Philadelphia Magazine

Simon van Zuylen-Wood

A handwritten working manuscript of rock star Bruce Springsteen's 1975 hit Born to Run, worth around GBP 62,000, will be auctioned next week. The early manuscript of the song, which catapulted Springsteen to stardom, will be auctioned by Sotheby's in New York on December 5. The lyrics have been written by The Boss in blue ink on a single 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of ruled notepaper. Springsteen's first two albums - Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle - received critical acclaim but modest commercial success. As such, the 26-year-old Springsteen found his career hinging on the success of his next single. However, he needn't have feared as Born to Run was a breakout smash and became his first worldwide release The song took six months to finalise and clocks in at four and a half minutes long. Sotheby's says most of the 30 lines in the 1974 version are apparently unpublished and unrecorded, but does include a "near perfected chorus." It captures for the first time the famous lines: "This town'll rip the (out your) bones from yourback / it's a suicide trap (rap) (it's a trap to catch the young) your dead unless / you get out (we gotto) while your young so (come on! / with) take my hand cause tramps / like us baby we were born to run." The handwritten manuscript, which was written in Long Branch, New Jersey, is said to be "in fine condition" and also includes notes in the margins. It has been in the collection of Springsteen's former manager Mike Appel. The presale estimate is between GBP 43,000 and GBP 62,000 ($70,000 to $100,000). The document will be part of a Manhattan sale of fine books and manuscripts. In 2013, after nearly four decades of performing the career defining hit, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked "Born to Run" Springsteen's great... For more information visit http://www.rexfeatures.com/stacklink/KAYXYSEHJ (Rex Features via AP Images)
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