The music [of "Born To Run"] is urgent, full of abrupt stops and startling changes of tempo; the lyrics tell powerful stories of characters on the edge, living out rock and roll dreams….

[The] dreams of 1975 are bleaker than those of the past, as Springsteen's lyrics attest. Lines such as "You get up every morning at the sound of the bell / you go to work late and the boss man's giving you hell / till you're out on a midnight run / losing your heart to a beautiful one" depict a grim world far removed from [surfboard idylls]….

Springsteen's characters are "tramps … born to run" whose glory lies in a moment, not in a lifetime. Their dream is to flash just once; to chance everything in hopes of grabbing onto something they can call their own. These are the dreams that dissolve into lives of quiet desperation.

Power and urgency...