Springsteen 'Born to Run' Manuscript Up for Auction

A handwritten working manuscript of Bruce Springsteen's 1975 hit "Born to Run" will be offered at auction on Dec. 5, with a presale estimate of $70,000 to $100,000, says Sotheby's. The seller wasn't revealed, but the document used to be in the collection of former Springsteen manager Mike Appel. Springsteen's thought process, written in blue ink on a sheet of ruled notepaper, looks like this: "This town'll rip the (out your) bones from yourback / it's a suicide trap (rap) (it's a trap to catchthe young) your dead unless / you get out (we gotto) while your young so (come on! / with) take myhand cause tramps / like us baby we were born to run."

There are also some words in the margins: "Wild" and "Angels" and a word that looks like "velocity," with the letter "t" in Springsteen's curlicue cursive. "Although Springsteen is known to have an intensive drafting process, few manuscripts of 'Born to Run' are available, with the present example being one of only two identified that include the most famous lines in the song," says a Sotheby's description. (More Bruce Springsteen stories.)