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Born To Run (for office)? Presidential wannabe Chris Christie pens love letter to Bruce Springsteen

26 August 2015, 09:51 | Written by Laurence Day

Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run record has hit 40, and New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie has penned a love letter to mark the occasion.

Writing on Twitter, Christie was effusive in his dewy-eyed praise:

"In the summer of 1975, I was 12 years old, pitching on my little league all-star team and living the life of a soon to be teenage boy in the suburbs of New Jersey.

Bursting into my summer vacation came a bearded New Jersey twenty something with a big, burly sax player on the cover of an album entitled Born to Run. It took my breath away.

The music was exciting, dramatic and exhilarating. As a kid from Jersey it spoke to me. Bruce wrote of the places and the people I knew. He wrote about our hopes and frustrations. He gave voice to the suburban kids like me who were filled with dreams and doubts. He was one of us.

Later that fall he appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week. Not only was he one of us. He was a star. We all filled with pride.

The welcoming opening of 'Thunder Road' (my favorite Bruce song ever), the pounding rhythms of 'Night', the desire in 'She’s the One', and the operatic power of 'Jungleland' all surrounded the title song in near perfection.

Decades later as Bruce started to perform entire albums in the order the songs were laid out on the original album, I stood in the Count Basie Theater in New Jersey and experienced once again the genius of not only the songs individually but their relationship to each other in the album. It took my breath away again.

It is my desert island disc. It is the most powerful rock album of my lifetime. – Chris"

As Stereogum pointed out, Springsteen probably doesn't quite reciprocate those feelings...

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