MoeFOH's Album of the Week... Week #20...

[MoeFOH]

MoeFOH's Album of the Week 🎶

Same as the movie thread, each week we're going to spotlight an album... be it a classic, new release, hidden gem, or outright turd... and open it for discussion: i.e. post up your favourite tracks, clips, lyrics, experiences if you saw live, etc... or dive deeper and give us a critique on why you think it's great, overrated, or a complete train wreck... And finally score it for us...  

All contributors go into a monthly prize draw for a 3-cigar sampler! 

PM me with suggestions if there's an album you want to nominate for next week's discussion. 

 

Week #20: Born To Run

Moe says: it had to happen eventually... one for @Ken Gargett 

Wiki says: Born to Run is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on August 25, 1975, by Columbia Records. As his effort to break into the mainstream, the album was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the Billboard 200 and eventually selling six million copies in the United States. Two singles were released from the album: "Born to Run" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"; the first helped Springsteen to reach mainstream popularity. The tracks "Thunder Road", "She's the One", and "Jungleland" became staples of album-oriented rock radio and Springsteen concert high points.

Born to Run garnered widespread acclaim on release. It has since been considered by critics to be one of the greatest albums of all time.

Over to you...

Who's a fan? How highly do you rate this album?

Thoughts, memories, experiences, favourite tracks...? 

Post em up!

Score it out of 10!

[MoeFOH]

 

[Ken Gargett]

it really is a small world. i was literally reading an article on someone whose life ambition is to meet bruce and which i sent to Di - who has excellent taste in music. 

i'll be honest. the first time i heard this - which was the first time i ever heard bruce - back in 75 when i was still a schoolkid (a mate's brother was driving us home from cricket practice and said that we had to hear this new album), it did nothing for me. i was much more into listening to dylan. first/second year at uni, a friend and i would drive around thur/fri/sat evenings looking for whatever parties were on and we'd always take it in turn. he loved bruce and i love bob. then suddenly i started saying, no, leave the bruce on, when it came to my turn (and he started telling me to leave the bob on). that was when i saw the light. 

and all that said, it is of course deeply offensive to include it in some form of musical beauty show like this. clearly, it soars above anything else proffered. to give it 10/10 would be demeaning. it deserves so much more. one of the few things on this planet which does give one hope for the future and which does give some indication that perhaps, just perhaps, divinities do exist. and it is impossible to beat live. 

all that said, i've always preferred darkness. true genius. 

i should add that while the actual song 'born to run' is truly iconic, thunder road and jungleland deserve equal adulation but the song i listen to more than any other from the album is backstreets. 

[Ford2112]

" ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"- Every Bruce Springsteen song ever.

 

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh. I liked when Little Steve was in the Sopranos.

[bassistheplace]

I used to really like Bruce. But I've become disenchanted with him over the last several years His whole persona is somewhat manufactured. It's kind of like Kiss without the makeup

great songwriter

great band

fun songs

just not authentic

for fun old time big band rock it's 7/10

[RedLantern]

Best side 1 track 1 ever? I'll admit there are a few songs that drag for me, so I'd give it an 8? I'm excited I just bought tickets to see the boss this winter when he's in Seattle.

[Chas.Alpha]

I read the ultimate review by our own #1 fan @Ken Gargett and have this to add. I was one of those aspiring young musicians back in the '70's when Bruce hit the scene. I'd known of him from friends on the E coast sometime before this record came out. Pop music, unimpressed. Hard working bar band, which we all respect. A buddy of mine had tickets to his 1st tour in Minneapolis and his date couldn't make it. I was almost uninterested to the point of saying no to a free show, but went anyway...

4 hours and 20 minutes later, I was standing on my feet shouting "BRUCE! BRUCE! BRUCE!!!" The band probably would have played another hour, but the audience was exhausted! 

The best live rock show I've ever seen, and that says quite a bit. In order to appreciate the albums, you gotta see him live!!!

[Ken Gargett]

26 minutes ago, Chas.Alpha said:

I read the ultimate review by our own #1 fan @Ken Gargett and have this to add. I was one of those aspiring young musicians back in the '70's when Bruce hit the scene. I'd known of him from friends on the E coast sometime before this record came out. Pop music, unimpressed. Hard working bar band, which we all respect. A buddy of mine had tickets to his 1st tour in Minneapolis and his date couldn't make it. I was almost uninterested to the point of saying no to a free show, but went anyway...

4 hours and 20 minutes later, I was standing on my feet shouting "BRUCE! BRUCE! BRUCE!!!" The band probably would have played another hour, but the audience was exhausted! 

The best live rock show I've ever seen, and that says quite a bit. In order to appreciate the albums, you gotta see him live!!!

the number of people i know who were utterly dismissive until they see him live is extraordinary. so many.

one mate who is a barrister here was visiting friends in the states early 70s. was dragged along to a concert at the local school in the basketball arena. they shut the doors and some kid and his friends played for about four hours to 600 people. been a bruce fanatic ever since. 

when i did the trip through africa in the late 80s, on the rare occasions i was allowed to use the communal tape player, it was only permitted if i took it off into the bush by myself. i spent a few nights in the african bush by myself screaming loudly (never been able to sing) along to bruce. the driver of the truck we were all on, still a great mate of mine, had no time for bruce at all. a year or two later, he was driving through india with a group when they saw that those 3rd world concert tours that jackson pollock and peter gabriel and i think sting and others were doing was on in delhi. they got tickets, got there early in the day, as bands were playing all day. said it was an extraordinary day. so many amazing acts. then about 11pm, only one to go. bruce. he said to the group, did anyone want to stay? they were all exhausted and said no, let's go back to the truck. but when they turned around, there were about 100,000 people between them and the exits. so they gave up and decided to stay. he said bruce finished around dawn. that he and the rest of the former bruce haters were still screaming for him to play more. he has also been a fanatic ever since. 

[MattxG]

4 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

all that said, i've always preferred darkness. true genius

Have to agree with you on that one there.  I personally found Darkness on the Edge of Town to have alot more emotional depth than any other of Bruce's early work.  I'd also have to put The River up there as one of his best, with Tunnel of Love being another great album from him. 

 

2 hours ago, bassistheplace said:

I used to really like Bruce. But I've become disenchanted with him over the last several years His whole persona is somewhat manufactured. It's kind of like Kiss without the makeup

Gotta agree with you there.  In his broadway show he admits he's never worked a monday to friday job his entire life, and that the working class characters he sings about tend to be modeled on his father.  Plus, I find his new found political outspokenness and the avenues he's given to speak about it to be odd.  It just strikes me weird.  It's like a party is looking to him to try to regain credibility with a demographic they lost over the last decade.  

[Chibearsv]

I never had the album so I can't rate it.  I know some of the songs from the radio and they just don't do it for me.  I guess my version of teen angst didn't line up with Bruce's.  I've never been a fan of Springsteen's music but the big man on sax was fire (RIP Clarence).  

[Doctorossi]

For me, this kind of defines "solid". I, too, will give it 7/10.