Terry Gross

It's a death trap.

You're dead unless you get out when you're young.

So, you know, death trap, suicide rap is in the final version.

And we got to get out while we're young is in the final version.

So it's just really interesting to read this early draft.

His songs on Born to Run have a real romance with cars and using the car to like escape to what will hopefully be a better place and a better life.

Was he even driving when he wrote these songs?

I want to isolate a part of Born to Run that just shows the kind of tension and release in the song.

And it's the part where there's like almost an arpeggio of descending chords and then piano kind of swirls back up and it ends in like a little explosion with Bruce counting off after that and starting the song again.

So let's hear that.

I love that moment because there's so much drama in it and it's just like leading you to the edge.

So Bruce Springsteen wasn't used to this kind of highly produced recording.

And I think he prized himself on having a band that was about spontaneity and hyperactivity and like playing it a little different every night.

So how did this record end up being so highly produced today?

There's a documentary that was made at least 20 years ago about the making of Born to Run.

And in one scene, you see Springsteen listening back to a take in which there were strings added.

And I want to play that because this is like Born to Run with a string section.

And it just sounds very different.

And you'll hear Springsteen laughing as he listens back to this.

And so it's laughing like years later after it was recorded.