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Location: Really deep in the heart of South California Gender:
Posted:
Sep 5, 2025 - 4:18pm
The summer of '75...
FM radio was so bad, especially here in the desert. Actually, we only had one FM station. And it was really bad.
It didn't matter much anyways. Most stations were just as bad.
My truck was just 1.5 years old and I already replaced the stock radio out of it for a better unit. It was a Pioneer Supertuner!
I just learned how to seek out the mono sensitivity rating for better pull of distant FM stations. And I would get stations from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernadino "?"
Sitting in the parking lot at a store in Palm Desert, listening to that one decent station from San Berdo, the lady DJ came on and said "Listen to this..."
She put on "Born To Run".
Holy cow!
Thank you Bruce for fixing what was wrong with that 70's music situation.
Location: At the dude ranch / above the sea Gender:
Posted:
Sep 5, 2025 - 1:48pm
Immediately post âDarknessâ my college buds dragged me to see Bruce. Well, OK, if I must. And then, by the fifth encore, heâs shirtless, climbing up on the amps, I found myself looking at them in awe: âWHO IS THIS GUY?â
If you can get to the legendary No Nukes movie, it encapsulates that period, albeit briefly.
And then he came around again and played the great old tunes, full energy, just like before. Then, he stopped. âI played those songs so I could play these.â And he whups out the harmonica and begins The River. (I still tear up every time I hear the pathetic lost hope in âI remember us riding in her brotherâs car, her body tanned and wet down by the reservoirâ¦â So much mutual regret at what was never gonna happenâ¦)
so Iâm (still) Ride or Die for Bruuuuuuce. And then - Nebraska gets released. I go to my local record store, and the guy behind the desk tells me he hates it, and gives me the store copy. It takes a bit, but itâs part of that fantastic ability he has to keep himself interested and bring along fans into his thoughts.
Similar to it was the wonderful Western Stars. Strong recommendation!
A guy named Tom Costello; lost track of him decades ago. Took me to a place in San Francisco that he promised were "real" cheesesteaks. So that was good. Went on to manage a liquor store in Novato with the biggest walk-in cooler in California or something like that.
A guy named Tom Costello; lost track of him decades ago. Took me to a place in San Francisco that he promised were "real" cheesesteaks. So that was good. Went on to manage a liquor store in Novato with the biggest walk-in cooler in California or something like that.
The first time I heard him was this very song in about 1975, which I liked a lot. It was the 2nd album and already a couple of years old by then.
KLRB Carmel By The Sea. I do believe William was employed there at the time.
I'm not sure what attracted me to it. I just liked it.
Around 19 and 71 my first real girlfriend was named Sandra. She hated being called "Sandy." Oh well. We're still friends, so there's that. One of us is still crazy after all these years. But I digress...
When The River came out, and the local radio stations played âHungry Heartâ and âCadillac Ranchâ non-stop, I loathed Springsteen and never sought out anything he did. A few years later, when Born in the USA was omnipresent, I was trying to sleep (in vain) on a friendâs couch. I had the HiFi turned on low, and some point in the early morning hours, the dj put on the first side of Nebraska and just let it play. I was enraptured and confounded that this was the same artist.
Nebraska is still my favorite BS
I actually was not aware of Springsteen before the River, except for mentions in Rolling Stone. Out here in the hinterlands maybe I heard Born to Run etc but nobody I knew owned anything by him. I liked The River but never bought it... a guy I worked with bought it and didn't like it so he gave me the cassette. When Nebraska came out I saw it in the stores and bought it without hearing it. I didn't know enough to realize what a departure it was for him but when I went to work (liquor store in Oakland), another coworker asked "is it great? Does Clarence just wail?" and I said "clarence?" and he exasperatedly said "saxophone" and I said oh, it's just him and a guitar" and the Philly guy looked like I'd insulted his mother. "I don't want to hear it."
Get ready for oversaturation but if, like me, Nebraska is your favorite Springsteen album, you're already in line for the box set. I do think Nebraska is his high water mark for songwriting and the 4-track demo is creepy cool but the mythology that there are versions of the songs with a mostly-full band has been around for decades. I am so happy to find out it's true.
When The River came out, and the local radio stations played âHungry Heartâ and âCadillac Ranchâ non-stop, I loathed Springsteen and never sought out anything he did. A few years later, when Born in the USA was omnipresent, I was trying to sleep (in vain) on a friendâs couch. I had the HiFi turned on low, and some point in the early morning hours, the dj put on the first side of Nebraska and just let it play. I was enraptured and confounded that this was the same artist.
With all of the anniversary recollections... I found out that my daughter received her diploma on the spot where the first public performance of Born To Run (the song) took place....
Get ready for oversaturation but if, like me, Nebraska is your favorite Springsteen album, you're already in line for the box set. I do think Nebraska is his high water mark for songwriting and the 4-track demo is creepy cool but the mythology that there are versions of the songs with a mostly-full band has been around for decades. I am so happy to find out it's true.
This version of BITUSA ... I haven't compared word for word but I feel like some lines from this were borrowed to use in other Nebraska songs.
Edit: Oh I thought the subject was "... reflects on 'Born in the USA'" oh well.
