Bruce Springsteen & Born To Run: 50 Years by Sean Egan
It’s not hyperbole to say that Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 album Born To Run was a make it or break it moment for New Jersey’s favorite son.
His first two albums for Columbia Records did ok but didn’t garner nearly the sales figures that label execs expected for the ‘second coming of Dylan’. So Springsteen, already a relentless perfectionist in the studio, set out to create his masterpiece—Born to Run—one of the most consequential rock albums of the mid-1970s. Music journalist Sean Egan does a remarkable job of capturing not only what was at stake in his book, Bruce Springsteen & Born To Run: 50 Years, but also gives an almost academic view of how Springsteen and the band managed to create such a sweeping, cinematic album that was way ahead of its time and all of the personalities that were involved in making it happen.
This is hardly the first exhaustive book on Springsteen (it’s not even the first book that focused solely on this album), but through both his extensive research, compelling writing and the book’s presentation, this is one of the best on the subject. The hefty book is crammed with performance and off-stage photography as well as memorabilia, covered in a black velvet-like material and housed in a protective slipcase.
Along with the central story around the recording of this monumental classic, Egan uses various chapters throughout to detour into relevant side bars like how Springsteen assembled the lineup of musicians that performed on the record, as well as future E Street Band staples; insight and analysis about the state of rock in the mid-’70s; the fame that followed this album’s release (eventually); and a track-by-track analyses of the songs that made the record, as well as those that didn’t.
The result is a book that is absolutely an essential for any long-time Springsteen fans as well as the perfect introduction to those who are just starting to get into his music.
http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Springsteen-Born-Run-Albums/dp/0760391734
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: 50th Anniversary of “Born to Run”
