Born to Run

Born to Run does not gain its momentum by maintaining the same volume throughout. Thunder Road opens a space; Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out and Night pass through comparatively compact forms; Backstreets expands the scale again. Only then does the title song arrive. Hearing that familiar anthem in the middle makes its forward pressure part of a larger sequence, with accumulated expectations before it and considerable unfinished business afterwards.

Springsteen’s third studio album appeared on Columbia on August 25, 1975. He wrote all eight songs, but the instrumental personnel are not identical throughout. Ernest Carter and David Sancious play drums and keyboards on the title track, distinct from the roles associated with Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan elsewhere. Meeting Across the River introduces Richard Davis on bass and Randy Brecker on trumpet. Those credits identify changes of musical conversation within the record.

Hear a horn section, not just one soloist

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out credits several wind players alongside Clarence Clemons. Follow their collective accents and the brief responses around the vocal. Night occupies another short span without organising its momentum in exactly the same way. When Backstreets follows, its duration of more than six minutes becomes an audible change of proportion, not merely a larger number on the track list.

Size depends on arrivals

In Thunder Road, retain the impression of the opening harmonica and keyboard setting as other parts arrive. Voice and accompaniment need not expand together. Compare that process with the concentrated force of the title track. The difference concerns when instruments occupy the foreground, as well as how many are present. Two similarly sized songs can suggest very different journeys through an arrangement.

A smaller scene before the finale

Meeting Across the River gives piano, trumpet and bass another kind of room. The much longer Jungleland follows, with violin and tenor saxophone among its credited colours. Preserve that approach to the finale. The seventh song changes the scale against which the eighth is heard, making the closing stretch more than a second attempt to reproduce the title song’s charge.