Bruce Springsteen has produced so many albums since 1973. It’s not that easy to rattle off all the titles of the albums and all those songs anymore.
There was a time back in the early 1970s when Springsteen had only two albums—Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.
But Springsteen was not so established and well-known after those first two albums—even though some of us consider them masterpieces.
His road to Born to Run, an album that really put him on the map (and on the covers of magazines) was labyrinthine. The challenges were many and varied. But he remained surefooted through it all.
Part of the story of his ascension is that classic and iconic album, Born to Run.
In Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run, Peter Ames Carlin brings us the story of the making of this groundbreaking, epic album. Some of the anecdotes he writes about underscore what we know and love about The Boss. Many other anecdotes are brand new and detail the writing and recording of the songs in Born to Run. The processes were intense, and one wonders how it was that Springsteen could have persisted.
Reading about the process of the making of this album somehow helps explain the ways that Springsteen can morph chameleonlike and how he has managed to maintain his status as one of the most popular singer-songwriters today.
Carlin helps us understand how it was that Bruce Springsteen could go through so many complicated situations and achieve such a tremendous status in the music world. Indeed, the author helps us see just how it is that 50 years later, we are all still listening to and loving a pretty perfect album.
Guest: Peter Ames Carlin
Peter Ames Carlin is the author of The Name of This Band is R.E.M and Bruce, the biography of Bruce Springsteen published in 2012, among others. Carlin has also been a freelance journalist, a senior writer at People in New York City, and a television columnist and feature writer for the Oregonian in Portland. A regular speaker on music, writing, and popular culture, Carlin lives in Seattle.
Learn more about the author at his website: peteramescarlin.com
