\u201cTonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born To Run,\u201d<\/a> (Doubleday, August 5), it was the exact opposite. I came together note by meticulous note in a studio session that set new records for frustration.<\/p>\n\u2009\u201cBorn To Run\u201d features an iconic Clarence Clemons sax solo that was crafted by Bruce Springsteen singing \u2014 and changing \u2014 it note by note to Clemons.<\/p>\n
Springsteen\u2019s songwriting mastery was developed through an obsessive process that found him toiling over ideas, lyrics, and concepts virtually non-stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you saw Bruce offstage, at home, or on the road in 1973 or 1974, you wouldn\u2019t have to look very far to find his songwriting notebook,\u201d Carlin writes. \u201cHe usually kept it within reach and always had a song, or more likely several songs, working at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1975 album \u201cBorn to Run,\u201d Springsteen\u2019s third, came to life over many months of tortured labor by Springsteen, a perfectionist whose process at the time could best be described as demented exhaustion.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
To arrive at the familiar version of the title track, Springsteen tried just about every musical idea he had ever heard, played, or thought about including a string section, women singers backing up the chorus, and even a disco portion.<\/p>\n
For the song\u2019s infamous sax solo, Springsteen worked with Clemons by singing his vision for the solo note by note, having Clemons play it, then changing one note, having Clemons play it again, and so on. This went on for hours, throughout the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe spent ages working on it with Clemons, eight, ten, maybe twelve hours, playing the same notes over and over again, Bruce looking for a slightly different feel, a slightly different tone, a tiny adjustment to the rhythm of this passage, this pair of notes, this portion of that note,\u201d writes Carlin.<\/p>\n
Springsteen\u2019s obsession with the details in the music, however, was nothing compared to how he labored over the song\u2019s lyrics, constantly re-writing, seeking a different tone, a new phrase, anything that would help him make \u201cBorn To Run\u201d as great as he knew it could be.<\/p>\n
Bruce Springsteen\u2019s perfectionism sent his band (above) storming out of the studio as he threatened to scrap \u201cBorn To Run.\u201d Instead it was released and made rock history. Photograph by Barry Schneier<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes he\u2019d be in the midst of a take, sing a few lines of a verse, shake it off, then take his notebook to a folding chair,\u201d Carlin writes. \u201cHe\u2019d find a pen, open the book, look at the page, and just\u2026think. He\u2019d be there for a while. An hour, two hours, maybe more.\u201d<\/p>\n
That time proved to be worth it, because the song was improving dramatically as it went. Springsteen\u2019s longtime fans would hardly recognize the early versions of the song.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At one point, it sounded like a musical salute to \u201cMad Max.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA song that had started as a nearly surrealistic portrait of a world gone mad \u2014 racers run down by their own cars, the highway buckling beneath their mag wheels, the thrill-kill junkies gunning down soldiers \u2018just for the noise\/Not even for the kicks\u2019 \u2014 had been remade into a vibrant highway saga that, while heavily symbolic, could be recognized as existing on the modern Jersey Shore,\u201d Carlin writes.<\/p>\n
Both Newsweek (above) and Time put Bruce Springsteen on their covers after the album dropped.<\/p>\n
Given all this, the album\u2019s recording process almost crumbled under the weight of Springsteen\u2019s relentless perfectionism.<\/p>\n
Stephen Appel, Springsteen\u2019s road manager at the time, describes a scene of pure chaos.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re working and it sounds great and so you start to think you have it right, but Bruce says, \u2018Nope, it\u2019s s\u2013t,\u2019\u201d says Appel in the book. \u201cAnd then you work for hours to change it. And then that\u2019s done, and Bruce says, \u2018You know what? Maybe it was better before, because now this sounds like s**t.\u2019 And you would do that for ten to fifteen hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the album was finally complete, it was played for executives at Columbia, including Walter Yetnikoff, who had just been placed in charge of all of CBS\u2019 record labels. (Columbia was owned by CBS at the time.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
The record\u2019s reception blew everyone away.<\/p>\n
After he heard the entire album, Yetnikoff was asked what he thought and replied, \u201cIt\u2019s like f\u2014ing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite this rave review, when Springsteen the perfectionist heard the album\u2019s final mix for the first time, he had a very different reaction.<\/p>\n
As the music played, Springsteen started adding self-deprecating commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, well, if I\u2019m going to sing something I guess I should oversing it, that\u2019s great,\u201d Springsteen said. \u201cOh, and here comes the saxophone, that\u2019s gotta be a Bruce Springsteen record, nothing clich\u00e9d about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBorn To Run\u201d was born at a rented bungalow (above) on West End Court in Long Branch, NJ, where The Boss still visits today. LoC<\/p>\n
When the record was done playing, Springsteen said, \u201cI dunno, man, maybe we should just scrap it. Toss this s\u2013t and start over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearing that, Clemons, known as \u201cThe Big Man\u201d at a towering 6\u20195\u201d, stood up and walked out of the room without saying a word. Every member of the band and crew followed.<\/p>\n
Of course, the record was not scrapped. Given that Springsteen\u2019s first two albums had not sold well, Columbia executives ordered 100,000 copies printed \u2014 a number that, at the time, indicated the label had low expectations \u2014 and were shocked when pre-orders hit three times that.<\/p>\n
Despite his initial misgivings, Springsteen says he\u2019s \u201cvery, very fond\u201d of the album. Redferns<\/p>\n
The album became a #1 hit, and would dominate American rock radio for decades to come. <\/p>\n
Both Time and Newsweek, two of the biggest magazines in the country at a time when that meant something, put him on the cover in the same week.<\/p>\n
Interviewing Springsteen in 2024, Carlin found, unsurprisingly, that his view of the album had changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very, very fond of it,\u201d Springsteen, now 75 years old, says in the book. \u201cAnd on its anniversaries, I get in a car and I play it from start to finish, right? I just drive around listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new book gives an authorized look at the album\u2019s recording.<\/p>\n
On these jaunts, Springsteen makes sure he ends up on West End Court in Long Branch, New Jersey, just outside the rented bungalow where he first put thoughts for the song to paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get there right before the end, right before [the album\u2019s last song] \u2018Jungleland,\u2019\u201d says Springsteen. \u201cAnd I park there. I sit by the curb and I let \u2018Jungleland\u2019 play, all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The infamous sax solo Clarence Clemons plays on Bruce Springsteen\u2019s rock classic \u201cBorn To Run\u201d is so vibrant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[16755,42336,88,216,1997,42337],"class_list":["post-56065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-clarence-clemons","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-jersey","tag-postscript"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}