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Loading... Born to Run (original 2016; edition 2016)by Bruce Springsteen (Author)
Work InformationBorn to Run: The Autobiography by Bruce Springsteen (2016)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I admit it is hard for me to be entirely objective about this book, given that I am a 40 -year fan of Mr. Springsteen. Many of his fans who have been following for a long time, know bits and pieces of his life through the stories he is told over the years at his epic concerts, in addition to witnessing his rise to fame and his enduring musical legacy. Mr. Springsteen is and always has been an excellent storyteller, in the songs he has written and in his monologues accompanying the music and in interviews with media. That storytelling capability carried over very well to this autobiography. I savored every word of this book, from his observations about family and love and life and fatherhood, in general, to the insights into the music business, the specific events that shaped his rise to stardom and the enduring professionalism of the E Street Band, his discussion of his own sometimes debilitating depression and the mental illness that plagued his father and other members of his family. Even though I read this slowly, digesting chapters or partial chapters before moving on, I so enjoyed the writing itself, the beautiful prose and imagery, that I plan to re-read this lovely book again very shortly. The central question of Springsteen's Born to Run is: How the hell do you get from Freehold, N.J., to superstardom (including hosting a podcast with a former president) in only 50 ish short years? The Boss’s autobiography, “Born to Run,” answers this paradox nicely. Many of the stories that Springsteen tells diehards will know about it but what makes this book special is how Springsteen pulls back the curtain to reveal how his own family life - including his upbringing - and search for love and acceptance as an adult has shaped his blue-collar songwriting. The most poignant parts of the autobiography come towards the end, when Springsteen discusses connecting with his mentally ill father as he nears his death bed, muses on his friendship with Clarence Clemons, and discloses his own struggles with depression. This is a surprisingly vulnerable autobiography ("Chronicles Vol.1" by Dylan this isn't). We often think of rock stars as being larger than life, but in many ways, Springsteen has always tried to remain true to his roots. What this autobiography reveals is the heart of the rock star. The Boss is just a man, with his own demons and struggles, searching for living proof and a bit Lord's undying light, just like the rest of us. And perhaps that is why his music connects with his fans.
You could say of course, and again you’d be right, that this is nothing very remote from a lot of lives. Mine. Yours. Midcentury American Gothic. A “crap heap of a hometown that I loved.” But therein lies at least a hint to the magic in the Springsteen mystery: the muscular rise to the small occasion, taking forceful dominion over your poky circumstance and championing your own responses to what would otherwise seem inevitable. For over 40 years, Springsteen has chronicled the lives of myriad American characters as they face life, love, economic hardship, and the search for community and home, and now he limns his own life story to create an exuberant, sprawling, double album of a memoir. Springsteen writes eloquently about his youth, family, and hometown while detailing his complicated relationship with his father and the singer's own quest to reconcile his past and explore the roots and meaning of what he does. Springsteen describes in abundant detail his musical coming of age with various bands, playing the clubs and bars of New Jersey as he finds his own voice, struggles with early success, and eventually records the 1975 masterpiece Born To Run with the E Street Band and reaches superstardom in the 1980s. Springsteen's prose ranges from honest and self-deprecating to poetic and deeply analytical as he writes about his life, his music, his place in the world, and his movingly deep ties to his family, his band, and his audience. Verdict Like a classic Springsteen and E Street Band show, the book takes readers on a rollicking ride from the glorious and the emotional to the fun and soaring; one of rock's finest and most memorable memoirs.-James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as "The Big Bang": seeing Elvis Presley's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)782.42166092The arts Music Vocal music Secular Forms of vocal music Secular songs General principles and musical forms Song genres Rock songs History, geographic treatment, biography BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The early part of the book was excellent. I enjoyed reading about his family and his early attempts to make a living with a band. How he lived off the grid in a sleeping bag in a surfboard factory. It just made songs like 'Sandy, 4th of July' all that more magical for me knowing these things. I am similar Italian Catholic product of a working class background and I think I feel some strange kinship to him. But as the book went on it was shorter on contextual detail and a bit longer on soapbox. Once he became famous, it was hard to really empathize. In the latter parts I enjoyed reading about his relationship with Clarence Clemmons and his wife, but most of the second half of the book post 'Born to Run' fell flat for me.
Bruce is definitely a poet and a writer and deeper than what I imagine must be your average rock star these days. I got so much from his earliest music when I was a teenager and still stand in awe of some of his most devastating haunting songs. I am glad I read, yet I don't plan to pick up any more rock star biographies anytime soon. There is something about 'Jungleland' and Clemmons sax solo that will affect me deeply every time I hear it. Thank-you, Bruce. ( )