Bruce Springsteen Playing All of "Born to Run" in Chicago

A source close to Bruce Springsteen has confirmed what two Chicago newspapers (the Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune) are reporting: that Bruce and the E Street Band will perform their landmark 1975 album Born to Run in its entirety when the tour touches down at the city's United Center on September 20th.

It's unclear whether the band plans to do any full-album performances on other dates on the tour, like Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe and more bands have been doing recently. Last year Springsteen performed Born to Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town at a fundraiser show at New Jersey's Count Basie Theater (read Rolling Stone's report here). Earlier this year we asked E Street guitarist Steve Van Zandt what album he'd like to perform straight through. "It's gotta be The River," he said. "I'd want to include the outtakes on the Tracks collection. Then you have a hell of a show. You don't have to do anything else."

Completely unsubstantiated Internet rumors that should be taken with a huge grain of salt claim that Springsteen will do one album a night during his five-night stand at Giants Stadium this September and October. But in the off chance the rumors are true — and based on very little (but our Springsteen intuition) — we predict he'll do Greetings From Asbury Park, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, Born To Run, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Born In The USA.

Springsteen, who turns 60 in September, was recently asked by Italian Vanity Fair about his plans beyond this tour. "I think that the E Street Band will probably take a rest for a little while," he said. "But it all will happen again. We're lifers, we're gonna go on forever."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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