One of the most iconic albums both of the 1970’s and of Bruce Springsteen’s career was his “Born To Run” album. This album portrays urban industrial life, building images both of the hardship and desperation of normal life, and of a promised freedom, found outside the city in empty highways and fast cars. This album and its representation of society echo many of the main tenets of transcendentalism, especially its aversion to society and desire to escape it. While this was most probably not intentional, the album’s message bears a remarkable similarity to the beliefs set forth in transcendentalist writing.
Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” album, while it is not directly transcendentalist, is motivated by the same dissatisfaction with the society, and advocates for the same departure from society. While the album was new and creative in many regards, the format of the album itself is exceedingly unimaginative. Most vinyl albums would have between eight and ten songs, with four or five per side. “Born To Run,” with eight songs total, was no exception. With this arrangement, the first songs of each side are, respectively, Thunder Road and Born to Run. In this format, these two songs are given the most emphasized positions on the album. Perhaps because of this, they are the two songs most indicative of the album’s message.
Thunder Road describes the singer’s invitation to a woman, Mary, to drive away together on “thunder road.” In the song, society, and life within it, are described as broken, desperate, and decidedly unidealized. Mary, while she is described as “a vision” in the first lines, is later told, rather undiplomatically, “you ain’t a beauty, but, hey you’re all right.” Society waits for “a savior to rise from these streets,” but even Springsteen is “not a hero.” He and Mary have “one last chance to make it real” in a “town full of losers.” Society overall is portrayed as smothering, and hopeless, with escape to Thunder Road their last hope.
Standing out from Springsteen’s unrelentingly bleak landscape is Thunder Road, the only thing idealized or glorified in the song. However, Thunder Road itself is left ambiguous. If it is a place, it is never specified, but it is described as “two lanes that will take [them] anywhere”. However, the focus is not on Thunder Road as a place, but rather as an action or a state of being. They are leaving, not to reach a specific place, but rather “to case the promised land.” His deliberate imprecision makes his offer even more appealing to the audience, who can create Thunder Road in their mind as they wish.
The other main song of the album is “Born to Run.” It gives the title to the album, and is one of Springsteen’s most famous songs. This song has a similar structure to “Thunder Road,” in that it describes the singer’s promise to a woman (this time Wendy) that they are “born to run” from all of the stifling influences of society. Society is described here as a “death trap,” that “rips the bones from your back.” He states that “[they] gotta get out while [they’re] young.” (Although he states in Thunder Road that “[he] ain’t that young anymore.”) Again, Springsteen promises that “we’re gonna get to that place/ where we really want to go.” Here he also chooses to make their final place of freedom as vague as possible. However, the song is still centered entirely around their escape from society.
Transcendentalism was a literary movement that arose in the late 1800’s as a reaction to industrialization and the cultural and environmental changes that followed the industrial revolution. It had two main components: First, an aversion to the structure and institution of society, and second, a desire to leave society altogether, continuously traveling away from society into nature to try to escape its influence. This album parallels the argument made by transcendentalism in both of these respects. In both of the songs discussed above, the song begins by portraying society as smothering and painful.
In these songs, society is described not only as unidealistic or unpleasant, but as deadly. In Thunder Road, they live in “a town full of losers,” while in Born to Run the town is a “suicide rap” that “rips the bones from your back.” Springsteen’s characters are trapped in a society that they find to be a “death trap,” and they look for escape through driving. Where transcendentalism looked for societal escape in nature, Springsteen looks for it in driving. Thunder Road is focused entirely on Springsteen’s offer of freedom, which he offers in the form of Thunder Road. They are driving “to case the promised land,” and to leave on “two lanes that will take [them] anywhere.” Similarly, in Born to Run they ride at night through “mansions of glory,” and while the “highway is jammed with broken heroes,” they can escape because they are born to run.
Beyond just wishing to leave, their aversion to society is fundamental and unchanging- they are “born to run” until they reach “that place where [they] really want to go.” Springsteen’s word choice in “born to run” implies that they are different from the rest of society in a basic and innate way. In addition, it implies that they will continue running forever. In Thunder Road as well, the focus is not on the location and nature of Thunder Road as a destination, but instead on its characteristics as a means or process of escape. This parallels the transcendental idea that escape from society is found in the continuing act of leaving society, rather than reaching a specific place. Here, as in transcendentalism, society must be escaped in order for the individual to be happy, but for Springsteen his means of escaping society lies in driving away, rather than withdrawing to nature.
One major criticism of transcendentalism is its sexism. Transcendentalism focuses on the manly virtues of the intrepid explorer of nature. Here the poet or speaker is obviously male, and has all the traits of traditional manly virtue. He brings the ideas of transcendentalism to those yet unenlightened, who are defined as those still stuck in the structure and institution of society. Women are left out of the image of the transcendentalist, and included only implicitly in those still trapped in society. This undercurrent is reflected in Springsteen’s portrayal of women in these two songs. In both songs Springsteen is the one with the knowledge of how to escape from society. The woman in both songs lacks character development, and occupies the more passive role- escape is offered to them, rather than vice versa. The image of the woman between the two songs is entirely interchangeable- the only difference between them is their names. All of the agency and wisdom is given to the speaker, while the woman’s role is simply to get into the passenger seat.
While the “Born To Run” album was not produced as a work of transcendentalism, it shows many parallels to their arguments. In Springsteen’s case, the reaction is not against the industrialization of society, but rather against the structure and hierarchy of society. Escape is found through the items of industrialization that the original transcendentalists were trying to escape. The reaction is not against the technology associated with industrialization, but instead with the social arrangements that follow industrialization. Throughout his music, Springsteen deliberately chooses to portray blue-collar, working class life. Choosing to portray this section of society builds his argument against the hierarchy of society. More broadly however, the parallels between the two arguments show that the impulse to escape society is still attractive to many within society. However, the choice to run to mechanical escapes rather than natural ones could reflect that society as a whole is no longer uncomfortable with the idea of industrialization- society as a whole likes its mechanical comforts too much to try to return to an age without industrial technology. This shows that it is the effects of the order and structure of society, rather than the effect of technology, that make individual members of society wish to leave.
