Springsteen wanted Born To Run to be 'best record ever heard'
Bruce Springsteen says he set out to write the perfect rock song when he penned 1975 breakthrough hit

Bruce Springsteen has recalled how he was trying to write “the greatest record ever heard” when he penned his breakthrough track Born To Run.
The song was the title track to Springsteen’s 1975 third album which propelled him to international superstardom. And he makes no bones about the fact that he wanted to hit the big time.
In an interview about his upcoming autobiography Born To Run, Springsteen tells CBS: “I was trying to make the greatest record you ever heard. A record that after you heard it, you didn’t have to hear another record.”
Springsteen also discusses his relationship with his late father Douglas and how the book is partly an attempt to shine a more accurate light on the dynamic between them.
He says: “My dad is very important in it because I felt I hadn’t been completely fair to him in my music. I felt that I left an image of him as a very domineering character, which he could be. He could be frightening. But he was also much, much more. He had a complicated life.”
Recalling how their relationship improved after an unannounced visit from his dad, Springsteen add: “He showed up at my door and we had a couple of beers early in the morning. He said, ‘You’ve been really good to us. And I wasn’t so good to you.’ And I said, ‘You did the best you could.’
“That was the only recognition that I needed of our history. It was a small thing but it was everything, it changed our relationship immediately.”
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Born To Run is released on September 27 via Simon & Schuster, with accompanying album Chapter And Verse due on September 23.
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Bruce Springsteen Chapter And Verse tracklist
- Baby I – The Castiles (previously unreleased)
- You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover – The Castiles (previously unreleased)
- He’s Guilty (The Judge Song) – Steel Mill (previously unreleased)
- Ballad Of Jesse James” – The Bruce Springsteen Band (previously unreleased)
- Henry Boy (previously unreleased)
- Growin’ Up
- 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
- Born To Run
- Badlands
- The River
- My Father’s House
- Born In The USA
- Brilliant Disguise
- Living Proof
- The Ghost Of Tom Joad
- The Rising
- Long Time Comin’
- Wrecking Ball
Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.