Early draft
| Wild | The junkys [sic] (hit angel) at the palace shotgunned |
| Angels | some (chicks sister) soldiers who were up from Ft. Dix |
| I'll bet | Them wild boys did it just for the noise |
| not even for the kicks | |
| mainline trip | they live in fury chasing the bad |
| flight | Kind of (fools) glory down a killers highway into |
| (mainlined into) the sun | |
| this town'll rip the (out your) bones from your back | |
| but you can leave | it's a suicide trap (rap) (it's a trap to catch the young) you're dead unless |
| with me if you | You (we got to) get out while you're young so (come on! |
| got the guts to come | with) take my hand cause tramps |
| like us baby we were born to run | |
| stroll on! | I looked out cross my hood + saw |
| The rebels | the highway buckle neath the wheels |
| of a (my) gold Chevy 6 | |
| 1 | I was heading for the place were [sic] good |
| girls die in the arms of wild angels | |
| in one last kiss | |
| 2 | I was heading for the place where wild |
| angels die in an everlasting or neverending | |
| kiss | |
| on wings of fury | |
| Velocity plus | (Tonight) I've seen my legends |
| Baby out there heroes (also rebels) are crushed beneath | |
| the viscous [sic] wheels of a gold (his own) Chevy 6 | |
| + | |
| wild angels in everlasting kiss (fix) | |
| Baby they crushed (all) my heroes uptown last | |
| night beneath the wheels of a Chevy 6 | |
| My lover (pretty) |
The above lyrics are for an early draft of BORN TO RUN, as found on a handwritten lyrics sheet auctioned in 2013. This draft is titled "Wild Angels" (written in the left margin) and the majority of the lyrics were reworked before the album version was recorded. The line "I looked out cross my hood + saw the highway buckle neath the wheels of a (my) gold Chevy 6" is taken from an early draft of GLORY ROAD.
"Ft. Dix" (Fort Dix) is a former United States Army post located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey.
A Bruce Springsteen handwritten lyrics sheet for BORN TO RUN was auctioned in December 2013 on Sotheby's and the hammer was dropped at $197,000. According to the auction house, the draft was written in Long Branch, NJ, in 1974. The lyrics are written using a blue ballpoint pen on a 8.5x11" ruled notepaper. Superscript, marginal notations, and a alternate lyrics for the second verse were added at a different time as evidenced by the use of a ballpoint with lighter blue. The lyrics sheet comes from a private collector but was originally part of Mike Appel's (Springsteen's former manager) personal collection.
The lyrics sheet was on display at Sotheby's in New York City for a couple weeks before the auction. A Springsteen fan visited the auction house and to his surprize the docent walked over, unlocked the display and let him hold it (see below photo).
Thanks Pete Russell (Peteadmin at Brucebase) and Mirjam Kunz (Samira at BTX and Greasy Lake). Thanks Dan Rose in NYC for sharing the above photo.
Manuscript scan taken from Sotheby's.
If you have any corrections, additions, or comments, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of BORN TO RUN on this website:
BORN TO RUN [Album version]
