Bruce Springsteen "Born To Run" Isolated Vocals

One of the things that we can learn from isolated tracks is what works in the context of a particular hit record. The reverb, compression, performance, and production all make a big difference in how we ultimately perceive the song. That's why this week's isolated track, the vocal on Bruce Springsteen's breakout "Born To Run," is so cool, since it readily exhibits all of those things. Here's what to listen for.

1. The vocal is very compressed, but it's not sibilant. What happens is that we can hear every breath and it just raises the passion of the performance. We might cut out those breaths today in a DAW (as is the norm), but we'd lose a lot of what really makes the performance work.

2. The reverb is delayed, long and dark. Once again, that's probably not what we'd add today since this sound is not in vogue at the moment, but it works very well here. You don't hear it in the track as reverb, and that's what reverb does many times - it just adds glue and a sheen to the mix.

3. Bruce doesn't double track his vocal until the end at 4:02, unlike so many other vocalists and songs of the time. He comes across pretty well without it though. In fact, when the doubling does occur on the outro it's rather startling. You could see how it wouldn't work in any other part of the song.

4. Listen for the not-so-obvious vocal punch at 1:21 where a breath is cut off, and the overdubbed count only on the left side at 3:05 before the last verse.

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