Epic...outstanding...grandiose... ambitious...visionary... theatrical... majestic... monumental...exciting...classical... timeless... fantastic... mythological... emotional...breathtaking... electrifying...exhilarant... eye-popping... far out... fine... flashy... hectic... compelling...impressive... intoxicating

How does one describe the greatest rock album of all time?

When Born to Run was being made Bruce Springsteen knew it was his shot at the title and he went for it with an indefatigable passion. The pressure was on. His backers at Columbia had moved on...the sales of "Greetings from Asbury Park" and "the Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" had been less than impressive though both albums were critically well received. Bruce and his band mates new they were in danger of being dumped from the label if they didn't come up with a triumph.

Springsteen had a sound in his head, a big sound and a big song in Born to Run but getting that song and sound to match what he was hearing in his mind was proving to be frustrating and taxing. With meticulous dedication and grueling sixteen hour days in the studio and overdub after overdub after overdub Springsteen and the E Street band were finally able to achieve the Spectorish "Wall of Sound" they had been searching for and a classic was...well.... born.

In the process two band members were lost, Springsteen's then manager Mike Appel was at the beginning of the end of his business association with Bruce and John Landau, the man who was to write that he'd seen the future of rock and roll after seeing Bruce perform, came on board beginning a collaboration of like minds that has lasted to this day. Despite all the pratfalls, if asked if he'd do it all again I imagine Bruce would not hesitate because the end result took him to the top and enabled him to get everything he could have hoped for and more out of a musical career.

I was a kid when I fell in love with the album. I heard Born to Run blasting through the radio and had to have it for my own. It was the first song (that wasn't a nursery rhyme) that I remember having any investment in. Thirty years later with this special commemorative edition I now have eight copies of it.

First obviously was the original LP then I had to have it on cassette for the tape deck in my parent's car. The third version was the LP again when I just had to buy a copy when the family was on an extended Christmas vacation at my grandparents' house. Then CD's were invented and of course it was the first CD I brought. My CD player back then was a five CD disk changer and Born to Run had a permanent place in the number one slot. This proved to be problematic when I got a CD player in my car so along came version number six. Then I met my future wife and had to buy her a copy so she could learn to

 some extent what she may be getting herself into, of course we live together now so it's `our' copy. Then there's this latest, greatest edition in remastered digital sound with the terrific extras.

Obsessed?

Maybe.........a little anyway.

Born to run is more than just the collection of individual songs....it's more than the wall of sound...it's more than the beauty and poetry of the lyrics....it's more than the passion and promise that the album contains.....it's a sum of all it's parts.

The themes of freedom, escape and redemption that are evident throughout are intrinsic to those that lay at the heart of rock and roll. The promise of that magic in the night, the question of is love real. Somehow less becomes more as the album was stripped back and condensed in comparison to what Springsteen had done before. His previous releases had been wordy and verbose, the byline for Greetings stating that Bruce was a performer who could put more into one song than most artists put into an entire album.  Here he was able to tell more story in less words and the words he used conveyed a cinematic imagery with characters that we can all imagine with lives and hearts and minds of their own. Lives and stories that for a brief moment we can invest in and feel as if they contain a little piece of ourselves.

Thirty years on and the album still resonates as much now as it did back then and this latest edition is a fitting tribute. The packaging is terrific. Of course the iconic cover of Bruce slumped over Clarence's shoulder complete with impish grin, his Elvis badge and the famous Esquire telecaster slung alongside like an old West gunslinger. Inside the album itself is packaged like the original LP in a gatefold sleeve. The silver part of the disk is black and the picture side is made out like a record complete with grooves. Another CD cover containing the Born to Run single and the B side Meeting Across the River is set up to look like a record in it's sleeve.

The picture booklet is a collection of photo's from the Born to Run era as taken by photographer Eric Meola who was responsible for the classic image that became the albums cover. Somewhat disappointingly the intro to this booklet is an exert from Bruce's book songs rather than something written originally for the release. For mine it would have been interesting to hear what Bruce feels about the album thirty years on and what it means to him today.

The sleeve for the DVD of the E Street bands first concert abroad at London's Hammersmith Odeon is more satisfying as it is originally penned and in fact written the day before Bruce's birthday this past September. Bruce talks about how he felt about the hype and the marquee and the tearing down of the posters and the tension before the show. The DVD itself is the first official full release concert from the preceding century. Though the release proclaims this is never before seen footage there is quite a few bootleggers who would beg to disagree. Bruce acknowledges as much when he mentions that the" legendary performance marked only in memory, bits of bootleg tape and `I was there when' stories" For those that have the bootleg concert I would suggest that both versions are from the same source as it has the same grainy elements and camera angles. For those that have not seen it, this is not the buff Springsteen who muscled his way through the Born in the USA tour but a taut, skinny, hungry performer going for broke to win over a foreign audience with an impassioned delivery. It highlights why Springsteen and the E Street band garnered their reputations for being the premiere live performers in concert that they remain to this day.

The third disk is a wonderful little documentary titled "Wings for wheels" which was one of the original titles for the song that came to be known as "Thunder Road". The disk contains archival footage from the making of the album and current footage from all the key players including ex band members Ernest "Boom" Carter and David Sancious as well as the production team. Highlights include some of the versions (both good and downright cringe worthy) that didn't make the final cut, modern acoustic versions of select songs with detailed explanations in the mode of the recent Storytellers DVD and the Somerville theatre benefit shows from 2003 and a small segment that has Bruce showing of the famed Esquire telecaster.

The DVD concludes with a live three-song performance from 1973 including Spirit in the night, Wild Billy's Circus story and Thundercrack.

All in all it's a great testament to the greatest album and while I'm aware that most everyone who will purchase this is probably as bad as myself when it come to all things Bruce I congratulate those who are about to be introduced to Mary, Wendy, Terry, Eddie, the Magic Rat, the barefoot girl, Scooter and the Big Man for the very first time. Prepare to be enchanted.
Epic... outstanding... grandiose... ambitious... visionary... theatrical... majestic... monumental... exciting... classical... timeless... fantastic... mythological... emotional... breathtaking... electrifying... exhilarant... eye-popping... far out... fine... flashy... hectic... compelling... impressive... intoxicating

How does one describe the greatest rock album of all time? When Born to Run was being made Bruce Springsteen knew it was his shot at the title and he went for it with an indefatigable passion. The pressure was on. His backers at Columbia had moved on... the sales of "Greetings from Asbury Park" and "the Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" had been less than impressive though both albums were critically well received. Bruce and his band mates new they were in danger of being dumped from the label if they didn't come up with a triumph. Springsteen had a sound in his head, a big sound and a big song in Born to Run but getting that song and sound to match what he was hearing in his mind was proving to be frustrating and taxing. With meticulous dedication and grueling sixteen hour days in the studio and overdub after overdub after overdub Springsteen and the E Street band were finally able to achieve the Spectorish "Wall of Sound" they had been searching for and a classic was... well.... born. In the process two band members were lost, Springsteen's then manager Mike Appel was at the beginning of the end of his business association with Bruce and John Landau, the man who was to write that he'd seen the future of rock and roll after seeing Bruce perform, came on board beginning a collaboration of like minds that has lasted to this day. Despite all the pratfalls, if asked if he'd do it all again I imagine Bruce would not hesitate because the end result took him to the top and enabled him to get everything he could have hoped for and more out of a musical career. I was a kid when I fell in love with the album. I heard Born to Run blasting through the radio and had to have it for my own. It was the first song (that wasn't a nursery rhyme) that I remember having any investment in. Thirty years later with this special commemorative edition I now have eight copies of it. First obviously was the original LP then I had to have it on cassette for the tape deck in my parent's car. The third version was the LP again when I just had to buy a copy when the family was on an extended Christmas vacation at my grandparents' house. Then CD's were invented and of course it was the first CD I brought. My CD player back then was a five CD disk changer and Born to Run had a permanent place in the number one slot. This proved to be problematic when I got a CD player in my car so along came version number six. Then I met my future wife and had to buy her a copy so she could learn to

 some extent what she may be getting herself into, of course we live together now so it's `our' copy. Then there's this latest, greatest edition in remastered digital sound with the terrific extras. Obsessed? Maybe.... .... . a little anyway. Born to run is more than just the collection of individual songs.... it's more than the wall of sound... it's more than the beauty and poetry of the lyrics.... it's more than the passion and promise that the album contains.... . it's a sum of all it's parts. The themes of freedom, escape and redemption that are evident throughout are intrinsic to those that lay at the heart of rock and roll. The promise of that magic in the night, the question of is love real. Somehow less becomes more as the album was stripped back and condensed in comparison to what Springsteen had done before. His previous releases had been wordy and verbose, the byline for Greetings stating that Bruce was a performer who could put more into one song than most artists put into an entire album. Here he was able to tell more story in less words and the words he used conveyed a cinematic imagery with characters that we can all imagine with lives and hearts and minds of their own. Lives and stories that for a brief moment we can invest in and feel as if they contain a little piece of ourselves. Thirty years on and the album still resonates as much now as it did back then and this latest edition is a fitting tribute. The packaging is terrific. Of course the iconic cover of Bruce slumped over Clarence's shoulder complete with impish grin, his Elvis badge and the famous Esquire telecaster slung alongside like an old West gunslinger. Inside the album itself is packaged like the original LP in a gatefold sleeve. The silver part of the disk is black and the picture side is made out like a record complete with grooves. Another CD cover containing the Born to Run single and the B side Meeting Across the River is set up to look like a record in it's sleeve. The picture booklet is a collection of photo's from the Born to Run era as taken by photographer Eric Meola who was responsible for the classic image that became the albums cover. Somewhat disappointingly the intro to this booklet is an exert from Bruce's book songs rather than something written originally for the release. For mine it would have been interesting to hear what Bruce feels about the album thirty years on and what it means to him today. The sleeve for the DVD of the E Street bands first concert abroad at London's Hammersmith Odeon is more satisfying as it is originally penned and in fact written the day before Bruce's birthday this past September. Bruce talks about how he felt about the hype and the marquee and the tearing down of the posters and the tension before the show. The DVD itself is the first official full release concert from the preceding century. Though the release proclaims this is never before seen footage there is quite a few bootleggers who would beg to disagree. Bruce acknowledges as much when he mentions that the" legendary performance marked only in memory, bits of bootleg tape and `I was there when' stories" For those that have the bootleg concert I would suggest that both versions are from the same source as it has the same grainy elements and camera angles. For those that have not seen it, this is not the buff Springsteen who muscled his way through the Born in the USA tour but a taut, skinny, hungry performer going for broke to win over a foreign audience with an impassioned delivery. It highlights why Springsteen and the E Street band garnered their reputations for being the premiere live performers in concert that they remain to this day. The third disk is a wonderful little documentary titled "Wings for wheels" which was one of the original titles for the song that came to be known as "Thunder Road". The disk contains archival footage from the making of the album and current footage from all the key players including ex band members Ernest "Boom" Carter and David Sancious as well as the production team. Highlights include some of the versions (both good and downright cringe worthy) that didn't make the final cut, modern acoustic versions of select songs with detailed explanations in the mode of the recent Storytellers DVD and the Somerville theatre benefit shows from 2003 and a small segment that has Bruce showing of the famed Esquire telecaster. The DVD concludes with a live three-song performance from 1973 including Spirit in the night, Wild Billy's Circus story and Thundercrack. All in all it's a great testament to the greatest album and while I'm aware that most everyone who will purchase this is probably as bad as myself when it come to all things Bruce I congratulate those who are about to be introduced to Mary, Wendy, Terry, Eddie, the Magic Rat, the barefoot girl, Scooter and the Big Man for the very first time. Prepare to be enchanted.