“Born to Run” — 40 Years Ago Today

Go ahead and google “Springsteen Overrated”—you’ll get 65,400 hack-scrawled results, churned out by frustrated contrarian clickbaiters dying for attention.

They can all go screw.

Because it’s summer in New Jersey, and nothing captures the unique essence of this time of year like vintage Bruce Springsteen.

Forty years ago today, the world was introduced to what has been hailed as his magnum opus, the “Born to Run” album.

An absolute triumph of songwriting, it’s one of the most evocative albums of all time—even more so here in the Garden State. It vocalizes the struggle that is trying to make a life here, in a place where “the highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive.”

Do yourself a favor at some point today and reconnect with an album that is nothing short of an American masterpiece. Listen—REALLY listen to the lyrics… and then tell us if Bruce is overrated.

Here’s a version of the album played live in its entirety in Coventry, England as a tribute to actor James Gandolfini, just days after his death in 2013.