Trivia / Born to Run

• Creator Backlash: Not the album itself, but the way Columbia went about promoting it. Springsteen really did not like being hyped up as "the future of rock n' roll", so much so that at the Hammersmith Odeon for his UK live debut, he personally tore down the ad posters for his concerts promoting this idea and ordered that the promotional buttons reading "I have seen the future of rock 'n' roll at the Hammersmith Odeon" were not to be given out at the show.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Springsteen has released many versions of this album over the year, each with various B-sides and promising more tracks than the previous.
• Technology Marches On: "Born to Run" dates itself with the line about "chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected and steppin' out over the line", as today fuel injection is standard, not a feature found on customized muscle cars.
• Troubled Production: After two financially unsuccessful though critically acclaimed albums, the Boss' career almost came to an end when Columbia Records almost dropped him entirely. Springsteen promised a smash hit and Columbia gave him a deadline of six months to finish the album. At this point, Springsteen was running out of funds to pay The E Street Band, with many of its members thinking of walking out of the recording process. Recording ultimately took a year and a half, triple the time Columbia originally wanted. Springsteen got into dozens of arguments with his fellow musicians, as his musical ideas that were in his head were difficult to bring to fruition. The album ended up drastically over-budget, causing Columbia to almost consider dropping the album altogether. Song selection was so great that seven tracks were left on the cutting room floor just to keep the album from being overlong. Ultimately the album turned into the Boss' greatest musical achievement, selling far more copies than Columbia was demanding. It thrusted Springsteen into the limelight and even attracted attention to his prior albums, which are both also looked at as classics now.

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