Born to Run

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Sep 27, 2016 - Biography & Autobiography - 528 pages
“Writing about yourself is a funny business…But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.” —Bruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began.

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.

Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.

Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (“Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “The River,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” “The Rising,” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.

From inside the book

Contents

Nebraska
298
Deliver Me from Nowhere
301
California
308
Born in the USA
313
Buona Fortuna Fratello Mio
318
The Big Big Time
321
Going Home
338
Regresara México
342

The Second Coming
48
The Show Man Lord of the Dance
54
Workingmans Blues
58
Where the Bands Are
61
The Castiles
68
Once There Was a Little Steven
88
Earth
96
The Upstage Club
104
Tinker Surfin Safari
114
Steel Mill
121
Homecoming
139
Endless Summer
147
Beatnik Deluxe
153
California Dreamin Take Two
159
Its a Bar You Idiots
165
Onward and Upward
170
Losing My Religion
179
Road Work
185
The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
190
The Satellite Lounge
200
BOOK
205
BORN TO RUN 29 Born to Run
207
Jon Landau
212
Thunder Road
219
Jackpot
223
The E Street Band
234
Clarence Clemons
241
New Contracts
246
Living with the Law
254
Darkness on the Edge of Town
260
The Drop
268
Downtime
271
The River
275
Hitsville
286
Hello Walls
295
Tunnel of Love
348
Goin Cali
358
BOOK THREE
365
LIVING PROOF 53 Living Proof
367
Redheaded Revolution
370
Changes
374
LA Burning
377
Going to the Chapel
379
Earthquake Sam
387
Streets of Philadelphia
396
The Ghost of Tom Joad
400
Western Man
406
Eastern Woman
415
King of New Jersey Hollywood Days
418
Bringing It All Back Home
421
Revival
423
The Rising
437
Wild East
444
The Seeger Sessions
449
Magic
455
Super Bowl Sunday
460
Moving On
465
Wrecking Ball
468
Losing the Rain
471
The Wrecking Ball Tour
476
Zero to Sixty in Nothing Flat
484
Garage Land
488
High Hopes
491
Home Front
497
Long Time Comin
502
Epilogue
506
Acknowledgments
509
Photo Credits
511
Copyright

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About the author (2016)

Bruce Springsteen has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of twenty Grammy Awards, the Academy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors. He lives in New Jersey with his family. His latest work, together with Barack Obama, is Renegades: Born in the USA, a candid and entertaining collection of conversations that expand on their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast.

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