A good part of Springsteen's appeal stems from the words he sings. In his most recent engagements, he has commenced his shows with "Thunder Road," one of many Springsteen variations of those familiar rock'n' roll anthems of adolescence like the Animals' mid-1960's classic, "We Gotta Get Outta This Place"…. Such songs conjure one of rock'n' roll's most sentimentalized, romanticized and still-popular stereotypes: the outlaw-teen. The kid is lonely, lost, and desperate, and his only release is to toss a girl into a car and zoom down a highway to nowhere. As neatly structured as they are cliched, these anthems are nevertheless often lots of fun. Springsteen's "Thunder Road," however, is notable chiefly for its repetitiousness. (pp. 1, 17)

The "kid-as-loser" is the familiar theme of "Born to Run."…

Teens-in-perpetual motion are also on the move in Springsteen's equally wordy "Backstreets."…

If Springsteen is tireless in his evocation of the...