That Time When A Deejay Lobbied For Born To Run to Be the New Jersey State Anthem – IOTW Report

That Time When A Deejay Lobbied For Born To Run to Be the New Jersey State Anthem

Sunday, 6 February 2022, 21:00 BFH Uncategorized 43

I was just in the car and Springsteen’s Born To Run was playing. I haven’t heard it in awhile. I don’t know why I thought of this, but I remember a DJ in the New York tri-state area named Carol Miller who was a rabid Springsteen fan. It seemed like it was more than just the music, she seemed to worship the guy, if you know what I mean.

In 1979 she lobbied hard to get “Born To Run” to become the New Jersey state anthem.

I wasn’t even allowed to vote yet (not that this was up to a vote, just illustrating how young I was and not yet thinking civically) and this petition seemed idiotic. It seemed like a movement that would be started by a high school student, not a woman nearly 30 years-old.

Am I saying that a rock n’ roll song is a bad candidate for a state anthem?

No.

This is what I am saying –

In the day we sweat it out on the streets
Of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through the mansions of glory
In suicide machines
Sprung from cages on Highway 9
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin’ out over the line
Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back
It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we’re young
‘Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run
Yes, girl, we were

Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend
I wanna guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs ’round these velvet rims
And strap your hands ‘cross my engines
Together we could break this trap
We’ll run ’til we drop, baby, we’ll never go back
Oh, will you walk with me out on the wire?
‘Cause, baby, I’m just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta know how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
Babe, I want to know if love is real
Oh, can you show me

Beyond the Palace, hemi-powered drones
Scream down the boulevard
Girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in the mist
I wanna die with you, Wendy, on the street tonight
In an everlasting kiss

The highway’s jammed with broken heroes
On a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight
But there’s no place left to hide
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh, someday, girl, I don’t know when
We’re gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go and we’ll walk in the sun
But ’til then, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run

Oh honey, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Come on with me, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run

~~~~~~~~~~

I thought to myself, “why would the state want to be honored by a song that talks about trying to get out of the “death trap”?

Seemed like she wasn’t really thinking it through. BUT! The joke’s on me. She was right. If you’re in New Jersey right now, RUN!

To be fair, New Jersey is a beautiful state, and like a lot of beautiful states, they are ruined by leftist governance. In the words of that unwittingly prescient moron, Bruce Springsteen, “baby this town rips the bones from your back.” And the money from your wallet, too.

43 Comments on That Time When A Deejay Lobbied For Born To Run to Be the New Jersey State Anthem

  4. In Art Explorers, back in the day, one guy there dominated our weekly get togethers with non stop Bruce Springsteen on his boom box. He voted himself DJ and I’ve hated Springsteen ever since.

    12

  5. If you take the politics out, NJ is a great place. Long Beach Island in the summer, the best pizza anywhere, diners, bagels, pork roll…. Pretty crowded, and plenty of lefties, but there are a lot of decent people.

    6

  7. @hUNTER
    I have spent a little time in various parts of Joisey.
    Once you get away from the cities it’s fairly nice. Lot’s of small towns with the “Bedford Falls” look and feel.
    Just like everyplace else, the cities give the state the bad reputation.

    7

  13. Rich

    If you don’t think Bon Jovi’s a Libtard you got rocks in your cabesa. Matter fact, how ironic, both Brucey and Bon Jovi were busted in the same scam trying to claim agricultural irrigation pricing for water on their half acre mansions. Look it up. It’s true.

    7

  14. Fuck Springsteen. Didn’t care for him back in the day, absolutely despise him now.

    And I was in NJ briefly back in 1986. The groundwater after the rain was purple with an oily sheen, for some unknown reason. Never had reason to go back since.

    7

  17. Never knew there was a “Wendy” in that song. I grew up with Punk. I have no idea who half these people are you guys talk about.

    Hell, I just found out last week from that….fug…whats’ his name.. Neal Young. That dudes a Canadian. Had no idea. Why would I know?

    ..
    .
    .Anyway…..anybody got number for Wendy?

    2

  19. Brad, in none of my comments, did I say or even imply that Bon Jovi was not a lib. There is Uncle Ted, Alice Cooper, and maybe Kid Rock on one side, then all the other musicians on the other, that is just a given.

    Since I don’t live in NJ, I don’t get a vote, but if I did I would prefer a Bon Jovi song over Springsteen, that’s all.

    4

  21. :driving down the 5 freeway in 1984:

    :Springsteen song comes on radio:

    “hhhurra thatch pork pie hatz muble dolo day..”

    :Me: “The fug?”

    :passager holds hands up, shrugs:

    :Radio: “MAYBE WERE BOOORRR TO RUUUUUB!!!”

    :ME: “GAH! GAH !GAHHHHHHH!!!!”

    :fumbles for tape, shoves in GERMS bootleg:

    :I AM FUMMBEL NURTZ BLARPHHH AMY NITRAAAAAAAAAA!!:

    :Me: “Ahhhhhhh, that was a close one”

    2

  22. Rich Taylor
    I got ya. I grew up with Spingsteen. Doing shit I shouldn’t have been doing. And later on in life I find out he’s a total Libtard. Am I suppose to some how readjust all those memories? Can’t do it. Which brings us to Yellow Stone. Every actor in that show is a Libtard even though the presented subjected matter is not. I’m tired of this shit and will continue to enjoy Yellowstone.

    4

  24. OT, but how about the IOTW community pledges to not have one single Olympics thread in the next 2 weeks?

    Between America’s number one enemy in the world, China, and those bootlicking NBC hosts who can’t get enough Xi Jinping horn, they will not get one minute of my viewing attention.

    Yes, I know I just broke my own rule, and as punishment, I will listen to a Springsteen song on youtube.

    9

  26. “OT, but how about the IOTW community pledges to not have one single Olympics thread in the next 2 weeks?”

    I can’t even find anyone that watched the opener. But all media reports it was a disaster. We have at least 5 so called “American Athletes” that couldn’t make the American teams that have opted to represent and compete for the Chocoms. What’s the punishment for that? I say stay there.

    3

  29. Most of Springsteen’s lyrics are pretty bleak. Badlands, Born To Run. Must be from living in NJ.

    This one:

    Had a wife and kid in Baltimore Jack
    Went out for a drive and I never went back

    Bad stuff. Did he ever sing anything positive?

    Problem with classic rock: full of fear, anger, dope, insanity, and oversexed…takes messed up souls to write and sing that stuff.

    The woman DJ who wanted Born To Run to be the NJ State song said she is also a big fan of Led Zeppelin…one of their famous lyrics: Deep Down inside…you…need… LOVE…followed by grunts and moans…a horny 16 yr. old boy’s thoughts and dreams.

    We could have done without all that crap.

    5

  32. @Brad

    If I had a steady diet of taters, I’d feel bleak too.

    (Actually, as I understand it, their diet wasn’t just potatoes, but that they grew potatoes to export to England, and the potato blight ruined that export market).

    I suspect, like the Scots, they ate lamb innards, and when those were not available, they just got drunk on Irish whiskey and Guiness.

    2

  34. @TimBuktu
    You miss the point. Through out history a lot of songs reflected the struggles people went thru. If you want to attack Brucey for being a Libtard that’s fine. But the argument, attack, you present is ridiculous. My God man, if you play a country song backwards you get your double wide back. And your dog and your wife.

    3

  36. :note to self, “criticize Springsteen to make Brad cry”:

    Anyway, excellent point Wild Bill, state anthem by rock song. I’ll go first

    Arizona….James Gang funk #49

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