' Born To Run ' At 45-- How Is It Holding Up ?

Yes , Bruce fans ... ' Born To Run ' will be celebrating its 45th anniversary later this month.
A true classic album and the one that put the Boss in the public eye. I recall he was on the covers of both Time and Newsweek after its release.
I was at a party at some guy's place back then and he had just bought it and I asked him to play it and he obliged me.
What an album ! Blew me away.
I had bought the first two Springsteen albums before and liked them both but this was a different thing altogether.

 

A poll on this might have been interesting.

 

15-20 years ago, it was my coming of age record. That was 25-30 years after the original release.
So I'd say that it's still holding up and serving its purpose after all these years.

 

It's timeless and a triumph. Bruce poured his heart out into that record knowing it was probably his last chance. He made it count. Pretty cool too that other than the title track, the E Street Band would continue with the same members to this day (I guess it's less impressive if you take the hiatus into account and the death of two members).

 

I read about Bruce here and there before Born to Run was released, then heard the whole album on the radio one night while I was doing my homework. By the time Backstreets came along, I wasn't doing my homework anymore. I bought the album immediately and shortly after bought a ticket from a local radio station to see him in Seattle. My friends all thought I was nuts to go all the way across the state to see someone they'd never heard of (of course that would all change later). The show was just as mindblowing.

I'd say BTR holds up very well. A couple of the songs I'm a little weary of hearing in concert (my mind just kind of shuts off during the BTR encore), but the album still sounds like a masterpiece.

 

I grew up in the D C. area and moved to the Jersey shore when I was 17, not a big Bruce fan when I moved there and equally indifferent to him the two years I was there. When I was 19 and moved back to D.C. the radio played BTR in it's entirety as it was an anniversary of its release, and I couldn't believe what I was not just hearing but also seeing. Every dirt road, every night time walk on the beach with my girlfriend, every P.O.S. car I road around in with friends. And also just how isolated so many parts of a beach town can feel, even in summer. I sat there and watched the last 2 years of my life flash in front of me. He was really a writer in every sense of the word. So yeah, for me a resounding yes.

 

Still his best album.

 

People sharing their personal stories of hearing it in '75 is more interesting, for me, since I came to the album only fifteen years ago.

That must be his "Blowin' In The Wind". I've simply heard that too many encores.

 

It's as great as ever. Still one of his finest.

 

Eh, at least Bob plays that one a little differently these days. The full band BTR sounds pretty much the same every time, year after year after year. . . Yeah, the acoustic version is different. It's OK, but not my favorite.

 

This may be an unpopular thought but I don't like ' Jungle land ' anymore.
It 's too overwrought
"TONIGHT .....in......Jun. ..gle....L. ...an....dd !"

 

Still holds up as a masterpiece but I still don't like it.
I love the title track though.

 

every bit the boring pile of overrated pabulum it's always been, just 45 years older.

 

It holds up very well. Although I love the first two albums, Born To Run is where Springsteen truly finds himself. It had the drive and bombast that made The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle so appealing but the songs were shorter, sharper and more digestible for a casual listener or newcomer.

 

Born to Run is perfection.

 

Don't sugar coat it. Tell us how you really feel.

 

I could say so much worse

 

Just curious...
You don't like it because you don't like Springsteen or you don't like it because it's lower-tier Springsteen ?

 

Go for it.

 

I was going to post this thought exactly. I still looooove this record and especially love the title track, She’s The One and Night. As for the epic side closers, I think Backstreets has held up great, what a fantastic performance. But J-Land now sounds a little overblown, almost like Meatloaf overblown. Better guitars than Meatloaf though!

 

I've mentioned before, it took me 30 years to like it. I remember hearing it in 1975 because a few people I knew bought it due to the hype. It's hard to imagine that happening today. I wasn't crazy about it, with all the melodrama and bellowing. A few years later, I heard the first two and liked them, but still didn't like BTR. In the mid 80's when his tour was the major attraction, I saw him at the Meadowlands. I went because my girlfriend at the time was a fan. I left unconvinced. Finally when the 30th anniversary edition with the DVD came out, I gave it another shot. I liked the DVD better, but it finally clicked. I've never given an album that much time to come around to other than Song Cycle by Van Dyke Parks, which I eventually gave up on. Anyway, I like it, but I don't love it. I wouldn't call myself a Springsteen fan, but I really like the first two albums.

 

It's still a stone cold masterpiece. Thunder Road is one of my all-time favorite songs.

 

I like some of his work but perhaps less the overblown Spectorian stuff with cascading pianos and squeeling sax. I'd have thought that the Born To Run album was top-tier.

 

I meant lower-tier in your opinion.

 

When I first heard the album that song grabbed me immediately ( as it was meant to do ) and instantly became a favourite.