Bruce Springsteen – "Born to Run" (1975)

Someday girl, I don’t know when

We’re gonna get to that place

Where we really want to go

In 1774, the Earl of Dunmore – who had been named colonial Governor of Virginia by King George III – wrote that Americans “for ever imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled.”

“If they attained Paradise,” he added, “they would move on if they heard of a better place farther west.”

Lord Dunmore

My ancestors migrated from England to Virginia not long after Lord Dunmore wrote those words.  After a few decades there, they packed up and moved to Kentucky and Tennessee – presumably in search of a better life than they were experiencing in Virginia.  

Apparently, they also found life in Kentucky and Tennessee to be somewhat lacking because after a few more decades, they decided that the grass must be greener in Missouri and Arkansas and moved there.  

I’m not sure why they didn’t keep going west until they got to California and “attained Paradise” – which would have been the smart play – but they didn’t.

Of course, the bloom is off the rose when it comes to California, and nowadays a lot of people who are living there are starting to head back east.  But back in the day, California was the place you oughta be if you wanted to live the American dream.

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“Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country,” the newspaperman Horace Greeley famously wrote in 1865. 

When he wrote those words, westward was the way to go if you wanted a better life.  

Horace Greeley

But Greeley’s point wasn’t so much about moving in a particular direction.  It was about being brave enough to pull up stakes and move on when the life you were living wasn’t the life you wanted.

After all, the American dream is about attaining your best possible life – and if that requires getting the hell out of Dodge and looking for opportunities elsewhere, that’s what Americans do.

Including the restless young protagonist of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”

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The 250 songs that were chosen for the CBS Sunday Morning “Essential American Songbook” include five by Bruce Springsteen.  But “Born to Run” isn’t one of them. 

You have GOT to be kidding me.  “Born to Run” is clearly Bruce Springsteen’s best record.  (If you don’t agree with me, you and I aren’t going to be friends.)  And it’s a quintessentially American record to boot.

Regular readers of my wildly popular little blog know that 2 or 3 lines is not the biggest fan of “The Boss.”  But I have to admit that Springsteen absolutely nailed it with “Born to Run” – which is one of the 13 songs I’ve chosen to include in the 2 OR 3 LINES QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN SONGBOOK.  

The records that I featured in the previous two posts are about roadtrips.  So is today’s featured song – sort of.  

But while “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and “I’ve Been Everywhere” celebrate the joy that Americans feel when they get their motors running and head out on the highway***, the protagonist of “Born to Run” isn’t looking for adventure when he hits the road – he’s firing up his chrome-wheeled and fuel-injected chariot out of sheer desperation.

[*** – Recognize that reference to “Born to Be Wild”?  If you’re wondering why that record didn’t make the cut for my quintessential American songbook, it’s because Steppenwolf was more Canadian than American.]

Like many young men, he feels trapped in his dead-end job and his dead-end hometown.  He begs his girlfriend to “break this trap” with him.  We’ll “run ’til we drop,” he tells her.  “Baby, we’ll never go back.”   

Where exactly are they headed?  He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t particularly care.  But he’s betting on it being better than where they are now:

Someday girl, I don’t know when

We’re gonna get to that place

Where we really want to go

And we’ll walk in the sun

 

If getting to that place requires taking a chance – in other words, walking “out on the wire” – so be it.  Chasing the American dream isn’t for the faint-hearted.

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Click here to hear Bruce Springsteen’s masterpiece, “Born to Run.”

 

Click here to buy “Born to Run” from Amazon.