Editing Born to Run (section)

===Side two===
{{Listen
|filename=Bruce_Springsteen_-_Born_to_Run_sample.ogg
|title="Born to Run"
|description="Born to Run" combines a Wall of Sound production with anthemic lyrics about escaping from a depressing life.{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=86–89}}
|pos=right}}
"Born to Run" uses the automobile as a means to escape from a depressing life.{{sfn|Gaar|2016|pp=48–49}} The characters, described as "tramps",{{sfn|Masur|2010|p=83}} include the narrator and a girl named Wendy. The former works a dreary job, "sweating out" the "runaway American dream", and joins a car community at night.{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|p=43}} He tells Wendy the town they live in is a "death trap" and they need to leave "while [they're] young" because "tramps like us{{nbsp}}... were born to run".{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=86–89}} Reviewers have analyzed the song's anthemic message as containing both an "underlying sadness"{{sfn|Gaar|2016|pp=48–49}} and "a feeling of desperation",{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|p=43}} as the narrator promises Wendy they will one day reach the promised land, but he does not know when. He simply wants to run away with her to  "help him discover if his youthful notions of love are real", and "pledges his desire to die with her in the street" and love her "with all the madness in [his] soul".{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|p=43}} The song's music combines rock and roll and hard rock with rockabilly, jazz, and Tin Pan Alley,{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|p=33}} complete with a Wall of Sound production.{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=86–89}} AllMusic's Jason Ankeny described the song as "a celebration of the rock & roll spirit, capturing the music's youthful abandon, delirious passion, and extraordinary promise with cinematic exhilaration".<ref name="AnkenyBorn">{{cite web |last=Ankeny |first=Jason |title='Born to Run' – Bruce Springsteen Song Review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/born-to-run-mt0006207588 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=May 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527211254/https://www.allmusic.com/song/born-to-run-mt0006207588 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Richard Davis.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=A man playing a double bass|[[Richard Davis (bassist)|Richard Davis]], pictured in 1987, played [[double bass]] on "[[Meeting Across the River]]".]]
"She's the One" is about the narrator's complete obsession for a girl.{{sfn|Carlin|2012|p=202}}{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=87–88}} The girl, however, is a liar and bad for him, yet he keeps returning to her.<ref name="UCRGuide" />{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|p=42}} Springsteen never revealed the song's inspiration, although Margotin and Guesdon suggest it was Karen Darvin, Springsteen's girlfriend at the time.{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=90–91}} The song musically incorporates a [[Bo Diddley beat]].{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=90–91}}<ref name="BBGuide" />{{sfn|Carlin|2012|p=202}}{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=87–88}} The jazzy<ref name="UCRGuide" /> "Meeting Across the River" musically and lyrically departs from the previous songs,{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=89–90}} utilizing piano and trumpet to create what Margotin and Guesdon describe as a "film noir jazz ambience" that "clashes with the other tracks".{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=92–93}} In it, the narrator and his partner Eddie are small-time gangsters who plan an illegal deal across the [[Hudson River]], striving for a big score that will earn him a large amount of money to impress his girlfriend.<ref name="UCRGuide" />{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=92–93}}<ref name="BBGuide" />{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|pp=43–44}} With themes of despair and hopelessness, the song ends before a narrative resolution, leaving whether or not the gangsters succeeded ambiguous.{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=89–90}}

"Jungleland" takes place in the titular location, where a meeting between gang members at midnight is interrupted by the police.{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=94–97}}{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=91–93}} With a dark atmosphere,{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=94–97}} the track observes a New Jersey gang member known as the Magic Rat, who escapes law enforcement in [[Harlem]] with his unnamed partner referred to as the "barefoot girl". Towards the end, the Rat and the girl's relationship has broken apart; she leaves him, and he is killed in the streets.{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2007|pp=44–45}} The Rat is gunned down by his "own dream", symbolizing, in Masur's words, that "the runaway American dream will kill us in the end, and the dream of escape is just another version that entraps us".{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=91–93}} Following his demise, destruction continues across the streets until they are left in complete devastation.{{sfn|Carlin|2012|pp=202–203}} Over nine minutes in length,<ref name="FarOut" /> the track is led by Springsteen's vocal, Bittan's piano, and Suki Lahav's violin,{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2020|pp=94–97}} and features an extended saxophone solo from Clemons that lasts for over two minutes.{{sfn|Masur|2010|pp=91–93}}
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