The Bruce Springsteen album that almost never made it: “I hated it!”
July 25th, Wembley. Bruce Springsteen has been on stage for about two and a half hours, and in classic style, it looks as though he could play for another five. He wipes beads of sweat from his forehead and shares glances with various members of the E Street Band before counting them down into one of his most iconic introductions.
Even five decades after it was initially released, ‘Born To Run’ remains one of Bruce Springsteen’s most iconic tracks, as that intro riff is enough to get the stillest of crowds dancing. This goes not only to the individual track but also to the album as a whole, which is considered one of Springsteen’s best and one of the best rock albums ever made. With that in mind, it’s interesting to find out that The Boss was close to never releasing it.
Bruce Springsteen has never kept his influences secret. He has always spoken out about how life-changing it was when he first listened to Bob Dylan and how much he influenced the kind of music he wanted to make. Springsteen didn’t just hear the melody when he listened to Springsteen; he heard the truth and was astonished by the clear picture that the musician painted of the rest of the world.
This influence could be heard in Springsteen’s early work, as he wrote about people, places, nostalgia and politics. It didn’t take long for the comparisons to come rolling through; however, those first two albums, despite being enjoyed by those who listened, didn’t reach the commercial heights that labels were expecting from the next Bob Dylan. Subsequently, going into the third album, the aim was simple…
“When I did Born To Run,” he said, “I thought, ‘I’m going to make the greatest rock ‘n’ roll record ever made’.”
Springsteen ended up working tirelessly on the album. The title track alone took six months to record. It’s easy to look back now and chalk off that period as six months well spent, but at the time, the band was worried something might be wrong with the track, given how long it was taking to come together.
“Anytime you spend six months on a song, there’s something not exactly going right,” said Steve Van Zandt, reflecting on the period when they were recording ‘Born To Run’, “A song should take about three hours.”
This relentless approach towards getting the songs up to standard didn’t just apply to the title track. Springsteen was working on some huge-sounding songs, and that made it hard for the band to nail the execution of them first time around. “I mean ‘Jungleland’ and ‘Backstreets’ are not easy songs to record,” said E Street Band member Roy Bittan, “It’s like trying to drive a Grand Prix course: Every time you go around one turn, there’s another.”
The album we hear today is the result of stress, pressure, and late nights. By the time it was finished, Bruce Springsteen had spent so much time putting it together that he never wanted to listen to it again.
“After it was finished?” he said, “I hated it! I couldn’t stand to listen to it. I thought it was the worst piece of garbage I’d ever heard.” Springsteen almost binned the whole album. We have Jon Landau to thank for stepping in and ensuring Springsteen released the album. He made the fair point that other musical legends will be sick of their work by the time it’s finished, but that doesn’t stop others from loving it. Springsteen found that out, as Born To Run was and still is one of the most successful albums he ever released.
