“Baby, we were born to run …” – Bruce Springsteen is not running away from Trump

The album that changed Bruce Springsteen's life, his third after two flops, was originally supposed to be called "American Summer." Because, as Bruce Springsteen later told Classic Rock magazine, the stories on it also take place in the summer—over the course of a day and a night. Other titles were also being considered, but ultimately "Born to Run" won the day, a phrase that had come to Springsteen one night in his then-home in West Long Branch and that seemed perfect for his new, cinematic stories.

The song of the same name was the turning point for the E Street Band's brand of rock 'n' roll, which from then on sounded like a fairground, fireworks, and kissing. The album catapulted the singer and his E Street Band, which was closer to its classic lineup, to star status. Afterward, he became known beyond the US East Coast.

The big bang is shaped by the rock 'n' roll heroes of the 50s and 60s, as well as by the R&B greats and the girl groups who sang "Be My Baby" to the ringing mammoth sound of Phil Spector. And it tells stories of lonely losers who dream of winning, and of the girl, Wendy or Mary, without whom nothing works.

“Born to run” – that means “to be born to run forward, to get ahead, to secure one’s advancement, the better life”.

But when do we actually speak of an album of the century? The term has become a misleading prophecy among music critics. "Born to Run" has now completed half a century. On August 25, the eight songs (39 minutes) will turn 50 years old. Springsteen's third album is considered a milestone in the development of rock music, a never-ending sense of youth, intimacy, and escape.

This time, rock 'n' roll: Before "Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen was marketed as the new Bob Dylan. Front of the "Born to Run" cover. The 25-year-old Bruce Springsteen leans on the shoulder of E Street Band saxophonist and friend Clarence Clemons (who adorns the back of the cover).

Source: Eric Meola/CBS

In 2003, "Born to Run" was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, the list of recordings deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to the United States. It doesn't get much more tinsel than that.

And from September 4th to 7th, the album will be celebrated at Monmouth University in New Jersey - with a symposium, an academic conference, an exhibition and a screening of rare film footage from the sessions back then.

But what counts most for the Century status is the live test: On the European tour of "The Land of Hope and Dreams" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band from May to July, hundreds of thousands of people were once again transported into the future euphoria of the young man who romantically overwhelms his beloved: "I want to die with you, Wendy, tonight, on the street / in an everlasting kiss."

A chorus of the masses, regardless of age, plunged into the spirit of departure: “We have to get out of here while we’re young / cause tramps like us … baby, we were born to run!”

Interviews with musicians from the E Street Band are also promised for the "Born to Run" symposium on September 6th. No specific names have been announced, but it's likely that Springsteen will also be there to discuss his magnum opus. The "Boss" is back in the USA. He was spotted in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, after speaking out in stadiums across the so-called Old World, with fierceness and eloquence, against the anti-democratic and anti-human activities of the Trump administration.

The US President had threatened the musician in his typically unpresidential manner—cloaked in a vocabulary of insults and slurs—that we'd see what happened to him upon his return. Springsteen repeated his criticism night after night, from Manchester to Milan, unfazed by Trump's tirades. He released an EP on which the whole world could hear his fiery speeches for freedom and democracy.

And in an interview with the English "Sunday Times" on June 22, he expressed much horror: "The sheer incompetence of this government may contain the seeds of its own destruction. But I don't know what will happen. I've never seen a time like this in my entire life, and I'm 75 years old."

The general expectation was that the boss and his entourage would return to the USA on the symbolic Independence Day, July 4th. But the US media remained silent on the matter. For two and a half weeks, there was no news of the whereabouts of the singer and his band members, who, according to Trump's worldview, would likely be considered Springsteen's "accomplices" by playing music for him. It almost seemed as if they just didn't want to wake sleeping dogs.

Then Springsteen took the stage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Sunday evening (July 20), as daily newspapers in New Jersey and the Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday.

When Zach Bryan, 29-year-old country superstar from Oklahoma, announces with a broad grin towards the end of his third concert in a sold-out stadium with 60,000 people, "one of the greatest men who ever lived", you can already hear the loud, collective "Bruuuuce!!!" assumptions of the audience in the video, which then turn into thunderous cheers when Springsteen comes on stage.

First US appearance in 2025. With Caleb Followill of the Kings of Leon, Bryan's opening act, as the third member of the group, they rock "Atlantic City," Springsteen's song from the "Nebraska" album about love and involvement in crime, about a couple whose happiness runs out in the seaside town. Four-minute cinema in music.

It's not his concert, nor his audience, but things don't seem to be so bad for Springsteen's US fan base after all. The crowd at MetLife Arena is absolutely ecstatic after the joint encore, Zach Bryan's outlaw rocker "Revival"—also for their "patron saint of New Jersey," as Springsteen is called by the people in the "Garden State."

Where has he been? He's disappeared. One can only assume that the 75-year-old has retreated to his farm in Colt's Neck, nine kilometers from Freehold, to spend time with his wife Patti Scialfa, who rarely performs with the E Street Band due to her leukemia diagnosis in 2018. Nothing is known about her current health; "Her illness and what she's struggling with is my top priority," Springsteen said last year in an interview with the British newspaper "Telegraph."

Everything that happens on E Street only happens with their approval. The promise in Springsteen's lines, which have ended so many concerts, holds true: "I'll wait for you, and should I fall behind, wait for me..."

Nothing more was heard from Trump either. Out of respect for his success? Springsteen, whom he considers "highly overrated," "not a talented guy," "just a pushy, obnoxious jerk," has completed one of the ten most successful tours in rock history, as Billboard magazine reported on July 16. 4.9 million tickets sold, 730 million dollars in revenue. Anyone who thinks in deals and dollars like Trump needs to take a moment to reflect.

It won't remain silent; the man in the Oval Office is too vindictive for that. And the Springsteen of 2025 is no longer the 25-year-old "born to run" type.

He will not retract his criticism of Trump, he will repeat it, update it, and deepen it.

Not to refute the MAGA accusations of being a coward who only dares to do things abroad, but to stand up for his idea of an America of decency, to save US democracy from its wrecking balls. And when he does that, Trump will post again.

Will we then also "see what happens to him?" Springsteen has the songs, the worldwide reputation as a gentleman and friend, and a fan base numbering tens of millions. Active measures would backfire on Trump. He would then be exposed as the despot with a gangster entourage that Springsteen branded him as. A fake video of Springsteen's arrest is all that's possible.

Such negative impressions must be avoided at all costs. Trump's approval ratings in the US are steadily declining, partly due to his treatment of people in his persecution of illegal immigrants – according to recent CBS statistics, from 55 percent in February to 42 percent in July.

The Academy Awards will honor Springsteen on October 18 at the annual Academy Museum fundraising gala with the inaugural Legacy Award, which honors “an artist whose work has inspired generations of storytellers and profoundly influenced our culture.” An award for “Born to Run,” for what came before and for all that came after, forming an American chronicle of songs.

Playing the album today, it seems like a fan of Springsteen's diverse musical interests. The trumpet breeze of the gangster ballad "Meeting Across The River" anticipates his Burt Bacharach homage album "Twilight Hours," recently released on the "Tracks II" box set; the soulful number "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" expresses his love of Black R&B, which culminated in the 2022 cover album "Only The Strong Survive." And the Bo Diddley beat of "She's The One" is the most obvious link to the rock 'n' roll of the Chuck Berry years.

The rest is the first manifestation of the still unmistakable, powerful E Street sound, right up to the ten-minute "Jungleland," which served as the blueprint for Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell." The invitation to Mary in the song "Thunder Road" applies to everyone 50 years later: "I got this guitar / and I've learned how to make it talk," sings Springsteen. "And my car's out back / if you're ready for that long trip."