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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
High stakes, high anxiety: 5 revelations about the making of ‘Born to Run'
Before 'Born to Run,' Bruce Springsteen was in danger of being dropped by his record label. But the landmark album, released 50 years ago this month, changed all that: The New Jersey native vaulted to stardom, becoming the first musician to appear on the cover of Time and Newsweek simultaneously. In the absorbing 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run,' Peter Ames Carlin details Springsteen's struggles to make the album. Leading up to its release, the musician had lost a champion at Columbia Records with the 1973 exit of president Clive Davis. This decreased support, coupled with poor sales and a lack of radio spins for his second LP, 'The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle,' later that year meant Springsteen's future there was at risk. Even stellar press reviews such as Jon Landau's infamous 1974 critical assessment ('I saw rock 'n' roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen') didn't necessarily help. Musically, Springsteen was also getting used to musical shifts within his own band. Drummer Vini 'Mad Dog' Lopez and keyboardist David Sancious had departed, with drummer Max Weinberg and pianist Roy Bittan filling their shoes. For 'Tonight in Jungleland,' Carlin drew on research and interviews, including a fresh conversation with Springsteen and others involved with the record, as well as archival chats conducted for his bestselling 2013 Springsteen biography 'Bruce.' What emerges is a fascinating portrait of a talented, ambitious and stubborn young man with strong creative instincts — but who needed to get out of his own way to let the genius shine. Here are five takeaways about the genesis and creation of 'Born to Run' from 'Tonight in Jungleland.' Columbia Records didn't see the potential in the album's title track — at first. Convincing Columbia Records to support his new work was a herculean struggle for Springsteen. Still, he had an ace up his sleeve: a song called 'Born to Run' he had spent months refining. Springsteen's then-manager, Mike Appel, brought a tape of the song to play for Columbia exec Steve Popovich, an early believer in Springsteen's music. The hope was that Popovich would love the song and convince the label's head of A&R, Charles Koppelman, to support the single and Springsteen. Popovich was busy juggling three separate phone calls (on three different phone lines, no less) but played the cassette anyway, absorbing the music while continuing his conversations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the listening session didn't go as well as Appel hoped, with Popovich telling Appel: 'I liked the riff. It's all right, but I didn't digest the rest.' Carlin quotes Appel responding: 'Why don't I digest some more myself? Like, we just finished it ourselves. And then we'll come back to you with some other suggestions.' But Springsteen's then-manager ended up grabbing the label's attention with guerrilla tactics: He leaked the single to radio stations who had supported Springsteen, drumming up buzz and airplay via DIY (and not-quite-legal) methods. Jon Landau helped shape the album in pivotal ways. Jon Landau, Springsteen's manager and trusted confidant for decades, began collaborating with him during the 'Born to Run' era, after Springsteen hired him to co-produce the LP. 'I don't trust anybody, you know, but Jon and I struck up a relationship, and I said, 'Well, this guy is theoretically going to be our producer,'' Springsteen told Carlin in 2024. Landau suggested that the musician needed to record in a more professional recording studio, the Record Plant in New York City. And he brought a keen editing eye to Springsteen's songs, particularly 'Wings for Wheels.' His advice to trim, cut and rearrange the music led to Springsteen revising the lyrics and emerging with 'Thunder Road.' 'Suddenly we had a very different album,' Springsteen told Carlin. 'We had a very different group sound, and we had streamlined ourselves into not a rock and soul band but into a tight little five-piece streamlined rock 'n' roll band.' Springsteen's perfectionist tendencies made finishing 'Born to Run' a nail-biter. A notorious perfectionist, Springsteen labored for months on the song 'Born to Run.' He was even more fastidious about getting 'Jungleland' right, which was a bigger issue: Springsteen had a strict deadline to finish the 'Born to Run' album on July 20, 1975, as he was kicking off a tour that very night. A few days before the LP was due, he switched up the end of 'Jungleland,' adding more emphasis on the final line as well as anguished, wordless howls. He was even more painstaking about recording Clarence Clemons' epic saxophone solo, staying up all night recording take after take alongside engineer Jimmy Iovine. 'Even after fifty years, the memory of what it took to record the sax solo to 'Jungleland' makes his eyes widen and his mouth drop open,' Carlin writes. Springsteen initially didn't like the finished album. Carlin's description of the moment Springsteen, his managers and the band listened to the final version of the seminal album is the most jaw-dropping passage of 'Tonight in Jungleland.' Carlin writes that he spoke to 'at least ten different people' who were there at the session, and 'no version of events holds from one voice to another.' But in the book, he recounts Springsteen critiquing the final song, 'Jungleland,' and ending his remarks with: 'I dunno, man, maybe we should just scrap it. Toss this s— and start over.' Iovine then arrived with an acetate copy of the album from the master recording. This also didn't go over well: After a listen, Springsteen threw the record into a hotel swimming pool. Explaining his actions today, Springsteen told Carlin: 'I just didn't like it, you know. It was making me, you know, it just made me itchy on the inside and out.' As indelible as the lyrics of 'Born to Run' are, Springsteen shies away from talk of artistry. Today, 'Born to Run' is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. The LP synthesized decades of popular music — soul, jazz, R&B, rock 'n' roll — to create a new musical language, while its depth-filled lyrics are a rich text full of allegories and religious imagery. Surprisingly, Springsteen himself is unpretentious about his creation. Carlin describes a long-ago encounter where then-road manager Stephen Appel (brother of Mike) told Springsteen he didn't understand the lines, 'The poets down here / Don't write nothing at all / They just stand back and let it all be.' In Appel's recollection, Springsteen responded, 'That's because I'm the poet.' Decades later, Springsteen recalls things differently. 'That doesn't sound right,' he told Carlin. 'In those days, I'm 24 years old, I'm really not that analytical, and I'm certainly not that self-analytical as of yet. 'I'm really just writing things and coming up with a line that feels good to me,' he continues. 'Those lyrics were just instinctively written.'
New York Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Bruce Springsteen almost drove his band to quit while making ‘Born to Run'
The infamous sax solo Clarence Clemons plays on Bruce Springsteen's rock classic 'Born To Run' is so vibrant and exhilarating that it seems like a moment of pure inspiration on Clemons' part. In truth, as Peter Ames Carlin lays out in his new book, 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born To Run,' (Doubleday, August 5), it was the exact opposite. I came together note by meticulous note in a studio session that set new records for frustration. 7 'Born To Run' features an iconic Clarence Clemons sax solo that was crafted by Bruce Springsteen singing — and changing — it note by note to Clemons. Advertisement Springsteen's songwriting mastery was developed through an obsessive process that found him toiling over ideas, lyrics, and concepts virtually non-stop. 'If you saw Bruce offstage, at home, or on the road in 1973 or 1974, you wouldn't have to look very far to find his songwriting notebook,' Carlin writes. 'He usually kept it within reach and always had a song, or more likely several songs, working at the same time.' The 1975 album 'Born to Run,' Springsteen's third, came to life over many months of tortured labor by Springsteen, a perfectionist whose process at the time could best be described as demented exhaustion. Advertisement To arrive at the familiar version of the title track, Springsteen tried just about every musical idea he had ever heard, played, or thought about including a string section, women singers backing up the chorus, and even a disco portion. For the song's infamous sax solo, Springsteen worked with Clemons by singing his vision for the solo note by note, having Clemons play it, then changing one note, having Clemons play it again, and so on. This went on for hours, throughout the night. 'He spent ages working on it with Clemons, eight, ten, maybe twelve hours, playing the same notes over and over again, Bruce looking for a slightly different feel, a slightly different tone, a tiny adjustment to the rhythm of this passage, this pair of notes, this portion of that note,' writes Carlin. Springsteen's obsession with the details in the music, however, was nothing compared to how he labored over the song's lyrics, constantly re-writing, seeking a different tone, a new phrase, anything that would help him make 'Born To Run' as great as he knew it could be. Advertisement 7 Bruce Springsteen's perfectionism sent his band (above) storming out of the studio as he threatened to scrap 'Born To Run.' Instead it was released and made rock history. Photograph by Barry Schneier 'Sometimes he'd be in the midst of a take, sing a few lines of a verse, shake it off, then take his notebook to a folding chair,' Carlin writes. 'He'd find a pen, open the book, look at the page, and just…think. He'd be there for a while. An hour, two hours, maybe more.' That time proved to be worth it, because the song was improving dramatically as it went. Springsteen's longtime fans would hardly recognize the early versions of the song. At one point, it sounded like a musical salute to 'Mad Max.' Advertisement 'A song that had started as a nearly surrealistic portrait of a world gone mad — racers run down by their own cars, the highway buckling beneath their mag wheels, the thrill-kill junkies gunning down soldiers 'just for the noise/Not even for the kicks' — had been remade into a vibrant highway saga that, while heavily symbolic, could be recognized as existing on the modern Jersey Shore,' Carlin writes. 7 Both Newsweek (above) and Time put Bruce Springsteen on their covers after the album dropped. Given all this, the album's recording process almost crumbled under the weight of Springsteen's relentless perfectionism. Stephen Appel, Springsteen's road manager at the time, describes a scene of pure chaos. 'You're working and it sounds great and so you start to think you have it right, but Bruce says, 'Nope, it's s–t,'' says Appel in the book. 'And then you work for hours to change it. And then that's done, and Bruce says, 'You know what? Maybe it was better before, because now this sounds like s**t.' And you would do that for ten to fifteen hours a day.' When the album was finally complete, it was played for executives at Columbia, including Walter Yetnikoff, who had just been placed in charge of all of CBS' record labels. (Columbia was owned by CBS at the time.) 7 The record's reception blew everyone away. After he heard the entire album, Yetnikoff was asked what he thought and replied, 'It's like f—ing.' Advertisement Despite this rave review, when Springsteen the perfectionist heard the album's final mix for the first time, he had a very different reaction. As the music played, Springsteen started adding self-deprecating commentary. 'Oh, well, if I'm going to sing something I guess I should oversing it, that's great,' Springsteen said. 'Oh, and here comes the saxophone, that's gotta be a Bruce Springsteen record, nothing clichéd about that.' 7 'Born To Run' was born at a rented bungalow (above) on West End Court in Long Branch, NJ, where The Boss still visits today. LoC Advertisement When the record was done playing, Springsteen said, 'I dunno, man, maybe we should just scrap it. Toss this s–t and start over.' Hearing that, Clemons, known as 'The Big Man' at a towering 6'5', stood up and walked out of the room without saying a word. Every member of the band and crew followed. Of course, the record was not scrapped. Given that Springsteen's first two albums had not sold well, Columbia executives ordered 100,000 copies printed — a number that, at the time, indicated the label had low expectations — and were shocked when pre-orders hit three times that. 7 Despite his initial misgivings, Springsteen says he's 'very, very fond' of the album. Redferns Advertisement The album became a #1 hit, and would dominate American rock radio for decades to come. Both Time and Newsweek, two of the biggest magazines in the country at a time when that meant something, put him on the cover in the same week. Interviewing Springsteen in 2024, Carlin found, unsurprisingly, that his view of the album had changed. 'I'm very, very fond of it,' Springsteen, now 75 years old, says in the book. 'And on its anniversaries, I get in a car and I play it from start to finish, right? I just drive around listening.' Advertisement 7 A new book gives an authorized look at the album's recording. On these jaunts, Springsteen makes sure he ends up on West End Court in Long Branch, New Jersey, just outside the rented bungalow where he first put thoughts for the song to paper. 'I get there right before the end, right before [the album's last song] 'Jungleland,'' says Springsteen. 'And I park there. I sit by the curb and I let 'Jungleland' play, all the way through.'
The Guardian
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I knew it would happen for Bruce': David Sancious on walking away from Springsteen's E Street Band
It was a late spring night in 1971 and David Sancious had walked from his home on E Street in Belmar, New Jersey to the Upstage club in Asbury Park. He was 17 and he had been playing piano and guitar with local bands for four years. 'I had walked to the Upstage because I wanted to play,' he says, 'and as I'm coming in I see Garry Tallent, a bass player who I already knew from other gigs.' Tallent was with a fellow New Jersey musician, a 21-year-old guitarist called Bruce Springsteen, 'the local guitar hero', says Sancious, 'very famous locally.' Springsteen told Sancious he was having a jam session and invited him to play. 'I said: 'Absolutely.'' The band played until 5am. As they were walking out of the club, Springsteen told Sancious he was breaking up his current band Steel Mill to form a new one: would he be interested in joining? Sancious said yes. He went on to record with Springsteen on his first three albums, but left the group before Born to Run transformed Springsteen and his bandmates into superstars. As that album approaches its 50th anniversary next month, I have wondered whether Sancious regrets walking away. He was five years old when his family moved into 1105 E Street in Belmar. The previous owners had left their piano in the house. 'The day we moved in, my mum sat down and started playing Chopin and Beethoven,' he says. 'It blew my mind.' Sancious started playing piano and later guitar and was in local bands in his early teens, giving illegal underage performances at local bars. 'The police used to raid these places and card everyone,' he says. 'One night I'm on stage with Bruce and the cops are hanging out at the front door.' The band hatched a plan to get Sancious off stage, sandwiched between Springsteen, saxophonist Clarence Clemons and two others. 'I was in the middle moving slowly, trying not to draw any attention.' Sancious and his bandmates sometimes rehearsed in his mother's garage, but mostly in a surfboard factory owned by an early manager of Springsteen's. 'You don't know enough to be self-conscious because you haven't had that much experience yet,' he says about those early days. Sancious contributed keyboards, piano and delicate jazz textures that enriched the early E Street sound on songs such as New York City Serenade and Incident on 57th Street. 'The thing about Bruce is that musically he was always open to a good idea. If I came up with a certain chord or inversion, he was very open to that.' Around 1974, Sancious and Springsteen were back in Belmar, by Sancious's childhood home. 'We were coming home from somewhere,' he says, 'turning on to E Street from 12th Avenue. There were these white obelisks with the street names painted on them. Bruce saw it and just said, 'E Street … E Street Band.'' How did it feel to have his address inspire this iconic band name? 'Pretty cool – quite an honour.' Sancious worked on Springsteen's debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ and its followup The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, and also toured with the band. 'We didn't have private planes back then,' he says. 'We had a station wagon, three of the guys in the front and three in the back. You're doing everything with these people. Eating, laughing, crying with them if something really bad happens. It's a great life.' He was the first Black member of what became the E Street Band – Clemons joined shortly after. 'You are constantly, completely, 100% aware of being Black – full stop – in any situation,' he says. He recalls one incident. 'I was at the beach and there were two guys making threatening gestures and saying inappropriate racial stuff. Clarence comes along and sees what's going on. He sat down right next to me and then Bruce comes walking by. Bruce found a piece of driftwood and he kept hitting it in his hand like he was saying: 'I'm not going to let you hurt our friend.'' Sancious continued playing with Springsteen but during breaks from touring he was working on his own music. When CBS heard his demo they offered him a three-year contract that would launch his solo career. It was an offer he couldn't refuse, and shortly after playing on a song for Springsteen's third album – a little number called Born to Run – Sancious left the E Street Band. How did it feel, I ask, to see Born to Run become a massive hit album, and Springsteen on the covers of Time and Newsweek simultaneously? 'I felt very happy for him, honestly,' he says. 'I knew it was going to happen for him.' How did he know? 'We did shows in Texas in 1974 and the crowd went nuts. We finished the show and the audience wouldn't leave. Bruce used to end the set with a song called For You that he would play by himself on piano and we would go off stage and watch. I remember standing there looking at him and thinking as soon as everybody finds out about this guy he's going to blow up. It's going to go crazy.' In 1975 came the release not only of Born to Run but also Sancious's first solo album Forest of Feelings – a fusion of jazz, rock, funk and classical that suggested he had travelled far from E Street. Of the numerous albums that followed, both solo and with his band Tone, the most successful 'got to No 78 in the Top 100 for one week. But my sense of self as an artist isn't diminished because I didn't sell a million records. That's a narrow definition of success and I don't resonate with that.' In the early 80s, Sancious paused making his own music. 'The phone kept ringing with artists asking me to go on tour,' he says. 'I toured with Peter Gabriel and then Sting and later Eric Clapton and Santana. They have more in common than you might think: none of them had a plan B, they all did it out of a love for music.' Sancious got to play the lead guitar riff to Clapton's Layla as well as the song's final piano coda when he toured with him – 'such a thrill because I love that song and I love his playing'. Sancious didn't return to the studio until 2000; he continues to record and tour today. He always remained in contact with Springsteen – he joined him on stage during the Human Rights Now! tour in 1988, and played on 1992's Human Touch album and 2019's Western Stars. He was part of the live band that backed Springsteen when he performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in November 2022. 'We love each other,' he says. 'We love working together and whenever the situation allows we do it and we get fantastic results to this day.' On the night I speak to Sancious, Springsteen and the E Street Band are on stage in front of 60,000 people in Berlin. It feels appropriate to ask: with hindsight, would he have still walked away? 'There is a whole life I would have missed out on,' he says. 'Working with all these other artists and making my own music. If I had to do it again would I do the same thing? Absolutely. Because I didn't walk away from anything – I walked towards something.'
Irish Examiner
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Forest Fest review: Peter Hook and Teenage Fanclub among highlights of Day 2
Forest Fest, Emo, Co Laois, Saturday July 26 ★★★★☆ If you, like me, are one of those sad sacks who bore all and sundry by moaning about the 'good old days' of festivals then Forest Fest in Emo, Co Laois will finally shut you up. Now in its third year, this boutique gathering sports a well looked after car park and campsite for a start. Once inside, the Village and Perfect Day stages are to your right, or head straight for the Fleadh (and some nice craft beer action) or the main stage. The site's compactness saves on shoe leather but means there's some sound spillage between stages, albeit nothing that'll spoil anyone's day. A great kick-off from Limerick's Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets, whose early Springsteen, saxophone-driven rocking eventually drew an enthusiastic crowd after a brief delay with the gates. These Charming Men's Smiths tribute was as superb as always. Therapy dotted their set with Philo-isms ('We need your helping hands') and they (and Kilkenny's Kerbdog) were like a shovel to the head but in a good way. Peter Hook & The Light provided an enjoyable time-trip, despite the fact that Hooky and his guitar player couldn't make up half a singer between them. I haven't seen two bass players on stage since the glory days of Spinal Tap but versions of Blue Monday and Love Will Tear Us Apart are always welcome. Teenage Fanclub at Forest Fest. A brief stop for a bit of head-banging to the concertina of Buille before joining a packed tent for the Classic Beatles. 'John's' wig disproved all of Isaac Newton's apple-related theories but that didn't stop a great show, almost drowned out by the communal singing. Later, we were treated to a spirited set from Manic Street Preachers. "Do you remember the 90s?' James Dean Bradfield asked. It's a safe bet most of this audience does. Huge cheer for Design For Life, as there always should be, and the rest of a career-spanning selection from the Welsh Clash, especially a particularly good You Love Us, which we undoubedly do, was equally useful. 'You're the people we're here for!' Right on. The sound wasn't great at the back, and the bar and the bathroom were a fair hike from the front of the main stage, and more toilets are always welcome. But these are minor quibbles at a festival where the staff were fantastic and there was a fine variety of food and drink. My night ended with Teenage Fanclub because there will always be something irresistibly attractive about the combination of overdriven guitars and harmonies. Everything they played was teleported in from some glorious jangly dimension, but the selections from 1991's Bandwagonesque, especially The Concept's heavenly coda, were a blessing. A near-perfect ending to a great day out. Where can I get a ticket for next year? Read More Mary Coughlan review: Ride On among the highlights of triumphant homecoming show in Galway
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Springsteen Joins Zach Bryan for Surprise Appearance at New Jersey Concert
Zach Bryan has been called 'Bruce Springsteen's heir' — and on Sunday, the latter surprised fans at Bryan's concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Springsteen took the MetLife Stadium stage in his home state to perform his own 'Atlantic City' with Bryan. At the end of the song, the audience could be heard yelling 'BRUUUUUCE' (not booing, as some on social media misheard). More from The Hollywood Reporter Chris Martin Jokes About Kiss-Cam Scandal at First Coldplay Concert Since Video Went Viral Travis Scott's 'JackBoys 2' Tops Chart, Ends Justin Bieber's Six-Album Streak of No. 1 Debuts Billie Eilish Reveals 3D Collaboration With James Cameron Is in the Works It's not the first time they've taken the stage together. Just last August, Springsteen surprised fans at Bryan's Philadelphia concert for a rendition of 'Atlantic City' and 'Sandpaper,' on which the two collaborated. On Sunday, concertgoers got a tease of Springsteen's appearance early in the evening, when 'House of a Thousand Guitars,' from his 2020 album, Letter to You, was heard across the sound system. Later in the set, Bryan brought out Caleb Followill, a member of opening band Kings of Leon, to the stage, introducing him as the 'sweetest man I've ever met.' He then took a beat to bring on 'one of the greatest men to ever exist, a New Jersey native, Mr. Bruce Springsteen.' The band then launched into 'Atlantic City' off Springsteen's 1982 solo album, Nebraska, which Followill also joined in on. That era of Springsteen's music career will hit the big screen in October with the release of the film Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen. Springsteen came out again for the show's encore, Bryan's 'Revival.' Sunday's concert was the last of Bryan's three-night engagement in East Rutherford. The shows also marked Kings of Leon's first live performances since canceling a portion of their European dates due to a heel injury sustained by Followill earlier this summer. Their setlist included past hits as well as new music from their latest release, Can We Please Have Fun. Bryan, whose songwriting is often compared to Springsteen's, is a U.S. Navy veteran from Oklahoma who has helped usher in a new era of country music. His career took off in 2023 with his fourth album, Zach Bryan. He released another hit album, The Great American Bar Scene, in 2024. Springsteen recently wrapped a European tour and has been seen in and around his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey. Bryan also spent much of June in Europe, headlining two nights at London's Hyde Park. Watch the Sunday night performance below. Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
