Born to Run Lyrics

[Saxophone Solo]

[Bridge]
Beyond the palace, hemi-powered drones
Scream down the boulevard

The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist

I wanna die with you, Wendy, on the streets tonight
In an everlasting kiss

Huh!

[Instrumental Break]
(One, two, three, four)

[Verse 3]
The highways jammed with broken heroes
On a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
But there's no place left to hide
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh, someday girl, I don't know when
We're gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go, and we'll walk in the sun
But till then, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run

[Outro]
Oh honey, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Come on Wendy, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Whoa-oh-whoa
Hm-hm-hm
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Hm-hm-hm
Whoa-oh-whoa
Oh-oh-oh
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

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About

Genius Annotation

Written at 7½ West End Court in Long Branch, New Jersey in early 1974, the song was Bruce Springsteen’s last-ditch effort to make it big. The prior year, Springsteen had released two albums to critical acclaim but with little commercial success. The lyrics to the song are appropriately epic for his last-ditch, all-or-nothing shot at the stars, yet they remain rooted in the universal desperation of adolescence: Will you walk with me out on the wire, cause baby I’m just a scared and lonely rider…We gotta get out while we’re young, ‘cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run.’

Written in the first person, the song is a love letter to a girl named Wendy (Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend I wanna guard your dreams and visions…; I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight/in an everlasting kiss!), for whom the hot-rod-riding protagonist certainly has enough passion to love, but perhaps not the patience. However, Springsteen has noted that it has a much simpler core: getting out of Freehold.

The final mix was notoriously hard to make, having 72 tracks (instruments), including drums, guitars, piano, bass, and percussion.

Update –

On Jan 14, 2014, Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s late night did a parody on Governor Christie’s Bridgegate, joined by his (Christie’s) favorite singer – The Boss – The lyrics to the parody version can be found here

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Bruce Springsteen say about "Born to Run"?
Genius Answer

I had enormous ambitions for it. I wanted to make the greatest rock record I’d ever heard. I don’t know how important the settings are. It’s the idea behind the settings. It could be New Jersey, it could be California, it could be Alaska.

Bruce Springsteen to Rolling Stone

Credits
Mastering Engineer
Mixing Engineer
Recorded At
914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York
Release Date
August 25, 1975
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