, that Jon Landau was brought in as a further producer. The future unit manager Jimmy Iovine recorded most of the sessions.
A previous version of the piece, with a slightly different mix, was given by Apple to disc jockey Ed Sciaky from WMMR in Philadelphia in early November 1974 and, within a few weeks, to a number of other progressive rock stations such as WNEW-FM in New York , WMMS in Cleveland , WBCN in Boston , and WVBR in Ithaca . The piece became quite popular right away and led to the fact that Springsteen's first two albums were played more often as well as to the fact that expectations for the new album rose.
After the album was released, it became an incredible success for Springsteen, bringing it stardom and several cover stories, including a. in Time - and Newsweek - magazine.
honors and awards
- In 2004 Born to Run was voted number 6 on the list of The 885 All-Time Greatest Songs by radio station WXPN .
- The Rolling Stone magazine placed the song on his list of the 500 greatest songs of all time ranked 21st
- The song was listed in 2003 by Q magazine at number 920 on the list of "1001 Greatest Songs Ever", in which it was named the best "for working class heroes."
- He is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll .
- In 2001, the RIAA placed the song in the list of Songs of the Century at number 135 out of 365.
- In 1999 National Public Radio put the song on the NPR 100 list, the list of the most important American musical works of the 20th century.
Track list
- Born to Run - 4:31
- Meeting Across the River - 3:18 pm
The B-side was simply a piece from the album; Springsteen did not use any previously unpublished material as a B-side until 1980.
Chart placements
"Born to Run" was Springsteen's first single worldwide. The piece was initially not very successful outside of the USA. In the year of publication, it was not placed in Germany, Switzerland, Austria or Great Britain.
In the US, it became a top 40 hit with a strong showing from broadcasters specializing in album releases and progressive rock , with the highest ranking at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 .
Single charts
| Chart (1975) | Highest ranking |
|---|---|
| Australia | 38 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 53 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 23 |
| US Cashbox Top 100 | 17th |
Annual charts
| Chart (1975) | position |
|---|---|
| Canada | 188 |
occupation
- Bruce Springsteen - electric & acoustic guitar, vocals
- Garry Tallent - bass
- Ernest "Boom" Carter - drums
- David Sancious - piano, Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer
- Danny Federici - Hammond organ, carillon
- Clarence Clemons - tenor saxophone
- Not mentioned - tambourine, strings, wind instruments
History of the performance
The piece has been played at almost every Springsteen concert since 1975, with the exception of a few solo concerts (even if it was not played on the Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour ). Usually the hall lights are turned on and the fans usually sing the song alone to Springsteen's silent vocals while he plays the song.
The song was released on a total of six live albums or DVDs:
- 1975 Born to Run Tour reinterpretation on album / DVD Hammersmith Odeon London '75 released in 2006;
- A 1985 Born in the USA tour run-through on the album Live 1975–85 , which was released in 1986;
- An entirely independent acoustic solo guitar version from the Tunnel of Love Express tour , released on the 1988 EP Chimes of Freedom , which was recorded on the Tunnel of Love Express tour.
- A 2000 Reunion Tour version on Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City , released in 2001 (the song closes disc one but does not appear on the track listing of the album cover);
- A 2002 Rising Tour take on the Live in Barcelona DVD, released in 2003.
- A 2009 Working on a Dream Tour performance on the DVD London Calling: Live in Hyde Park which was release in 2010.
"Born to Run" was also performed as the second number of four during Springsteen and the E Street Band's halftime performance at Super Bowl XLIII .
In Jon Stewart's last episode as host of The Daily Show on Aug. 6, 2015, Springsteen appeared with Land of Hope and Dreams and Born to Run .
Music videos
Since music videos were hardly important at the time the song was released, no video was made for the original release.
- In 1987 a video was released for MTV and other music channels showing live performances of the song from the Born in the USA tour from 1984-85. Parts of other songs are interspersed in this video and it ends with Springsteen's typical thank you to his fans.
- 1988 recorded Meiert Avis an acoustic version of the song that Springsteen during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour played
- Both videos are included in the Video Anthology / 1978-88 and The Complete Video Anthology / 1978-2000 collections
Cultural references
- At the end of the episode "The Quiz" of the TV series "The Office", David Brent triumphantly played the beginning of the piece on the air guitar because he wanted to celebrate a presumed victory in a quiz competition. He said "Born to Run, the Slough branch".
- In the Sesame Street a play about the reckoning was shown the "Born to Add" called and was sung by a Muppet doll that looked like Springsteen.
- Jimmy Fallon opened the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards with a cover of the song, with Tina Fey , Jon Hamm , Jane Lynch , Lea Michele , Amber Riley , Cory Monteith , Chris Colfer , Kate Gosselin , Nina Dobrev , Joel McHale , Jorge Garcia , Randy Jackson and Tim Gunn .
- Christopher McDougall's book on running, popular in 2009, was titled Born to Run and the lyrics of the song were quoted at the beginning of a chapter.
- in the novel The Second Coming of John Niven , the main person of Jesus resulted Born to Run in American Idol to show -like casting.
- The song was available on January 27, 2009 as a downloadable part of the Guitar Hero World Tour video game . Together with "My Lucky Day", it was part of the Bruce Springsteen package.
- The Summer Set mentioned the song in their January 2016 release Figure Me Out
- For Shuya Nanahara from the book Battle Royale by Kōshun Takami , the song Born to Run plays an important role, which is why it is mentioned there several times.
Cover versions
- Frankie Goes To Hollywood covered the piece on her debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome in 1984.
- Big Daddy , a band that presents current 1950s style pieces, recorded the track for their 1991 album Cutting Their Own Groove .
- Wolfsbane presented a heavy metal cover of the song on their EP Everything Else from 1993
- Suzi Quatro covered the song in 1995.
- Frank Turner covered the piece on his 2015 compilation The Third Three Years .
Live cover versions
- Melissa Etheridge sang "Born to Run" at The Concert for New York City benefit concert on October 20, 2001 and again at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009 when she performed the song for Springsteen, who was the winner of that year.
- the British band McFly played the song on 10 December 2007 on the program Live Lounge radio station BBC Radio 1 .
- The Australian band Something for Kate regularly covers the song at their concerts.
- One of the rare shots in the Roger Daltrey , lead singer of the band The Who sings that song is on the greatest hits / Rarities plate gold contained
- Light This City recorded their version of the piece for their final record "Stormchaser". It was on her Myspace for a while and also on Youtube.
- Scottish singer Amy Macdonald played the song on one of her tours.
- Ohio-based group Free Wild played a cover for the song on their 2011 and 2012 tours. They often ended the song with a Springsteen-inspired version of the nursery rhyme Itsy Bitsy Spider .
- Eric Church quoted Born to Run in his song Springsteen during his 2012-13 tour.
- On August 25, 2015, the 40th anniversary of the release of Born to Run , indie rock band Superchunk performed a live cover of the song. The groups ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and Crooked Fingers also performed .
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Christgau : Christgau's Consumer Guide . In: The Village Voice , September 22, 1975. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
- ↑ Joshua Zeitz: How Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' Captured the Decline of the American Dream - The Atlantic . In: The Atlantic , August 25, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
- ↑ Archived copy . Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
- ^ The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century , NPR . Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ Chart information Born to Run. Retrieved June 6, 2016
- ↑ a b Nielsen Business Media Inc. Retrieved May 1, 2008
- ↑ Top 25 Singles of 1970 . Australian-charts.com. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ Top Singles - Volume 24, No. December 20, 1975 . www.collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ CASH BOX Top 100 Singles . 50.6.195.142. Archived from the original on January 22nd, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ Top Singles - Volume 24, No. December 14, 1975 . www.collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ Sesame Street - Born to Add (album version) - Video of the title. Accessed July 27, 2016
- ^ John Niven : The Second Coming 2011.
- ↑ Superchunk Share "Born to Run" Cover Featuring Trail of Dead, Crooked Fingers . Pitchfork. August 25, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
