Born to Run: Biography

Born in the USA enjoys “nuclear” success. After its release, Nils Lofgren steps in to fill Van Zandt’s shoes.

Bar-Hoppin’ Mama

At the Stone Pony music club, Springsteen hears young singer Patti Scialfa. They flirt, dance, and end the evening with a promise: “See you at the club” (322). As the band rehearses for its next tour, Scialfa joins as backup singer, disrupting the tight-knit boy’s club but staking out a place of her own. The addition of a woman to the band reflects Springsteen’s evolving musical sensibilities and changing audience. He hopes the change won’t alienate fans.

Opening Night

It’s 1984, and MTV is a surging force in the music industry. Acknowledging its cultural importance (despite misgivings), Springsteen shoots a video for “Dancing in the Dark,” and Courtney Cox shares the spotlight with him. The band plays the first stop of the tour: St. Paul, Minnesota. Although under-rehearsed, Scialfa pulls it off, and despite Lofgren’s initial missteps, the band recovers.

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Before the Pittsburg show, Springsteen meets union organizer Ron Weisen, who describes the plight of laid-off steelworkers. With a platform to use for political causes, Springsteen partners with organizations that provide food and assistance to marginalized Americans.

White Man’s Paradise (Little Steven vs. Mickey Mouse)

In Los Angeles, Springsteen and Van Zandt go to Disneyland but are ordered to remove their bandanas so that they won’t look like gang members. Both refuse and are asked to leave. At Knott’s Berry Farm, they’re refused entrance for the same reason. Van Zandt rants about freedom and fascism, and they end the evening with dinner at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard—bandanas allowed.

Little Girl, I Want to Marry You

At 34, Springsteen is ready for marriage and, after a brief courtship, weds actress Julianne Phillips. However, he soon begins feeling anxious, imagining that she married him only for his fame. He never sustained a relationship longer than two years, and self-doubt festers. His inner demons resurface, creating emotional distance between them. One night, he slips off his wedding ring—only for a moment, but the gesture’s symbolism deeply unsettles him.

Europe

In Ireland, Springsteen plays his first arena concert before 95,000 fans. Those nearest the stage are intoxicated and swaying, and Springsteen fears someone will be crushed, so he feels anxious during the performance. He considers cancelling the tour if playing stadium shows results in such dangerous behavior. Eventually, he realizes a chaotic order is at work and no one’s in danger. The concert is “solid” and ends without injuries.

Newcastle, England

The concert at Newcastle—also a stadium-size venue—comes off without a hitch, but Springsteen is aware that, in huge crowds, the potential for disaster is always one small “shift” away.

Headaches and Headlines

As the tour continues, paparazzi besiege him and Phillips, and Springsteen, a private person when not onstage, is deeply uncomfortable with the attention. He even smashes one of his guitars in frustration, wondering whether this constant, life-under-a-microscope scrutiny is permanent.

In London and Milan, the crowds are rapturous, some in Italy even breaking through barriers to get into the sold-out show. In Pittsburg, as the band prepares to play “Born in the USA,” Lofgren and Bittan, distracted by a ping-pong game, miss their cue and aren’t onstage for the song’s opening bars. After six sold-out shows in New Jersey, they’re plagued by a “biblical” swarm of locusts in Texas. In Denver, they play in below-freezing temperatures before moving on to Los Angeles. By the tour’s end, they’re the world’s biggest rock attraction.

Where Do We Go From Here?

In the aftermath of the massively successful Born in the USA tour, Springsteen descends from his high by thoughts of what’s next. Meanwhile, he realizes that he’s earning “outrageous” sums of money but pushes it to the back of his mind. He realizes that this is the peak of his career—he likely won’t achieve such heights again. In addition, he sees his time with the E Street Band ending. Doors to the “pop firmament” are closing, but the door to his life as a married, family man are opening—if he can make it work.

Before the Born in the USA tour, Springsteen buys a sprawling Victorian home in Rumson, New Jersey, hoping to fill it with family. In addition, he receives an unexpected phone call: His father invites him on a fishing trip. They meet in California and fly to Cabo San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula. On a beach at dawn, they find the “rust bucket” boat his father rented. After a full day, they have only one fish. His father has rented the boat for a second day, but instead they spend it at a bar, looking out at the sea and reminiscing. On the flight back, Springsteen understands that this trip is his father’s attempt to give something back to his son.

After the success and sold-out arenas of Born in the USA, Springsteen is ready for a more intimate project. As he matures, the road feels just as claustrophobic as marriage used to feel. Focusing on family, domesticity, love, and mortality, Tunnel of Love (1987)—his first solo album—has only an acoustic guitar and rhythm track. The album soars to number one, and despite intending not to tour, he wants to share his most heartfelt music with fans who grew with him. The tour is designed to differ from the previous one (a more theatrical presentation), and the band, Springsteen feels, is unsettled by the changes and by his burgeoning relationship with Scialfa. One evening, while Phillips is out of town, his relationship with Scialfa becomes intimate. Realizing that she’s “the one,” he breaks the news to Phillips and tries to maintain privacy during their separation, but the lack of communication with the press engenders rumors, scandal, and outrage.

‘88

In 1988, the E Street Band plays a concert in East Berlin for a raucous crowd of 160,000. The wall still stands—but not for long. Later, he plays West Berlin for a much smaller crowd. The enthusiasm of the East Berlin audience, he argues, portends a seismic political shift that taps into the rebellious heart of rock and roll.

Around the World in Forty-Two Days

As the Tunnel of Love tour heads back home, Springsteen joins the Amnesty International effort to recruit young people to its cause. The tour “morphs” into several long concerts featuring Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Sting, and Youssou N’Dour. He’s expected to have a full understanding of the human rights abuses in each country they visit—and to his chagrin, he must study.

Playing to an African crowd, Springsteen worries that his “wooden-legged, fourfour beat of Jersey Shore punk ‘n’ soul” (354) won’t translate to an Afrobeat audience, but the crowd erupts in celebratory dance to “Born in the USA.” The tour is worldwide, but Amnesty International’s work feels particularly relevant in Chile and Argentina, where brutal dictators rule through fear and oppression. Learning about families whose fathers and sons have been “disappeared” gives Springsteen an appreciation for growing up in the US.

Home Again

After the tour, Springsteen and Scialfa rent an apartment in Manhattan, but city life doesn’t suit him. They retreat back to New Jersey, where Springsteen’s old habits resurface. With no tour to occupy his time and the pain of his divorce still fresh, he falls back on “old ways.”

Adjustment

The process of self-awareness is long, and Springsteen, still grappling with passive rage, frequently fights with Scialfa (a “good thing,” he notes, because it’s open and immediate). Like his father, Springsteen is compelled to abuse anyone who tries to get too close.

Needing a change of environment, they rent a house in California. The weather, sunshine, and nature are an immediate balm to the tempestuous storm brewing between them. Pushed into a corner and ready to walk out the door, Springsteen realizes that he has nowhere to go but to a bar or back on the road, and those are only temporary solutions. He makes the “sanest decision” of his life: He stays. He spends his days riding his motorcycle through Southern California’s high wooded mountains and low deserts, ending up on the beach with Scialfa, where they give each other space. In those quiet moments, Springsteen finds the peace to accept the love of “the best woman I’d ever known” (359).

Southwest ‘89

On his 39th birthday, Springsteen takes a 10-day, 2,000-mile motorcycle trip across the Southwest with several friends and relatives. Baking in the scorching Mojave desert, they pass through California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah (including the Hopi and Navajo reservations). In one of the oldest Hopi settlements in the Southwest, they meet a boy who tells them of the conflict dividing his community: to stay in the traditional stone dwellings that have been their homes for generations or move to modern trailers with electricity. Despite the cultural taboo, Springsteen takes their picture and bids them farewell.

They navigate treacherous, 60-mph winds and dust storms on the highway, and he jams with locals in Prescott, Arizona. They eventually return to Los Angeles. After visiting his parents, he goes home, where Scialfa announces she’s pregnant. His old fears threaten to rise up, but they’re replaced with acceptance and joy for “the three of us. Our family” (363).