Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run (1975)
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run (1975)

Born to Run

With two ambitious but under-selling albums behind him, Springsteen needed a hit for his third, and he knocked it out of the park. A sheer epic fueled by tangible energy, the idealized notion of escape, and the romance of youth, Born to Run scorched earth upon release and remains a career-defining classic.

  • Released:
  • Label: Columbia
  • Producers: Bruce Springsteen, Mike Appel, Jon Landau
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  • 1 Thunder Road

    Lyrics

    The screen door slams
    Mary's dress waves
    Like a vision she dances across the porch
    As the radio plays
    Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
    Hey that's me and I want you only
    Don't turn me home again
    I just can't face myself alone again
    Don't run back inside
    darling you know just what I'm here for
    So you're scared and you're thinking
    That maybe we ain't that young anymore
    Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
    You ain't a beauty but hey you're all right
    Oh and that's all right with me

    You can hide 'neath your covers
    And study your pain
    Make crosses from your lovers
    Throw roses in the rain
    Waste your summer praying in vain
    For a savior to rise from these streets
    Well now I'm no hero
    That's understood
    All the redemption I can offer, girl
    Is beneath this dirty hood
    With a chance to make it good somehow
    Hey what else can we do now
    Except roll down the window
    And let the wind blow back your hair
    Well the night's busting open
    These two lanes will take us anywhere
    We got one last chance to make it real
    To trade in these wings on some wheels
    Climb in back, heaven's waiting on down the tracks
    Oh come take my hand
    We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
    Oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
    oh Thunder Road
    Lying out there like a killer in the sun
    Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
    Oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold
    Thunder Road

    Well I got this guitar
    And I learned how to make it talk
    And my car's out back
    If you're ready to take that long walk
    From your front porch to my front seat
    The door's open but the ride ain't free
    And I know you're lonely
    For words that I ain't spoken
    But tonight we'll be free
    All the promises'll be broken
    There were ghosts in the eyes
    Of all the boys you sent away
    They haunt this dusty beach road
    In the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets

    They scream your name at night in the street
    Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
    And in the lonely cool before dawn
    You hear their engines roaring on
    But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind
    So Mary climb in
    It's a town full of losers
    And I'm pulling out of here to win.

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  • 2 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

    Lyrics

    Tear drops on the city
    Bad Scooter searching for his groove
    Seem like the whole world walking pretty
    And you can't find the room to move
    Well everybody better move over, that's all
    I'm running on the bad side
    And I got my back to the wall
    Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out

    I'm stranded in the jungle
    Taking all the heat they was giving
    The night is dark but the sidewalk's bright
    And lined with the light of the living
    From a tenement window a transistor blasts
    Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast
    She hit me with a Tenth Avenue freeze-out
    Tenth Avenue freeze-out
    And I'm all alone, I'm all alone
    And kid you better get the picture
    And I'm on my own, I'm on my own
    And I can't go home

    When the change was made uptown
    And the Big Man joined the band
    From the coastline to the city
    All the little pretties raise their hands
    I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh
    When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
    With a Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out
    Tenth Avenue freeze-out...

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  • 3 Night

    Lyrics

    You get up every morning at the sound of the bell
    You get to work late and the boss man's giving you hell
    Till you're out on a midnight run
    Losing your heart to a beautiful one
    And it feels right as you lock up the house
    Turn out the lights and step out into the night

    And the world is busting at its seams
    And you're just a prisoner of your dreams
    Holding on for your life 'cause you work all day
    To blow 'em away in the night

    The rat traps filled with soul crusaders
    The circuits lined and jammed with chromed invaders
    And she's so pretty that you're lost in the stars
    As you jockey your way through the cars
    And sit at the light, as it changes to green
    With your faith in your machine off you scream into the night

    And you're in love with all the wonder it brings
    And every muscle in your body sings as the highway ignites
    You work nine to five and somehow you survive till the night
    Hell all day they're busting you up on the outside
    But tonight you're gonna break on through to the inside
    And it'll be right, it'll be right, and it'll be tonight

    And you know she will be waiting there
    And you'll find her somehow you swear
    Somewhere tonight you run sad and free
    Until all you can see is the night

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  • 4 Backstreets

    Lyrics

    One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends
    Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in
    Catching rides to the outskirts tying faith between our teeth
    Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat
    And hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
    With a love so hard and filled with defeat
    Running for our lives at night on them backstreets

    Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing
    Where desperate lovers park we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings
    Huddled in our cars waiting for the bells that ring
    In the deep heart of the night to set us loose from everything
    to go running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets
    We swore we'd live forever on the backstreets we take it together

    Endless juke joints and Valentino drag where dancers scraped the tears
    Up off the street dressed down in rags running into the darkness
    Some hurt bad some really dying at night sometimes it seemed
    You could hear the whole damn city crying blame it on the lies that killed us
    Blame it on the truth that ran us down you can blame it all on me Terry
    It don't matter to me now when the breakdown hit at midnight
    There was nothing left to say but I hated him and I hated you when you went away

    Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest
    Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness
    Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see
    Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be
    And after all this time to find we're just like all the rest
    Stranded in the park and forced to confess
    To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
    We swore forever friends on the backstreets until the end
    Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets

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  • 5 Born to Run

    Lyrics

    In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream
    At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
    Sprung from cages on Highway 9
    Chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected
    And steppin' out over the line
    Baby this town rips the bones from your back
    It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
    We gotta get out while we're young
    'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

    Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend
    I want to guard your dreams and visions
    Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
    and strap your hands across my engines
    Together we could break this trap
    We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back
    Will you walk with me out on the wire
    'Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider
    But I gotta find out how it feels
    I want to know if love is wild
    girl I want to know if love is real

    Beyond the Palace hemi powered drones scream down the boulevard
    The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
    And the boys try to look so hard
    The amusement park rises bold and stark
    Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
    I wanna die with you out on the streets tonight
    In an everlasting kiss

    The highway's jammed with broken heroes
    On a last chance power drive
    Everybody's out on the run tonight
    but there's no place left to hide
    Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness
    I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
    Someday girl, I don't know when,
    we're gonna get to that place
    Where we really want to go
    and we'll walk in the sun
    But till then tramps like us
    baby we were born to run

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  • 6 She's the One

    Lyrics

    With her killer graces and her secret places
    That no boy can fill with her hands on her hips
    Oh and that smile on her lips
    Because she knows that it kills me
    With her soft french cream
    Standing in that doorway like a dream
    I wish she'd just leave me alone
    Because french cream won't soften them boots
    And french kisses will not break that heart of stone
    With her long hair falling
    And her eyes that shine like a midnight sun
    Oh-o she's the one, she's the one

    That Thunder in your heart
    At night when you're kneeling in the dark
    It says you're never gonna leave her
    But there's this angel in her eyes
    That tells such desperate lies
    And all you want to do is believe her
    And tonight you'll try just one more time
    To leave it all behind and to break on through
    Oh she can take you, but if she wants to break you
    She's gonna find out that ain't so easy to do
    And no matter where you sleep tonight or how far you run
    Oh-o she's the one, she's the one

    Oh-o and just one kiss
    She'd fill them long summer nights
    With her tenderness that secret pact you made
    Back when her love could save you from the bitterness
    Oh she's the one, oh she's the one
    Oh she's the one, oh she's the one
    Oh she's the one, oh she's the one

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  • 7 Meeting Across the River

    Lyrics

    Hey, Eddie, can you lend me a few bucks
    And tonight can you get us a ride
    Gotta make it through the tunnel
    Got a meeting with a man on the other side

    Hey Eddie, this guy, he's the real thing
    So if you want to come along
    You gotta promise you won't say anything
    'Cause this guy don't dance
    And the word's been passed this is our last chance

    We gotta stay cool tonight, Eddie
    'Cause man, we got ourselves out on that line
    And if we blow this one
    They ain't gonna be looking for just me this time

    And all we gotta do is hold up our end
    Here stuff this in your pocket
    It'll look like you're carrying a friend
    And remember, just don't smile
    Change your shirt, 'cause tonight we got style

    Well Cherry says she's gonna walk
    'Cause she found out I took her radio and hocked it
    But Eddie, man, she don't understand
    That two grand's practically sitting here in my pocket

    And tonight's gonna be everything that I said
    And when I walk through that door
    I'm just gonna throw that money on the bed
    She'll see this time I wasn't just talking
    Then I'm gonna go out walking

    Hey Eddie, can you catch us a ride?

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  • 8 Jungleland

    Lyrics

    The rangers had a homecoming in Harlem late last night
    And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line
    Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
    Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
    The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
    Together they take a stab at romance and disappear down Flamingo Lane

    Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
    And the kids round here look just like shadows always quiet, holding hands
    From the churches to the jails tonight all is silence in the world
    As we take our stand down in Jungleland

    The midnight gang's assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
    They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light
    Man there's an opera out on the Turnpike
    There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
    Until the local cops, Cherry Tops, rips this holy night
    The street's alive as secret debts are paid
    Contacts made, they vanished unseen
    Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine
    The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands
    That face off against each other out in the street down in Jungleland

    In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
    Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records that the D.J. plays
    Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners
    Desperate as the night moves on, just a look and a whisper, and they're gone

    Beneath the city two hearts beat
    Soul engines running through a night so tender in a bedroom locked
    In whispers of soft refusal and then surrender in the tunnels uptown
    The Rat's own dream guns him down as shots echo down them hallways in the night
    No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
    Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

    Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
    Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
    Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
    And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
    And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
    Tonight in Jungleland

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