Bruce Springsteen's Jungleland The In's Out's And Making Of It From Music Historian Peter Ames Carlin

In reporting his 2012 New York Times bestselling biography Bruce-widely regarded as the "definitive biography of Bruce Springsteen" (Asbury Park Press)-celebrated music journalist Peter Ames Carlin gained unprecedented access to Springsteen's inner circle and to The Boss himself. Now, timed to the 50th anniversary of the release of the groundbreaking album, he brings us TONIGHT IN JUNGLELAND: The Making of Born to Run (Doubleday; August 5, 2025; $30), an intimate, behind-the-scenes account, based on brand new reporting, of the writing, recording, and making of one of the most iconic records in rock history.From the opening piano notes of "Thunder Road" to the final outro of "Jungleland," with American anthems like "Born to Run" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" in between, Bruce Springsteen's seminal album, Born to Run, established Springsteen as a creative force in rock and roll. It is indisputably his crowning achievement, which launched him to international superstardom-but it almost never happened.By the spring of 1974, the situation at Columbia Records had become dire for Springsteen. His first two albums had been highly praised but had gained almost no commercial traction. Columbia was not going to pay for a full third album. They agreed to give him enough money to record just one more song; if it sounded like a hit, or even something with a chance of radio play, they'd consider financing a full album. Bruce was determined to craft a song powerful enough to stake the rest of his career on, so he sat on his small bed near the Jersey Shore and picked up his guitar. He listened to the traffic outside his window and envisioned the muscle cars he saw roaring around Asbury Park. Then he pulled some chords out of the air and wrote the words, "Baby, we were born to run."With his back against the wall, Springsteen wrote what has been hailed as a perfect album, a defining moment, and a roadmap for what would become a legendary career. TONIGHT IN JUNGLELAND details the writing and recording of every song on the album, a tortuous process that betrayed the fault lines in Springsteen's psyche and career, even as it revealed the depth of his vision and the power of his determination. It's a journey and a story-from the first harmonica notes of "Thunder Road" and its opening lyric, "The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways," to the "Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge" in "Jungleland," with its massive, theatrical finale of raised and crushed dreams against a backdrop of Springsteen's hopeful and melancholic New Jersey ("There's an opera out on the Turnpike / There's a ballet being fought out in the alley. . . Tonight, in Jungleland")-that combines Carlin's signature narrative style, trademark energy, lush music writing, and intellectual style, with unprecedented access to Bruce himself, his bandmates, and his longtime collaborators.A must-read for any music fan, TONIGHT IN JUNGLELAND takes us inside a hallowed creative process and lets us experience history. But don't take our word for it; let Bruce's own words, told to Carlin, reflect the intimacy of the book's storytelling: "You know, I'm very, very fond of [the album]. And on its anniversaries, I get in a car and I play it from start to finish, and I end up at West End court where I wrote it. Right before the end, right before 'Jungleland.' And I sit there by the curb and I let 'Jungleland' play, as I sit outside the little house I wrote it in."


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.