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| Born to Run | 
| List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $2.69
You Save: $11.29 (81%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $2.69
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 264 reviews)
Sales Rank: 983
Category: Music
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Publisher: Sony
Studio: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Label: Sony
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 33795
UPC: 746433795266
EAN: 0746433795266
ASIN: B00000255F
Release Date: October 25, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Thunder Road | | • | Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out | | • | Night | | • | Backstreets | | • | Born to Run | | • | She's the One | | • | Meeting Across the River | | • | Jungleland |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Few albums are as fueled by hope, possibility, and the lure of the open road as Born to Run, a virtual concept album about small-town Jerseyites in search of a better life via hot-rodding out on the turnpike, scoring some small-time hustle, or blowing out of town altogether, either across the river to New York City or west for parts unknown. Songs like "Jungleland," "Thunder Road," "Backstreets," and the title track are epic productions, both sonically and lyrically, borrowing from Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, and West Side Story. When Born to Run was released in 1975, it earned then-unknown Springsteen the rare honor of simultaneous covers on both Time and Newsweek. The attention was warranted then, and it still is now. --Daniel Durchholz
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| Customer Reviews: Read 259 more reviews...
Best of the Best January 1, 2009
Simply put this is one of the greatest albums ever made by anyone in any genre. An extremely talented young man pouring his heart out and risking it all. The songs speak for themselves. This story is his story, its your story its my story its history. Buy This for sure. Listen to this for 40 minutes and it feels like you just enjoyed the best 2 hour movie you ever saw.
 born to run for years December 17, 2008
This has become Bruce Springsteen's most popular album, and for good reason- the songwriting is very good this time around, and immediately enjoyable for most people. This is one of those albums that people listen to and remember exactly where they were when they first heard these songs.
Some of these songs blow me away completely and make me fully aware just how talented the Boss is, such as "She's the One" and "Jungleland". Love those tunes.
Classic rock radio actually doesn't play those songs as much as you'd think- instead they choose to stick with the title track and "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and ignore pretty much the rest of the album. Of course that's wrong, but we can't do anything about it.
My only complaint is that Bruce was obviously going for some kind of deliberate loud and explosive bombastic sound while making these songs, and sometimes that's a turn off to me personally because the songs end up sounding like some kind of stage show. Bruce Springsteen is no Abba!
Other than that, the quality of the songwriting is very good. And you know, I've never noticed it before, but Bruce's voice resembles Elvis Presley a little bit when he lets it shake. That's pretty cool.
Wings For Wheels: Springsteen grabs at the brass ring, and falls ever-so-slightly short. December 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A monolith of 70's music, this is Springsteen's attempt at summarizing everything that was good and pure about the previous two decades of American rock 'n' roll. "Thunder Road" alone spikes a tap deep into half a century of post-war American folk and teenage mythology, with its casual references to Roy Orbison, Robert Mitchum films, prom-night fantasies, country porches, dusty beach roads and adolescent "Leader of the Pack" ghosts.
It's a very calculated album, though, and I confess that this premeditation hurts it when compared to the more spontaneous "noble savage" vibe of The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle. Some of the music on here is actually rather generic for Springsteen during this era: "Night" is Boss-by-the-numbers, seemingly written as a means to a conceptual end, and "She's The One" fails to deliver on the promise of its Bo Diddley necromancy. (Try to check it out live, however...the performances from Springsteen's 1978 tour, with "Mona" interpolated, finally pull it off.)
As proof of how naked and daring Springsteen's stylized ambitions were on Born To Run, realize that "Jungleland" -- with its star-crossed "Magic Rat" and "Barefoot Girl," musical gangs full of kids who "flash guitars just like switchblades," and midnight shoot-out leaving the hero dead while the Girl mourns -- is nothing more than a goofy 1974 rewrite of that hoary Broadway chestnut West Side Story.
And as proof of how well he managed to pull all this off?...well, why don't you just admit that most of y'all have been hearing this song for more than 30 years now without making that connection. Pretty good job, I'd say. But still, Born To Run is too consciously artifical in its construction to rank as Bruce's best. On later albums, the seams, joints and bolts of his assembly didn't show nearly as much. On earlier ones, the act of creation was more organic. I can't remotely conceive of anyone being disappointed if they buy this album (for god's sake please do it...it's much more than just the two radio hits), but it's not his finest work.
The greatest album ever? Yep. November 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's almost impossible to write an adequate review of "Born to Run", because so much has been written about it, ultimately you'll just be echoing others' sentiments. You can try to find different ways of wording it, but in the end you're just heaping more praise upon an album that is universally considered a masterpiece.
Not that you'll get any argument from me on that front. If the perfect album is impossible to create, than BTR is a close as it's going to get. Why? Because it transcends being simply music. This truly is a cinematic album, like a soundtrack to a movie never made, except that the album IS the movie. It really draws you in that way. You don't listen to BTR, you experience it. Yes, it's THAT good.
From the gentle opening of "Thunder Road" (which just may be the greatest rock song of all time) to the pure exhilaration of "Night" and the title track, to Springsteen's tortured howl that ends "Jungleland" and the album, every note is perfect. There's not one line that doesn't fit. Every song is just plain great, nothing even comes close to filler. There's no way to really explain it if you haven't listened; It all just fits perfectly. Because Springsteen knew this was a make-or-break album, there's an unmistakable air of actual meaning behind everything sung here. Just incredible.
Some (if not most) Springsteen albums are made to be listened to under specific conditions. I mean, you wouldn't take "Nebraska" in the CD player as you cruise on a Summer day, would you? Some work fine in the car, but others you need to just sit back and 'feel' (indeed, every album of his should be listened to this way, save for "Human Touch", which is strictly background music). BTR is perfect no matter how you listen to it. Sit back and let "She's the One" and the haunting "Meeting Across the River" strike you right in the heart, or drive down main street while "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" plays. Driving at night with "Night" and then "Backstreets" as your background music is positively electrifying; I know from first-hand experience.
BTR is sort of a transitional album in that it combines some of the romanticism of Springsteen's first two albums with tales of loss and despair that would come to the forefront on "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and beyond. "Thunder Road", "Night", the title track, and even "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" all rely on youthful hope and nighttime redemption; the need to get out of whatever situation these characters find themselves in and try to find something, anything better. But where there's some optimism in those songs, "Backstreets" "Meeting Across the River", and "Jungleland" all point to dashed dreams, dead-ends, and even death. Springsteen employed a method where each side of the original vinyl would begin hopeful, and end in despair (an effect that is sadly lost in the CD translation). "Darkness..." would use this method, albeit with a much darker undercurrent.
In the end, it's hard to find any fault in "Born to Run". It's one of those rare albums that garnered monumental hype, and managed to completely live up to it, if not surpass it. Only the aforementioned "Darkness on the Edge of Town" comes close. No doubt about it, this is the greatest album ever made.
Bruce Springsteen at his best October 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Born to Run is the album that started Bruce Springsteen to the fame he enjoys now.
The album has a raw charm, but it is a kick back to the Rock of the 50's and 60's.
Bruce at one time wanted to become a premier guitarist but realized his efforts were in vain. He decided to concentrate on writing and performing instead. In time he has become one of the very best writers in Rock.
This is his signature album (arguably with Born in the USA).
If you like Bruce Springsteen this album is a must.
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