It’s been 45 years since Bruce Springsteen released his landmark album, Born To Run.
The New Jersey legend recently appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, where he reminisced on the making of the 1975 classic.
During the interview Springsteen shared an anecdote about the iconic Eric Meola-shot album cover, inarguably one of the most recognisable photos in rock history.
“The nice thing about that cover is it tells a story. It’s the beginning of a narrative; it immediately makes you think about friendship, electricity, musical magic. It’s the beginning of some tall tale. The physical aspect of it … it was just a picture he snapped,” he mused.
“It’s remained, I believe… it’s certainly my favorite, it not one of my very favorite album covers.”
Fallon went on to make a quip about Springsteen throwing the cover image in the pool after first seeing it.
“No, I threw the album in the pool, that was different,” Springsteen replied before delving into the insecurities he experienced when hearing Born To Run for the first time.
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“When you first start you’re not used to hearing yourself, even two, three records in. I just couldn’t get used to the sound of my voice and very often it sounds terrible to you. You’re making all these choices you end up not comfortable with. I recorded that when I was a 24-year-old kid, you know?”
The boss went on to recall the first time he heard the final mastered version of the record. Album engineer Jimmy Iovine brought the final version to Springsteen in Richmond, Virginia. The pair went on to listen to the album for the first time on a record player in a local music store.
“So I’m listening to the mastering of ‘Born To Run’, the two of us are standing in the back of the record store down south and Jimmy is trying to get me to say ‘It’s OK, we can release it’,” Springsteen explained.
“I’m there and I’m like, ‘[makes uncertain noises] Into the pool at the hotel it goes!’ At any rate, we did release it and it worked out alright.” Check out the interview below.
Bruce Springsteen reflects on the making of Born To Run on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q4CwF5AWLY&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon
