BORN TO RUN
Commercially Released: September 1, 1975 *
Produced by Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and Mike Appel **
Recorded at The Record Plant (New York City) and at 914 Sound Studios (Blauvelt, NY)
Recording Engineers: Jimmy Iovine (Record Plant) and Louis Lahav (914 Sound).

* a small quantity of blank label, advanced promo copies (called “Script Covers”) were issued to VIP’s about August 12, 1975. Normal promo copies were sent to radio stations on or about August 24.
** the track “Born To Run” was produced by Springseen-Appel

PART 1 - BORN TO RUN SESSIONS OVERVIEW

The Born To Run album sessions spanned a 19-month period, from Jan 1974 through July 1975. Unfortunately “Wings For Wheels”, the official documentary on the making of the album, fails to delve into any depth about the sessions. So very little can be gleaned by watching that documentary.
The BTR sessions can be roughly split into two general phases:
PHASE 1) Sessions conducted at 914 Sound Studios from Jan 1974 through Oct 1974. These sessions did not include Jon Landau, Steve Van Zandt or (seemingly) any session musicians. These were widely scattered sessions conducted while the band was on tour. Sessions took place in 1974 on Jan 8-9 (a version of “Jungleland” was recorded – click HERE to see the master tape for this recording), May 11-22, Aug 5-8 and Oct 16-17. There may have been further sessions at 914 Sound from this era undocumented. With the exception of the LP’s title song, “Born To Run”, little else (official or unofficial) seems to have ever leaked out from these numerous sessions. Much intrigue remains about what was recorded during this Jan-Oct 1974 period.
PHASE 2) Sessions conducted at The Record Plant from March through July 1975. These sessions included Landau, Van Zandt and outside musicians. These sessions began immediately following the end of the WIESS Tour in March and continued at a increasingly frenetic pace right up until the start of the BTR Tour in late July. With the exception of the LP’s title song “Born To Run” virtually all the audio (official or unofficial) that has ever leaked out has been from these sessions. Final mixing (including 914 Sound Studio material) was undertaken at The Record Plant.

PART 2 – BORN TO RUN SESSIONS DETAILS

Note: V1 is a full-band “instrumental” version (vocals are missing) recorded at 914 Sound Studios on May 21, 1974. V2a is the official album version, recorded at 914 Sound Studios on August 6, 1974. V2b is an edited version of V2a, with a middle verse and the sax solo deleted. This was released by Ktel-CBS in Australia-only in early 1976 on a multi-artist LP called “Supersounds”. V2c is the advanced tape release of the official version, first aired on WMMR in Philadelphia on Nov 3, 1974 and subsequently broadcast by several USA radio stations during Nov 74-July 75. The difference between V2a and V2c is almost imperceptible. V2d thru V2g are all mix variations of the same core recording (some consider them entirely different takes) and feature various permutations of double-tracked vocal, choir and strings.

Note: Written by Bruce sometime in late1973. An initial recording of the song was made at 914 Sound Studios on Jan 8, 1974, although this outtake is un-circulating. Bruce continued to tinker with and refine the song over the course of the next 16 months. The first circulating live performance was on July 13, 1974, although it is believed to have been played live earlier than this. All the above-noted studio takes appear to emanate from the later sessions at the Record Plant. V1 is a full band version (including Suki Lahav) (take #16) recorded in March or early April 1975. V2 is merely the song coda. V3 features string overdubs and is in exceptional sound quality. V4 has no strings and doesn’t feature the guitar heard on the official version.

Note: The earliest audio-circulating live performance was at show on Oct 4, 1974. V1 is a rough extended workout from The Record Plant in March 1975, with some lyrics in the final verse than ended up used in “Backstreets”. V2 is a more refined version from The Record Plant sometime April or May 1975 with the “Backstreets” lyrics removed. The official version was recorded in June 1975.

Note: The first live performance was on Feb 5, 1975. All of the recordings listed above are from The Record Plant during March-June 1975. V1 is a haunting acoustic solo version – one of Bruce’s greatest studio performances. V2 is a base rhythm track with guide vocal (no organ or sax) and (like V1) features the girl’s name Christina, not Mary. V3 is more developed than V2 and includes sax. V4 features a very long instrumental intro and more sax. 

Note: All of these recordings date from May-July 1975 period at the Record Plant. V1 is a rough take with unfinished lyrics and strings added. V2a is a different recording and does not feature strings. V2b utilizes different guitar in the mix than V2a. V3 is an aborted take.  There are 3 different mixes of V4 (some people consider them entirely different takes). V4a includes strings. V4b does not include strings and is very close to the officially released version.

Note: Three different performances. V1 is core rhythm track with guide vocal and guitar. V2 includes double tracked vocals.

Note: Not written by Bruce until late April or May 1975 – working title was “The Heist’ and that title was utilized even on test pressing of the album. V1 contains just piano and vocal, features some different words and may be Bruce’s original guide demo. V2 (take #14) and V3 (take #15) are quickly aborted takes. V4 (take #16) is shorter and uses an alternate horn arrangement.

Note: The final song recorded for the album. Steve Van Zandt co-arranged the various horn parts. V1 is a brief snippet of the tail section of what appears to be a different performance.

Note: Two different recordings, although similar. V1 has a more tentative vocal and is shorter (or the tape speed is running too fast). V2 was recorded at The Record Plant on June 28, 1975 and features a much stronger vocal, a different intro and a different sax part. Considered for the original album but bumped in favor of “Meeting Across The River”.

Note: V1 is a rough, clearly unfinished take recorded at The Record Plant sometime Feb to April 1975. V2 is the completed recording. Springsteen mentioned in interview in 1999 that he had wanted to release this song on TRACKS but they were unable to locate the completed take in the archives – so whether V2 has been misplaced, misfiled or accidentally destroyed remains a mystery.

Note: Recorded at The Record Plant sometime Feb to April 1975. This long-documented song finally surfaced (along with other previously un-circulating BTR studio session audio) in late 2005 during broadcasts by Sirius radio. The version that has surfaced is clearly only an unfinished, early workout. Whether or not a completed recording was ever made is unknown.

 Note: Contrary to myth, this song bears no relationship to The Chiffons early 60’s hit except the use of a common title. A version was recorded at 914 Sound Studios on Oct 16, 1974. It is also unclear if this long-circulating backing track emanates from this Oct 16th session or whether it’s from the 1975 sessions at The Record Plant. Although it may have been played live sooner, the earliest circulating live performance of “A Love So Fine” is from Oct 4, 1974. Bruce then performed the song live on a semi-regular basis through August 1975. A couple of years later Springsteen took the melody, revamped the lyrics slightly, changed the title and recorded this as  “So Young And In Love” during the latter stages of the Darkness LP session (issued on TRACKS, see Darkness section in OTT).

Note: Recorded at 914 Sound Studios on October 16, 1974. There is one (fortunately circulating) live performance known, from a few months prior to this studio session - as the acoustic opener in Toledo on June 2, 1974, with Bruce introducing it as a “new song” but not mentioning the title. This is also known among collectors by the titles “Angel Baby” or “Dance On Little Angel”. Core elements of the lyrics (though not the melody) of this song were later incorporated into “Lonely Night In The Park”, a track recorded in spring 1975 at The Record Plant.

Note: Originally recorded by Springsteen at 914 Sound Studios as a piano solo publishing demo in Jan 1973. Session log documents indicate that a Spanish-flavored, full band arrangement of this song was recorded at some point during the BTR sessions.

PART 3 – ADDITIONAL BTR SESSION MUSICIANS

1) SUKI LAHAV plays violin on “Jungleland”.
2) CHARLES CALELLO arranged and conducted the strings on “Jungleland” as well as all the strings and choir effects heard on unissued mixes of other songs from the sessions.
3) MIKE APPEL provided background vocals on “Thunder Road”.
4) RICHARD DAVIS (who had previously played upright bass on the Greetings LP track “The Angel”) plays bass on “Meeting Across The River”.
5) RANDY BRECKER plays trumpet on “Meeting Across The River” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”.
6) MICHAEL BRECKER plays tenor sax on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”.
7) DAVID SANBORN plays baritone sax on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”.
8) WAYNE ANDRE plays trombone on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”.

PART 4 – RUMOURED SONGS FROM THE BTR ERA

The following titles emanate from the late 1973 to early 1975 period. All the titles below are based on information garnered from completed lyric sheets, partially completed lyric sheets or documents in Bruce’s handwriting containing song titles (but no lyrics). Springsteen often creates song titles first and then attempts to write words and music around it - so the existence of a song title is no guarantee that a song was ever created. There is as yet no evidence these were completed songs (words and music) and no evidence they were recorded during any of the BTR sessions. If they do exist as recordings then they would most likely be either as work-in-progress home cassette recordings or from the little known about 1974 sessions at 914 Sound Studios.

DOWN AT THE CLUB
DUEL
GLORY ROAD
HERE SHE COMES
HIDIN’ ON THE RIVER
KILLER’S PARADISE (THE VIOLENT ONES)
LATIN
LIVIN’ IN THE GHETTO (HARLEM)
LONESOME TRAIN
LOVE AND DEFIANCE
MARY’S SONG
PORTRAIT OF AN IMAGINARY WAITRESS (FOUNTAINBLEU)
PRETTY THING
SAINT JIMMY’S DREAM
SHA LA LA
SHE COMES INTO MY ROOM (SCENE #1)
STILL THERE
STREET FIGHT
THE STREET
THE STREET GOES ON FOREVER
SURRENDER AT THE CITADEL
THUNDERHILL
VIRGIN SUMMER NIGHTS
WAR AND ROSES
WILDFIRE
WILD ROSES

Page updated January 3, 2007