Lou Reed Lyrics-32 – Baby, we were born to … (from “Street Hassle”) (Now Playing Week 12)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 breakthrough hit, the powerful and magnificent “Born to Run,” Springsteen repeats the phrase “Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run” several times throughout that song. The lyrics are dynamic, the delivery dramatic.   

Born to run away, born to run onwards

In “Born to Run,” Springsteen had shone a torch of glory on the gloomy world of American youth. In his view, the kids may have screwed up, but they can run away, run onwards, hopefully to a better life.   

Three years later, on “Street Hassle,” Lou invited Bruce to mutter a few lines of spoken verse, ending with the above lyric.

Born to pay

In Lou’s song, there is no glory; only sadness, sorrow, pain, and heartbreak. Not to mention meaningless sex and death.    

Unlike in “Born to Run,” there is no running from the bleak reality, there is no escape. As expressed in “Street Hassle,”  these “tramps”  have nowhere to run, and will have to “pay” for their screw-ups. Street Hassle, Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen …

Lou Reed, Anthology of Memorable Lyrics. _{Images sourced from Google Images}