Born to Run
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4.5 • 82 Ratings
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
'Writing about yourself is a funny business…But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.' —Bruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humour and originality found in his songs.
He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger and darkness that fuelled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as 'The Big Bang': seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candour, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song 'Born to Run' reveals more than we previously realized.
Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll. Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs ('Thunder Road', 'Badlands', 'Darkness on the Edge of Town', 'The River', 'Born in the U.S.A.', 'The Rising', and 'The Ghost of Tom Joad', to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You don’t have to be a true-blue Bruce fan to love this triumphant memoir. The rock icon’s colourful stories of his scrappy youth and freewheeling bar-band days stir up a beautiful nostalgia. But Born to Run is also full of unfiltered revelations about Springsteen’s shortcomings as a son, father, partner and friend, as well as hard-won insights about getting healthy mentally and emotionally. It’s the kind of real talk the world’s come to expect from the man, but that doesn’t make it any less moving or remarkable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his long-awaited memoir, Springsteen takes readers on an entertaining, high-octane journey from the streets of New Jersey to all over the world. A natural storyteller, Springsteen commands our attention, regaling us with his tales of growing up poor with a misanthropic father and a mother who had endless faith in people. The Boss delights us with humorous stories of his first guitar which he couldn't get his seven-year-old fingers around and his inspiration to become a musician after seeing Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show: "I WANTED... I NEEDED... TO ROCK! NOW!" Once he's hooked, he can't give up this insatiable hunger to rock like Chuck Berry, or the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles; soon he's playing in his first band, the Castiles, and eventually with another band, Steel Mill, opening up for Grand Funk Railroad, Ike & Tina Turner, and Iron Butterfly. Springsteen weaves a captivating story, introducing us to the essential people in his life: Patti Scialfa, Clarence Clemons, Steven Van Zandt, and producer/managers Mike Appel and Jon Landau, among many others. He offers absorbing accounts of the making of each album, and he considers Born to Run as the dividing line between musical styles, as well as the mark of the beginning of his success; he also admits that his bands were never democracies and that he makes the decisions. Most insightful, he reveals his ongoing battles with depression "shortly after my sixtieth I slipped into a depression like I hadn't experienced" and his eventual ability to live with this condition. Springsteen writes with the same powerful lyrical quality of his music.
Customer Reviews
The Boss
4.5 stars
Preamble.
I first became aware of "The Boss" back in 1974 after hearing "Spirit in the Night" from his debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" on Qld Uni radio station 4ZZZ. Next came "The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle." Soon after music journalist turned Springsteen producer Jon Landau wrote "I've seen the future of rock'n roll and it's Bruce Springsteen," his breakthrough album "Born to Run" appeared in 1975. Now in his seventies, "The Boss" is still going strong: writing, touring, and performing at a frenetic pace, or would be if not for COVID-19. His live shows are nothing short of magnificent. The dude loves being on stage and gives his all every time. I met him backstage in 1985 at QEII Stadium in Brisbane. I knew one of the promoters and snagged a gig as band doctor for the night. There were absolutely NO drugs involved other than the vitamin injections I had to give them all pre-show. A sell-out of my medical scientific principles I know, but who could blame me? Springsteen IRL was taciturn compared to his bandmates. In case you were wondering, and even if you weren't, my interaction with rock royalty went like this:
> Boss: "You the doc?"
< Me (trembling): "Yeah." (Cool answer, eh?)
> Boss: "My Mom wanted me to be a doctor."
< Me: "I kept telling my Mum I wanted to be a guitar player."
> Boss: Slight grin (it might have been a grimace). Moves on.
What about the book?
It's my theory that most of Springsteen's words went into his lyrics in the early days. The guy liked to cram in every figure of speech he could: a wall of words rather than a wall of sound.
"Madman drummers bummers Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the
Adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder,
Feeling kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasing, sneezing and wheezing
The calliope crashed to the ground"
Seriously? (No offence, Bruce. Just sayin'.)
The book provides clear evidence that Mr Springsteen has learned to be more selective in his use of vocabulary as the years have gone by. No ghost writers were involved, although he acknowledged, in interviews, that his willingness to lay everything bare owed much to a couple of psychotherapists he's been seeing for more than 20 years.
This is a true autobiography that starts with Springsteen's poor upbringing in small town New Jersey in the 1950s and 1960s, explores the influence of music on his life, the transformative effect of Elvis and The Beatles on his generation, along with his drive to succeed and powerful undiminished work ethic. He comes off as a very likeable guy who tried to live his life to the full and not afraid to be brutally honest.
Bottom line
Even if you’re not a Springsteen fan - and if not, why not - there’s plenty to interest you in this book. As rock star biographies go, it’s the best I’ve ever read.
Trish Wisbey-Roth
I loved this book and listening to Bruce’s music along with the back story to his lyrics and life made all of his music which I have loved since a teenager come alive in a deep and meaningful way. Coming from a poor catholic working class family where my dad headed off to the factory each morning and my Mum with 10 children struggled to make end meet, Bruce wrote songs as if they were written for me and they will always be a special part of my life and it’s story. Thanks Bruce from the bottom of my heart and wishing you many happy years ahead!
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
A masterpiece! The best rock bio I have read. I didn’t want the story to end.