I know many people here don't "get" Bruce. But for me, it has to be Born To Run. Influences..Duane Eddy guitar on Born To Run and Backstreets...Roy Orbison wailing at the end of Jungleland...Bo Diddley beats on She's The One...Phil Spector throughout...traces of Dylan in the lyrics. It's like he took every influence he grew up on and it exploded on this album. It's the album that made people feel like they were hearing music for the first time. So many great epic tracks...Thunder Road...Born To Run...Backstreets...and Jungleland...a song that Bruce and Clarence worked out the sax solo note for note for 16 hours in the studio.
And if it hadn't been for this album, the label was gonna drop Springsteen and pour all their money into an up and coming guy named Billy Joel.
I had not been present to hear "Jungleland" performed live in ages...when I heard it at Bruce's last show here in Anaheim...tears formed in my eyes during Clarence's sax solo...one of the best solos of all time...near perfection...I'm not ashamed to say it. I'm not religious in any way, the closest I'll ever get to a religious or spiritual experience is something like this.
Jungleland