Springsteen wanted Born To Run to be 'best record ever heard'

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.”

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

1. Baby I – The Castiles (previously unreleased)
2. You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover – The Castiles (previously unreleased)
3. He’s Guilty (The Judge Song) – Steel Mill (previously unreleased)
4. Ballad Of Jesse James” – The Bruce Springsteen Band (previously unreleased)
5. Henry Boy (previously unreleased)
6. Growin’ Up
7. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
8. Born To Run
9. Badlands
10. The River
11. My Father’s House
12. Born In The USA
13. Brilliant Disguise
14. Living Proof
15. The Ghost Of Tom Joad
16. The Rising
17. Long Time Comin’
18. Wrecking Ball

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