Seven years in the writing, Born To Run tells the extraordinary life story of one of the world's most successful musicians, in his own words. He was born in 1949, grew up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, and was driven to play music from an early age. In fact, he has never had any other job, and the book tells us of his early struggles to make a living through music, as well as his endless conflict with his working class father. It's a remarkably honest memoir, somewhat clunky in parts, and perhaps too long, but revelatory, and sometimes inspiring. He writes forcefully about his ongoing battle with depression, his sometimes difficult relationships with women and his other band members, and with great power about the death of fellow musicians like Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici. He has always found playing live incredibly inspiring, it's been a constant motivational force in his life. He also reveals how his bands have always been run as benign dictatorships, rather than democracies, which has led to occasional conflicts; but later in his career he appears to have managed to bring all of his E-Street Band members together without acrimony. The band now seems to be his family, with children and nephews of band members now playing with him.
I enjoyed this book, despite some flaws. It does that thing that many music biographies don't do i.e allow the reader new insights, new revelations, defy our assumptions.