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Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen
"Writing about yourself is a funny business... But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this."
-- Bruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began.
Over the past seven years, Bruce has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.
He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as "The Big Bang": seeing Elvis Presley's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized.
Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star's memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.
Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like so many of his songs, Bruce Springsteen's autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.
Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 512 pages
Chapter and Verse CD
Chapter and Verse is the audio companion to Bruce's autobiography. Springsteen selected the songs on Chapter and Verse to reflect the themes and sections of his memoir. It's a career-spanning compilation with 18 tracks, five of them never before released.
Frontloaded with these previously unreleased recordings, the album begins with two tracks from The Castiles, featuring a teenaged Springsteen on guitar and vocals: "Baby I," Bruce's first-ever studio recording, from 1966; and "Your Can't Judge a Book By the Cover," live in Freehold in 1967. Also appearing here for the first time: "He's Guilty (The Judge Song)" with Steel Mill, "Ballad of Jesse James" with the Bruce Springsteen Band, and a solo demo of "Henry Boy." From there, the collection traces Springsteen's career through the title track from 2012's Wrecking Ball. The package will also include lyrics and rare photos.
Track listing:
1. Baby I
2. You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover
3. He's Guilty (The Judge Song)
4. Ballad of Jesse
5. Henry Boy
6. Growin' Up [1972 Hammond demo]
7. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
8. Born to Run
9. Badlands
10. The River
11. My Father's House
12. Born in the U.S.A.
13. Brilliant Disguise
14. Living Proof
15. The Ghost of Tom Joad
16. The Rising
17. Long Time Comin'
18. Wrecking Ball