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

such a brilliant song...the production is awesome and really helps the song...that "1, 2, 3, 4" move takes my breath away every single time

^^^. Fuck the haters, once the "1,2,3,4" comes in I start hollering "The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive!"

Jersey Schmuck anthem, "Born to Run."

not all of us New Jerseyans like Springsteen very much, you know!

then there's this from upthread:

he prospect of being compared to Springsteen, whose panavision scenarios - replete with so much obvious romantic, rock-mythology imagery of a kind quite antithetical to Costello's writing - fills Elvis with anguish and dread. "Springsteen always romanticising the f----- street," he complains, with no little justification. "I'm bored with people who romanticise the f------- street. The street isn't f--------- attractive.

this almost makes springsteen sound proto-gangsta ... though i guess that the first 2 springsteen albums have a sort of almost wu-tang vibe to them (if you squint your ears a bit).

Album's overproduced, yeah, but Springsteen & The E-Street Band live 1978-1979 = A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'd still like to know what Tunnel of Love has to do with Bacharach.

And yeah, Springsteen winning non-fans over in a live setting is no news.

And leave Costello alone. You'd think he'd dissed Robyn or something.

Because it's so much more "street" to only release your new album on vinyl and digital format and name it after a "chic" restaurant in New York that Diana Elvis can afford to eat at, innit?

Note also that he has been reduced to supporting the Police on their next (NEXT?) tour. That wouldn't have happened back in '78.

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.

Born To Run sounds nothing like Mud.

He meant mudvayne

Beautiful song.

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

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.

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

<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.

dammit, neither has forgetting to use BBcode

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

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.

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

Sara Sara Sara otm otm otm

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

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

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.

tradeshow polo tucked into blue jeans xp

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1975/1101751027_400.jpg

http://www.rockandrollplanet.com/images/610_bruce_newsweek.JPG

i still like this song and album.

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.

this is a great record fuck the haters

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

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

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

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

Me.

The title track at least.

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

my two favorite bruce records!

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 :-(

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

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

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

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.