Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen

Post date: Dec 10, 2019 3:29:9 PM

Liz reviewed this book. It can be found on the shelves, or reserved at, Low Fell Library.

I didn’t know much about Bruce Springsteen or his music which seems to have passed me by, but some months ago I read the autobiography of Sarfraz Manzoor on which the recent film Blinded by the Light is based. Manzoor, a teenager feeling trapped in his home town of Luton, became a huge fan after being lent a cassette of the music of Springsteen, a man also desperate to escape his own home town. The singer was such an inspiration to Manzoor that I was curious to learn more.

Born to Run is a detailed, honest account of Sprinsteen’s life. Born into a working class family in Freehold, New Jersey, when he got his first guitar he had a burning desire to play and write music. He worked tirelessly to fulfil this musical ambition, practising and practising until he started to succeed. He details his career and the musicians he worked with, a kind of family to him, but also tells of his difficult relationship with his Irish father, his guilt over his first marriage and his depression. There is no ghost writer here; it is the author himself making scene after scene come alive.

You would not need to be a fan of Bruce Springsteen’s music to find this intelligent autobiography hugely absorbing.