BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN THREW THE BORN TO RUN ACETATE INTO A HOTEL POOL

By the summer of 1975, Bruce Springsteen had finally completed Born to Run.

The problem was that he couldn’t bring himself to release it. 🎛️

Springsteen had spent more than a year wrestling with the album’s enormous, densely layered sound. The title track had already been circulating on radio for months while work on the rest of the record continued. What was supposed to be the breakthrough was becoming an ordeal.

Then engineer Jimmy Iovine brought a mastered copy out to Springsteen on tour. Springsteen later recalled that they had to persuade a stereo shop to let them use one of its record players to hear it. 💿

Iovine watched his face as the album played.

Springsteen heard flaws. He had already spent months rejecting versions and resisting the release. After hearing this one, he threw the record into the swimming pool at his hotel — with Iovine standing there. 🌊

And this wasn’t just a dramatic review.

Springsteen seriously considered withholding the album and rerecording its songs live during the band’s coming run at New York’s Bottom Line. 🎤 His producers and managers kept pressing the case that the record was finished and should come out.

Eventually, he let it go.

Born to Run was released by Columbia on August 25, 1975. It climbed to No. 3 in the United States and placed Springsteen on the covers of both Time and Newsweek that October. 📻

The record he could barely stand to release became the one that introduced him to a national audience.

Sometimes the hardest part of making a record is admitting that it’s finished. 🎸

#musicOnOff #BruceSpringsteen #BornToRun #EStreetBand #ClassicRock #RockHistory #StudioStories