US EditionBruce Springsteen Almost Lost His Record Deal. Then He Made ‘Born to Run’
Born to Run was Springsteen's critical and commercial breakthrough, overcoming prior album failures and saving his career with a landmark sound that defined his musical style.
- Bruce Springsteen released his breakout album Born to Run on August 25, 1975, after Columbia nearly dropped him following two critical but poorly selling albums.
- The album’s creation was a make-or-break moment shaped by Springsteen’s drive to redefine his life and escape previous struggles, prompting urgent creativity.
- Biographer Peter Ames Carlin explored this period in his book Tonight In Jungleland, emphasizing the album’s autobiographical themes and its opening with Mary in 'Thunder Road' and closing with the Magic Rat’s fate.
- Jon Landau called Carlin about eighteen months into writing and said, “they were ready to cooperate,” while Carlin noted the book acknowledged darkness but proposed personal change.
- Born to Run became a critical and financial triumph that established Springsteen’s style and affirmed the American ideal of self-reinvention.
34 Articles
34 Articles
Baby we were born to celebrate: Bruce Springsteen’s 'Born to Run' turns 50
Cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’/Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings It was 50 years ago — Aug. 25, 1975 — that Bruce Springsteen released his third studio album, Born to Run, which was a massive hit. But it turns out, it was a make-or-break album for the New Jersey rocker. After the commercial failure of his first two albums, 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Bruce was in dange…
November 1975. Last round of fire for Born to Run. The album, released on August 25, is being sold very well, but now it’s time to show it live in London’s demanding Hammersmith Odeon. Bruce Springsteen’s first time playing in the city where his idols triumphed: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who... But Bruce is angry. Much more than just getting into the venue for sound testing, still without an audience, he has found leafl…
Springsteen's Born to Run turns 50
Bruce Springsteen chuckled when I asked him about the making of Born to Run. “I was just a kid in my 20s trying to keep a record deal together – there was nothing more to it than that,” he told me. One way to see the Springsteen of the summer 1975, just before Born to Run released, is to imagine a wispy-bearded, 25-year-old man hanging around a beachfront New Jersey bar, telling you about his life. He relates slightly improbable tales of having …
San Bernardino Sun
Bruce Springsteen almost lost his record deal. Then he made ‘Born to Run’
Peter Ames Carlin first heard Bruce Springsteen’s single “Born to Run” in 1975 when the future music biographer was a 12-year-old kid in a car headed home from a hike with his Boy Scout troop. He was, he admits, less than impressed. “I remember the disc jockey saying, ‘Well, this guy is supposedly the savior of rock and roll. Let’s see how it sounds,’” Carlin says on a recent phone call. “He played it, and it was like it didn’t sound like everyt…
Springsteen’s label was about to drop him. Then came ‘Born to Run’ – Knowhere News
This month marks 50 years since the release of Bruce Springsteen’s seminal album, Born to Run, which was a watershed for both Springsteen and rock and roll. Because of the poor sales of his first two critically lauded albums, Springsteen’s record label, Columbia, was about to fire him before he recorded that album. The creation of Born to Run is described by biographer Peter Ames Carlinde as a “existential moment” for Springsteen. Carlin states,…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 70% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
