The Israeli roots of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run'

Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run may have Jersey grease fueling its romantic rumblings, but there’s also some Israeli blood, sweat and tears pumping through the album’s iconic songs – thanks to Louis Lahav.In his tender 20s, the veteran Kfar Saba-based producer found himself at a pivotal point in rock & roll history as the house recording engineer at 914 Studios in Blauvelt, New York, about 20 miles outside of New York City.

It was there in 1974 that Springsteen, fearful of losing his contract with Columbia Records after releasing two sterling – but poorly-selling – albums, arrived to record a song that would make or break his career.“Everyone knew what was at stake with Bruce’s next album and it all centered on the title song ‘Born to Run,’ Lahav told The Jerusalem Post this week, marking the 45th anniversary of the release of the album, which is regularly slotted among the top 10 best of the rock era.“We worked for six months just on the song, back and forth with different arrangements, overdubs. Bruce kept rewriting the lyrics. I was there late at night with him when everyone else had conked out and gone home. I stuck with him, I had been a paratrooper in the army and had this boundless energy, so Bruce always used to kid me about it.”