An older brother's record. I am playing my older brother Michael''s copy of Born To Run which he kindly allowed me to relocate back to mt flat along with any number of other records from his collection.I'm very grateful for his kindness and play them often.
So I think of older brother records as Led Zep. Pink Floyd, Genesis, Springsteen, Jethro Tull. My brother is three years older than me. By contrast I'd say I was Punk, Post Punk, New Wave, Two Tone and New Pop . The time that succeeded that.
I didn't care for the Born To Run album which swept all before it in 1985, the year in which I really started to live. My gap year and the year I went to university when I was 19 and turned 20. It just seemed a bit packaged for commerce for my tastes like so much in the Eighties. Regardless of many fine songs.
But I did have my time with Born To Run and the albums which preceded and succeeded it. Born To Run is a landmark record and it's filling my flat with raised arms, communal joy and triumph as I write. The twin bookends on which it's knowingly constructed, Thunder Road and Born To Run meant a lot to me in 2003. A year when I met a wonderful Polish woman who I'm getting to know again, much to my surprise and considerable delight.
We used to meet in the Irish pub in Katowice,where we met to enjoy each other's company and I would put these two songs on the jukebox and we'd drink lots of beer and be happy. The songs made me feel powerful and free and alive and incredibly grateful to be with her. Living in the moment. That's what Springsteen can do for you at his best. He feels like the best friend you never had.
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