Born to Run

Starred review from October 3, 2016
In his long-awaited memoir, Springsteen takes readers on an entertaining, high-octane journey from the streets of New Jersey to all over the world. A natural storyteller, Springsteen commands our attention, regaling us with his tales of growing up poor with a misanthropic father and a mother who had endless faith in people. The Boss delights us with humorous stories of his first guitar—which he couldn't get his seven-year-old fingers around—and his inspiration to become a musician after seeing Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show: "I WANTED... I NEEDED... TO ROCK! NOW!" Once he's hooked, he can't give up this insatiable hunger to rock like Chuck Berry, or the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles; soon he's playing in his first band, the Castiles, and eventually with another band, Steel Mill, opening up for Grand Funk Railroad, Ike & Tina Turner, and Iron Butterfly. Springsteen weaves a captivating story, introducing us to the essential people in his life: Patti Scialfa, Clarence Clemons, Steven Van Zandt, and producer/managers Mike Appel and Jon Landau, among many others. He offers absorbing accounts of the making of each album, and he considers Born to Run as the dividing line between musical styles, as well as the mark of the beginning of his success; he also admits that his bands were never democracies and that he makes the decisions. Most insightful, he reveals his ongoing battles with depression—"shortly after my sixtieth I slipped into a depression like I hadn't experienced"—and his eventual ability to live with this condition. Springsteen writes with the same powerful lyrical quality of his music.

When you live in New Jersey, as I do, then any audio featuring rock musician Bruce Springsteen is big news, and this audiobook is no exception. His music informs the memories of almost two generations of Garden Staters, and his fame is now global, both because of the quality of his songs and the energy with which he performs them. In the end, though, The Boss is a great musician but not a great narrator. His voice is low and muddled, and although he gives his heart to the stories in this audiobook, he sounds subdued and lacks energy. He does bring a poet's sensibility to his effort, phrasing his words effectively, pacing himself well, and varying his voice as best he can. The result is a great life story that might have been a better listening experience. R.I.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine