"Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen -- who really enjoys this overproduced crappy glop?

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (441 of them)

I don't understand how anything as muddy-sounding as this album could be labelled as "overproduced".

I actually have a problem with the production here for the completely opposite reason.

Geir Hongro, Friday, 28 March 2008 13:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Born To Run sounds nothing like Mud.

Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 28 March 2008 13:41 (sixteen years ago) link

He meant mudvayne

filthy dylan, Friday, 28 March 2008 13:50 (sixteen years ago) link

Beautiful song.

dell, Friday, 28 March 2008 16:51 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Sometimes, this is the best record ever made, by anyone. This is one of those times.

Matt DC, Monday, 5 May 2008 02:53 (sixteen years ago) link

one of the crappiest records of all-time. overproduced tuneless ballads and there is also something about springsteen's voice i don't like at all here.

alex in mainhattan, Monday, 5 May 2008 12:17 (sixteen years ago) link

I think people who hate this record are dead punk and hard.

Noodle Vague, Monday, 5 May 2008 12:20 (sixteen years ago) link

<i>makes Meat Loaf sound like fuckin' Wire. All those gloopy keyboards and honking saxes and overblown crescendos</i>

this opinion has never made me any friends.

marc h., Monday, 5 May 2008 12:29 (sixteen years ago) link

dammit, neither has forgetting to use BBcode

marc h., Monday, 5 May 2008 12:30 (sixteen years ago) link

You have to consider the influence of Springsteen's more epic tunes on great bands like Deacon Blue.

Bodrick III, Monday, 5 May 2008 12:54 (sixteen years ago) link

It's like a motor-oil smeared wedding cake waiting to be toppled.

I know that's (inexplicably) not supposed to be a compliment, but it totally is.

Sara Sara Sara, Monday, 5 May 2008 13:47 (sixteen years ago) link

I heard this tune at a bah a few weeks ago, and it seemed so similar to "Boho Rhap."

Veronica Moser, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link

Sara Sara Sara otm otm otm

deej, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link

hating this song is a one-way ticket to coolville so kiu dudes

max, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link

max I would like to join your dadrock defense brigade, is there a t-shirt or uniform I should acquire and wear?

Alex in Baltimore, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:26 (sixteen years ago) link

I just finished reading James Miller's Flowers in the Dustbin. He marks the hyping of Springsteen leading up to the release of Born To Run as a milestone in the decline of rock and roll - the moment when the tail started to wag the dog - ie., rock-journo hype about an "important" new artist makes them seem fleetingly important.

o. nate, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link

tradeshow polo tucked into blue jeans xp

max, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:30 (sixteen years ago) link

"DAD" on the front, "ROCK" on the back.

contenderizer, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:34 (sixteen years ago) link

I hate when people turn liking or disliking Springsteen into a class issue.

Kath, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:35 (sixteen years ago) link

the album isn't as good as the river or darkness but it's alright

akm, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link

the production of the title tune seems to be an intentional attempt to do a phil spector Wall of Sound; it doesn't really work though

akm, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link

I just finished reading James Miller's Flowers in the Dustbin. He marks the hyping of Springsteen leading up to the release of Born To Run as a milestone in the decline of rock and roll - the moment when the tail started to wag the dog - ie., rock-journo hype about an "important" new artist makes them seem fleetingly important.

i learned some stuff from "flowers in the dustbin." but he literally ends the book in 1977, and more or less pronounces pop music dead at that point. which makes some of his pronouncements, such as that above, kind of hard to take seriously.

fact checking cuz, Monday, 5 May 2008 20:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah, I don't necessarily agree with him, and I wasn't old enough in '74-75 to remember what the Springsteen hype was like, though if Born To Run was being held up as the Highway 61 Revisited or Sgt. Peppers of the '70s, it's easy to see how some might have felt underwhelmed.

o. nate, Monday, 5 May 2008 21:01 (sixteen years ago) link

i still like this song and album.

M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 5 May 2008 21:59 (sixteen years ago) link

I love the song, and it's a great album too. I don't really get why people don't dig at least the song (overproduced? I guess if Orbison on Monument is overproduced). But a big part of it seems to be the usual hipster anti-hype, and that's just bullshit.

Euler, Monday, 5 May 2008 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link

this is a great record fuck the haters

ciderpress, Monday, 5 May 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link

As someone who loves this song (and this album), I can easily understand why someone would loathe it. Some people need some subtlety!

Mark Rich@rdson, Monday, 5 May 2008 23:31 (sixteen years ago) link

has some pretty noise big man moments
bruce is generally too OTT for me though

El Tomboto, Monday, 5 May 2008 23:38 (sixteen years ago) link

i'm curious how many people who don't like this album like Nebraska

ciderpress, Monday, 5 May 2008 23:42 (sixteen years ago) link

I liked "Atlantic City," I'll say that.

Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 00:25 (sixteen years ago) link

Me.

ablaeser, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 01:54 (sixteen years ago) link

The title track at least.

ablaeser, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 01:54 (sixteen years ago) link

i'm curious how many people who don't like this album like Nebraska

my two favorite bruce records!

fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

I've known live versions of most of these songs for years, got the 30th anniversary edition for the Hammersmith Odeon show, which is mostly great (just a couple of rambling directionless long tracks from his first two albums), and I thought I'd check out the remastered album today (never heard it before) and boy does it suck. Cardboard boxes for drums? Reverb on the Backstreets vocals? I expected something timeless and full of energy and dynamics and it's just this over the top but still very flat seventies sounding turd. Some bits are almost there, but they only make me want to listen to live versions :-(

StanM, Thursday, 15 January 2009 16:56 (fifteen years ago) link

one year passes...

listening to this boot War and Roses, outtakes from Born to Run and hoooooly shit @ the acoustic "Thunder Road":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTqCf0LIRqU

Euler, Friday, 21 May 2010 08:02 (fourteen years ago) link

thinking about this song b/c the last line is kinda essential to who I am and I wonder what it would be like to get to a place in my life where I couldn't really mean it

Euler, Friday, 21 May 2010 08:05 (fourteen years ago) link

I was thinking about this album because I just moved away from NJ.

President Keyes, Friday, 21 May 2010 09:02 (fourteen years ago) link

OK - Yeah, the acoustic Thunder Road is one of the best outtakes by anybody, ever - and it remains unreleased after all this time & The release of Tracks. Once upon a time, Springsteen's song choices were even more perplexing than Dylan's but, as the 4th disc of Tracks reveals, he's getting better.

In answer to the original question: *raises hand* Oh! Me! Me!!

The sonic tapestry of Roy Orbison & Phil Spector rolling happily in the mud with Van Morrison remains a potent one.

ImprovSpirit, Friday, 21 May 2010 15:08 (fourteen years ago) link

this song bloooows

early bruce feels like west side story meets happy days for me

da croupier, Friday, 21 May 2010 15:15 (fourteen years ago) link

and by this song i mean "born to run" not "thunder road," which i can hear without wanting to shove a tony award up bruce's ass

da croupier, Friday, 21 May 2010 15:17 (fourteen years ago) link

all the crap u defend and u don't like born to run...weird

can't believe that no one has proposed a west end born to run musical to bruce yet;
which hopefully means he's smart enough to never ever allow it

Jamie_ATP, Friday, 21 May 2010 16:16 (fourteen years ago) link

Born to Run... on rollerskates!

Neil S, Friday, 21 May 2010 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link

all the crap u defend and u don't like born to run...weird

it'd be weird if i like something that's a poor "born to run" (like, i dunno, spring awakening? i don't pay attention to broadway scores), otherwise it's just taste. I like plenty of grandiose crap, just not the Fonz Meets Dylan On The Great White Way kind.

da croupier, Friday, 21 May 2010 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link

I'm a Springsteen hater for the most part, but I do love the audacity of this song.

Grisly Addams (WmC), Friday, 21 May 2010 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link

I'd say closer to Rebel Without a Cause than Fonz, but yeah point taken. Springsteen's tunes tend to have a very cinematic, dramatic quality & if that's not your bag you'll tend to find much of his material [particularly E. St. Shuffle and Born to Run LPs] irritating.

ImprovSpirit, Friday, 21 May 2010 18:03 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah i love born in the usa and tunnel of love, consider synth-pop to be a positive influence on the guy

da croupier, Friday, 21 May 2010 18:06 (fourteen years ago) link

I also like how Wild, Innocent and BTR influenced Thin Lizzy.

Fastnbulbous, Friday, 21 May 2010 18:21 (fourteen years ago) link

"Thunder Road" is prob one of my top 5 songs of all time and I would quite happily listen to nothing else for the rest of my life. Esp the line where he goes "...and you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore". Cuts as deep as anything in rock.

anagram, Friday, 21 May 2010 20:45 (fourteen years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.