Five million ways ‘Born to Run’ could’ve gone wrong

Thanks to Merlin Mann for pointing out this clip from Wings for Wheels, a documentary about the making of the landmark Bruce Springsteen album Born to Run. Mann says of an early, bombastic version of the title track:

Wow. What a difference a few decisions can make. Imagine if they’d kept the giant strings, background ladies, and too-loud doubling/harmony. My Christ, the strings. By the end, they sound like they’re ready to invade Poland.

He posts audio of the two versions back to back, and listening to them, I was overcome with relief that they ditched the bloated orchestral BTR.  Tragedy Averted.  Though I have to admit I was a little sad that The Greatest Rock Song of All Time didn’t have a “Yeah, we just nailed it on the second take”  kind of story.  In reality, Springsteen spent six months on the song, experimenting and tweaking.  Six months!  On one song!  But the more I thought about it, the fact that a great song survived all that tinkering is more amazing than a miraculous one-off.

Listening to all those different versions, for that long, there were tons of opportunities to lose objectivity, thousands of wrong roads thankfully not taken.  I can’t even fathom the amount of focus and discipline it must have taken for him to keep his vision of the song intact for six months.  I never really equated recording albums with filmmaking, but watching this, there are plenty of parallels.  As my wife said after knowing me a while and learning a little bit about how films and TV are made, “It’s a miracle that decent movies ever come of this process”.  The same can probably be said of any collaborative art.  Whether it’s a band leader or a director, I’m in awe of anybody than can marshall that many people to labor towards some amorphous idea they’re trying to yank out of their heads and into reality.  Sometimes, somehow, all the insanity and all the distractions and all the chefs in the creative kitchen can’t stop a work of art from being born.

But, c’mon,  everyone knows it’s the glockenspiel that really ties the whole thing together.