Born to Run: Biography

Months later, fingers calloused from practice, Springsteen buys an electric guitar. He sells his small pool table, and his mother covers the balance. Guitar in hand, he teams up with a neighborhood drummer to make “the most god-awful racket you’ve ever heard” (62). They eventually add a second guitarist (a “real” musician) and a bassist, rehearsing “semiregularly” until they realize they need a singer.

Showtime

The mid-1960s New Jersey music scene has no musical acts with singers—bands are either strictly instrumental or back vocal groups. Springsteen’s band, The Rogues, plays its first gig at a local Elks club, and Springsteen sings Twist and Shout as the final number. Their next job—opening for local instrumental group The Chevelles—is at Springsteen’s high school, a “top, top” gig. However, bad acoustics and overreliance on reverb mar their performance. Wanting to blow away the “corny” Chevelles, the band is instead humbled by their musicianship and professionalism. After the gig, Springsteen is voted out of the band because of his cheap, untuned guitar.

In My Room

Undaunted, he practices even harder, devoting his time to mimicking rock records and studying local bands. He begins to feel his purpose, fantasizing about rock and roll glory.

Local musician George Theiss, who’s seeking a lead guitarist for his band, approaches Springsteen and introduces him to Tex and Marion Vinyard, a childless couple whose home is a sanctuary for local bands that need rehearsal space. After a revolving door of prospective singers, Springsteen’s new band settles on George. Tex, who devotes his time and resources to nurturing the rock dreams of “his boys,” becomes a father figure for Springsteen.

Our First Gig

Performing as The Castiles, the band plays its first gig at a trailer park. Following a country music band, their repertoire of pop hits, rhythm and blues, and instrumentals is a hit with the crowd, and they get a sense of the “raw, rudimentary, local but effective magic” (72) of making music.

Wipe Out

Personnel changes gradually reconfigure the band: The bass player is replaced by someone younger; the drummer, unable to play the standard drum groove on the surf tune “Wipeout,” joins the Marines (and is killed in Vietnam). The Castiles begin the grueling regimen of playing local gigs wherever “you could set up a five-piece band that wanted decent local entertainment at a cheap price” (73).

To the East

Freehold exists on the lower end of the economic spectrum, somewhere between the upper middle-class seaside towns and the poorer enclaves to the west. The Castiles, gaining a local reputation, begin to play gigs at the well-heeled beach resorts of Rumson, Sea Bright, and Middletown, though they encounter hostility from envious rich boys. Their only defense is the music. If they can get the locals dancing, they’re no longer a threat.

To the South

The “greaser” territory to the south is a rebellious subcult—mostly Italian—of New Jersey’s teen population. Greasers appropriate their look—slicked-back pompadour, sharkskin suit, high-collared shirt—from Black culture, and Springsteen notes that they’re both “friendly” to the Black kids and “virulently racist.” Greaser territory is the next stop for The Castiles. They play local pizza joints, but the big-time gig is the IB Club, where the requirements are Motown doo-wop and soul, which reflects the hardscrabble lives of the area’s residents.

The Reckoning

One Saturday night at the IB Club, a greaser gang leader, Tony, signals his displeasure with The Castiles’ lead singer, Benny. While driving recklessly one night, Benny injures several passengers, and “Godfather” Tony is prepared to exact justice on behalf of an injured girl. The club owner calls the police; Benny is escorted out and never sings with The Castiles again.

Work

When The Castiles open for a popular cover band at an upscale seaside gig, a few locals spit on them. Ironically, a year later, these same locals cheer them on at another venue, but the incident stings for a long time. Springsteen feels more comfortable with the greasers, and the spitting represents class division, a sign that despite the band’s growing reputation, they’re still beneath the rich kids. Nevertheless, the gigs continue, including backing a well-known vocal group before an all-Black audience. The band grows tighter, and Springsteen trades in his old Kent guitar for a “teal-blue, solid-body Epiphone, a real instrument” (83).

The Motifs

Local legend Ray Cichon, lead guitarist for The Motifs, becomes a mentor for Springsteen, teaching him advanced guitar licks. Ray and his brother Walter—a true New Jersey “mystic” and rebel—show Springsteen that local boys can achieve near-greatness and wear the badge of outsider with pride. Tragically, both Walter and Ray die untimely deaths—Walter in Vietnam and Ray from a beating.

In 1967, Springsteen has a motorcycle accident, incurring a concussion and a badly broken leg. When doctors mock his long hair, his father hires a barber to cut it short. Springsteen rages at his father’s betrayal.

At a Hullabaloo club (a nationwide franchise of music venues) in Middletown, Springsteen meets Steven Van Zandt, the guitarist of The Shadows, and the two quickly form a lasting friendship based on mutual admiration and a shared devotion to music.

Café Wha? Greenwich Village

With nowhere left to go in New Jersey, The Castiles branch out. Tex Vinyard arranges an audition at Café Wha? in New York’s Greenwich Village. They pass the audition but are simply one of many struggling bands hoping for a break, most of which “were better.” Undiscouraged, Springsteen studies these musicians, trying to mimic their sound, always striving to improve.

Greenwich Village of the late 1960s is a “who’s who” of musical talent (Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, The Mothers of Invention), and the open-mindedness of the hippie scene gives Springsteen the freedom to “walk with my freak flag held high” (92). As he nears high school graduation, the principal suggests that he clean up his appearance for dignity’s sake, so he skips the ceremony and spends the day in the Village. Later that evening, his father tries to guilt-trip him, but Springsteen, now free, is done with “the school, the family, and the whole ten-cent dog and pony show that was […] Freehold, New Jersey” (93).

Summer of Drugs

Springsteen spends that summer in a funk over a broken relationship, cruising the Jersey Shore, sleeping all day and carousing at night. In the fall, he enrolls at Ocean County Community College. Sometime over the summer, half The Castiles are swept up in a Freehold Police Department drug bust, ending the group’s three-year run of local stardom. Springsteen’s “elementary school” music education is officially over.

The psychedelic blues era is in full swing (Hendrix, Cream, Jeff Beck), and—armed with a new, “hollow-bodied Gibson” (96)—Springsteen begins landing gigs with his new trio. After playing at Manhattan’s Diplomat Hotel, Springsteen is approached by a record producer, George. They meet at George’s apartment, and Springsteen later attends an “actual” recording session. A music career begins to seem real. He remains in school, though, to avoid the draft. George convinces him to commit full-time to music, noting that the draft is “something we can fix” (100). Springsteen informs his parents he’s dropping out of school to pursue a career in music. They’re hesitant but wish him well. However, he loses contact with George.

Draft Dodger Rag

Springsteen, now a full-time musician, receives a draft notice but decides to do anything to avoid military service. He and his bandmates—Vincent Lopez and Vinnie Roslin—are scheduled to appear at the induction center on the same day and collectively brainstorm ways to get “1Y mental deferment” (101). In the end, he receives a 4F deferment—physically unfit—because of his motorcycle accident. Both Lopez and Roslin receive deferments too, and Springsteen reflects on the war and who served in his place. Later, he establishes relationships with two anti-war activists out of a sense of duty and “survivor’s guilt.”