Fans of Bruce Springsteen know that the making of the seminal rock and roll album Born To Run was arduous. In Tonight In Jungleland, by Peter Ames Carlin, we get the gritty details of how Bruce and his band worked to the bone to make the album that would catapult Springsteen into stardom (and then a few albums later, into super-stardom).
The writer had access to the band and to the tapes, and to some documentation from the recording studio, giving this account of the making of a single album a depth that few other accounts get at. We see Springsteen struggling to find the narrative line between songs, sitting deep in thought for long stretches of time, working through the musical elements. Then, being overcome by deep doubt (even tossing the master acetate into a hotel pool in frustration), before realizing the masterpiece that the album is now seen as, by many.
Even if you are not a fan of Bruce, this portrait of a rock and roll musician as an artist working on their art is worthwhile, at least to me.
Peace (in the mix),
Kevin