According to Merriam Webster's Dictionary, transcendence is, “Extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience.”
Personally, it means to be better, to take part in something ethereal, to participate in a higher function. Show me someone who says they don’t want to improve their life and I’ll show you a dead soul. In Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” he touches on this fundamental longing for something greater in all of our lives.
The famous "wall of sound" establishes the mood of the narrative in seconds, and the first verse opens to display the protagonists’ situation and the despair he feels towards it. He describes working his tail during the day in the pursuit of an “American Dream” that is getting away from him.
He then describes driving at night in “...suicide machines,” and goes on to explain how the town he and Wendy live in is a “...suicide rap,” that breaks people's spirits. Springsteen, a man with an illustrious vocabulary, uses the word “suicide” twice in one verse, signifying that the protagonist feels staying in his current situation would be like giving up on life itself.
This is confirmed at the end of the verse by him stating that he and Wendy need to “...get out while they’re young.”
The second verse begins with the narrator pleading with Wendy to trust him, offering his friendship and love in return. He says that, “together we can break this trap,” again referring to their town and how it traps people in the monotonous cycle of living. He asks her to take what he knows is a big risk, comparing it to walking on a wire. He feels scared and alone, and because of this is seeking something new.
He wants to share in this journey and desire for transcendence with Wendy and spends the entire song trying to convince her of his love and his plan. He doesn’t know what life holds, but he wants to risk and wants to, “know if love is wild... I wanna know if love is real.”
After one of the most famous and impressive saxophone solos of all time, the narrator again describes his town and paints a picture of the “deathtrap” it is, insinuating he doesn’t want to live in the typical pattern set before him. He makes his desire for something more clear by saying he wants to, “die with you out on the street tonight in an everlasting kiss.”
After a musical explanation point emphasizes the previous lyric, the final verse succeeds in showing both the narrator’s hope and desperation for a better life. He talks about how everyone is on the same quest for fulfillment he is talking about, and how he and Wendy can make the journey with the power love, belief, and a bit of luck. He sounds extremely hopeful that they’ll make it to their destination, likening life to a journey, seeking out the ultimate destination of joy, love, and fulfillment.
The lyrical close of the song makes it clear that the narrator understands the end might be far off, but saying he and Wendy were, “born to run,” displays the narrator’s belief that this journey is the point of life, and as members of the human race we are born to take part in it.
