A Brief Tribute to Bruce Springsteen and the song that made him the ‘Boss’
By Doug Draper
Posted August 25th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
“Baby this town rips the bones from your back. It’s a death trap, a suicide rap. We got to get out while we’re young.”
Bruce Springsteen was already rising rapidly to the top of the pantheon of rock stars when on August 25th, 1975, he and his E Street Band released a song he composed that would forever brand him in the world of popular music as ‘The Boss’.
That song was the epic anthem ‘Born To Run’ and within a matter of weeks of its climb to the top of the Billboard charts, Springsteen was on the cover of both Time and Newsweek magazines – a feat that was virtually unprecedented for any popular musician before or after – with music writers hailing him at the same time as ‘the new Bob Dylan’ for the depth of substance and imagery in the lyrics of that song and others he had penned.
That kind of adulation has been enough to throw many rising stars off their trajectory but by staying true to himself and his working-class roots, Springsteen has remained one of the most popular artists on record and on stage to this day.
In his 2014 memoir titled ‘Born To Run, he wrote this about composing the song; “I wanted to craft a record that sounded like the last record on Earth, like the last record you might hear … the last one you ever NEED to hear. One glorious noise … then the apocalypse.”
Quite the bar he set for himself, but you be the final judge.
Here is ‘Born To Run’ performed by the one and only Boss of Rock & Roll. Click on the screen below, crank it up and I’ll bet that most of you out there with a pulse can’t just hear it once –
A footnote to all my dear readers.
I hope you don’t mind me, once again, indulging in my love for music and the people who make it, as I leave you with the following –
During a recent concert appearance in Europe, Bruce Springsteen took a moment between songs to say to tell his audience; “The America I love, the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
To that, Trump used his social media platform to say of Springsteen; “Never liked him, never liked his music or his radical left politicians and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy, just a push, obnoxious jerk (and a) dried out prune of a rocker.”
Bono, the Irish singer/songwriter of U2 fame, was later asked who, if anyone, he sided with on this one.
“There is only one Boss in America,” Bono replied.
Amen to that!
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large (journalist and unabashed Bruce Springsteen fan)
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