Bruce Springsteen Forum

The Boss reborn

By ED BEESON - HERALD NEWS

It was a year of big anniversaries for the icons of Americana. In 2005, McDonald's turned 50. Pac-Man turned 25. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" turned 20. Grant Wood's "American Gothic," the celebrated and often-satirized painting of a bald farmer, his plain-looking wife and his pitchfork, turned 75.


There were other anniversaries, but of all of them, one really felt like it mattered. Thirty years ago, Bruce Springsteen released "Born to Run," his epic third album and the one that rocketed him to stardom.

"Born to Run" is more than a masterpiece, and it is more than what made Springsteen famous. It is a testament to what young people can do if they set their mind to it.

This comes clear on the 30th anniversary-edition of "Born to Run," which hit store shelves in November. Set in a handsome box, the edition features a newly re-mastered version of the album and two DVDs -- one features a 'making of' documentary called "Wings for Wheels"; the other has newly uncovered footage of Springsteen's first concert in London, which took place in November 1975.

Taken together, these three discs provide an invaluable document of Springsteen's creative process. They paint a portrait of a young artist who channeled his ambition and made an indisputable American classic. Springsteen was 24 and 25 when he recorded "Born to Run," and like most people his age, he was filled with dreams of doing something big. "There was a sense of a journey beginning -- and having someplace to go, but I don't know where it is yet," Springsteen, now 56, reminisced in "Wings for Wheels."

His words here echo the na? optimism that must have filled him 30 years ago. But youth did not make Springsteen blunder, as it sometimes does to others. Instead, Springsteen seemed to focus past his youth. Footage from the "Born to Run" recording sessions, which appears in "Wings for Wheels," shows how.

At the time, Springsteen was scruffy and scrawny, and he wore a sleepy, faraway gaze in his eyes. And yet, he was unflinching. The viewer sees that Springsteen believed so deeply in his mission to write a great American epic that he never got sidetracked or distracted by the world outside the recording studio. He never seemed bogged down by the 18-hour days he and the E-Street Band spent trying to perfect the album. He kept his channels clear, and his ideas flowed.

(Of course Springsteen had more resources than most artists ever have. At the time, Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records, and for "Born to Run," his third album, he was given ample time to work. The album took 15 months to complete. The band spent six months working on the title track alone, which is four and a half minutes long.)

Springsteen's concept for the album was not terribly original. Lyrically, "Born to Run" was composed as a series of interlocking narratives that formed a unified concept, like several short stories that make a single novel. In "Wings for Wheels," Springsteen admits that his concept dangled precipitously close to modern cliches. He said many of his songs were inspired from "bad B-movies," like Robert Mitchum's 1958 car chase flick, "Thunder Road." And most of the songs are about young people who want freedom from small towns, and who think they can find it in their cars. George Lucas had already explored this same idea with his 1973 movie "American Graffiti."

Again, it was Springsteen's sense of direction that steered "Born to Run" out of harm's way. He seemed a tireless micromanager and ruthless self-editor. It is suggested on "Wings for Wheels" that Springsteen thought out his every note and inflection before he recorded a vocal track. When Springsteen howls the lyric "I'm on my own" on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," the album's second song, his voice suddenly turns haunting, like that of an old man looking back on a life of sorrow. It is a powerful effect. But when Springsteen tries to explain the song's title, as he does in the documentary, he chuckles first. "I have no idea what that means to this day," he says.

Perhaps the most surprising feature of "Born to Run" is its shortness. The album has just eight songs, and it is a tad longer than 38 minutes. Once again, this points to Springsteen's sense of focus. "Born to Run" is musically verbose and immensely dense, but it is arranged in such a way that there is barely a misplaced note or unnecessary part. All the filler has been cut. Even Springsteen's once-wordy lyrics were chopped lean. He sings on the album's title track, "The amusement park rises bold and stark, and kids are huddled on the beach in the mist." It is as if Hemingway visited the Jersey Shore.

The album's brevity also reflects a truism about youth: It is fleeting. But the anniversary, and the insight that the new edition of "Born to Run" provides, may breathe new life into his fan base. One might hope it will introduce Springsteen to a generation of young people who grew up knowing him as the voice of their parents' generation, not theirs. They may be thrown by the album's slightly antiquated sounds (How many modern rock acts use saxophones as lead instruments, classical piano interludes and honky-tonk arrangements?); but they should be impressed by how cohesive the album's drama is. Many albums that are twice as long sound half as powerful.

One would also hope that "Born to Run" and its tale of creation will inspire a new generation to strive for greatness while youth remains. After all, greatness need not wait. The time to seize it is now. Otherwise, people can waste their youth and never realize their potential. As Springsteen sings on "Jungleland," the album's closer: "the poets down here/don't write nothing at all/They just stand back and let it all be."

Had he stayed an idle dreamer, Springsteen could have become one of those poets. Instead, he let his sense of purpose keep him focused, and with that he accomplished great things.

Ich bin auch schockiert, wie schnell die "jungen Leute" heutzutage schon Englisch können. Meine kleine Nichte ist erst 7 und hat die Grundzüge schon einigermaßen drauf.
Allerdings haben die schon ab der 1. Klasse Englisch. Zu meiner Schulzeit ging das erst in der 5. los.

Ich vermute mal Waldorfschule?

Nee, eine normale Grundschule. Aber hast recht: denen könnt man es auch zutrauen

Ich weis nur von einem Bekannten, der in der Waldorfschule war. Der hatte ab der ersten Klasse Englisch und ich glaube sogar auch Französisch.
Aber in herkömmlichen Volksschulen, wäre mir neu.
Übrigens was steht überhaupt in dem Text? Kann das vielleicht mal einer übersetzen?