Customer Reviews

Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story

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June 10, 2002

In `Born To Run', biographer Dave Marsh successfully
immerses the reader in the origin and background of
both Bruce Springteen and the Jersey Shore of the
sixties and seventies. Some might chafe at the
occasionally purple prose (and praise), but Marsh's
tendency (not always forgivable) towards hyperbole
and emotionalism is indicative of the genuinely
live-or-die-with-Rock-And-Roll mandate by which its
subjects once lived their lives.

Particularly strong is the first half of the book,
wherein Marsh effectively paints New Jersey's
familial sixties Rock And Roll scene, the sort of
rebellious regional musical brewing pot that has
reinvented itself repeatedly across the continent
in any number of regions over the last thirty years.
The difference here is that Bruce's was the first
generation of working class youths to grow up in the
shadow of Elvis, and the Beatles, and Motown, and
rock's first great era. To these kids, Rock And Roll
was more than just something interesting to listen to
on your phonograph before supper. It was a revelation,
almost a religion.

Once the scene shifts to the late seventies and the
music industry, Marsh's take on things skews further.
His deification of Springsteen seems to be based on
little more than Bruce's having managed to not grow
a pot belly, "sell out", beat up his girlfriend, or
get busted for drugs. (Although, admittedly, that
does put the man in rare company for the times.)

The companion book to this effort, `Glory Days', isn't
too interesting, but `Born To Run', whether or not you
dig Bruce's music, packs a potent punch. As a glimpse
into an age of innocence and passion, it's inspiring
and re-readable . . .

. . . and it'll make you want to start a band and hit
the road.

Although Marsh has been accused both of writing hagiography and of not revealing his connection to his subject (he is married to Springsteen's manager), there is no better source for insight into Springsteen and his history. This is the place to start for anyone interested in Springsteen's career. However, despite the comment above, there are more complete sources for a Springsteen discography and touring chronology. Of course, anyone who needs information more complete than what is provided here has probably read this book long ago

I was looking for a biography of Bruce Springsteen so read this one. This is a critique of Springsteen's albums, songs and shows. It does tell you when he was born and goes into some details about his first bands, including who was in them. But if you're looking for an in-depth study of what Bruce Springsteen did that made him "The Boss," you won't find it here. Marsh's theories about Rock, Punk, Pop and Disco are a highly personalized POV driven largely from the perspective of exactly when he grew up. Historically, it is easy to disagree with him. Most of this book is a psudopsychological study of what he thinks Springsteen was talking about in each album and many songs up to and including "Darkness At the Edge of Town." If you love Springsteen, as I do, you'll no doubt find this interesting at least as far as you agree with Marsh. But if you want to know the family dynamics that drove Springsteen, the real issues around his short-lived college career, the exact circumstance around his traumatic motorcycle accident, how he learned to play guitar and how he learned to sing as he does, the whole story around his gigs at The Stone Pony, how he learned to command a stage, any depth to his personality, talent, and interactive behavior, you will not find them here. This "biography" is a lot more about what Dave Marsh thinks about Bruce Springsteen than it is about Springsteen, himself. When you consider the depth of detail a writer like David McCullough can raise about people dead 100 years, am I expecting too much to want that kind of detail about a living person? Personally, I don't think so.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that Dave Marsh has a Springsteen goo-goo, but "Born To Run", which I believe is his first book on Bruce, suffers quite a bit less for it than the books that followed. Here, Marsh did a nice job of describing Springsteen's childhood and early adulthood and didn't have quite as much time and space to worship. I bought this book as a beach read in 1984, and for a while I found myself referring back to it fairly regularly, but since reading the others in Marsh's Springsteen line-up, I've kind of retired it to the status of fondly remembered relic. Bruce just isn't the same anymore either.

Dave Marsh may be THE most pompous writer to ever cover popular music, and he is completely blind to his own prejudices. He is incapable of defending his analysis, but rather hands out his opinions with an air that utterly dismisses any thought that they might be anything short of proven fact.

In Springsteen, Marsh has a subject on which he is absolutely incapable of objectivity. According to Marsh, Springsteen has never written, much less recorded, a weak song. Marsh's attempt to assign profound meaning to mediocrities such as "Drive All Night" and "The Price You Pay" would be funny if not offered with such smug seriousness.

That said, the book offers much good early biographical information, even if it is very one-sided. However, an artist like Springsteen deserves the attention of a writer willing to be objective about the subject.