Finish the lyric from 'Born to Run': 'Tramps like us, baby, we were...'

The lyric from Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” finishes with “born to run.” The line summarizes the song’s central idea of escape, movement, and freedom.

Springsteen wrote and recorded “Born to Run” for his 1975 album of the same name. The track was produced by Mike Appel and Springsteen and features a dense arrangement with saxophone, piano, organ, guitars, bass, and drums. Clarence Clemons’s saxophone solo is one of its defining musical features.

The song presents young lovers imagining a way out of restrictive surroundings. Its characters are fictional, but its imagery of highways, cars, and nighttime escape became closely associated with Springsteen’s public identity and with American rock songwriting.

The chorus is easy to recognize, yet the final phrase is sometimes shortened to “born to run” without the preceding “we were.” The complete lyric is “baby, we were born to run.” The single became Springsteen’s first Top 40 hit in the United States and helped establish the album as a major rock landmark.