"I was living in a small house in Long Branch, New Jersey, up the coast from Asbury," Bruce Springsteen's narration says over super-8 footage and photos in the opening moments of the 2005 documentary "Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run." "One day I was playing guitar on the edge of the bed working on some song ideas and the words 'born to run' came to me." Later in the film, Springsteen revisits his former home where he wrote the album's title track, and "Thunder Road" and "She's the One."
That small Long Branch cottage has just been listed for sale with Keller Williams Realty. The Realtor, Susan McLaughlin, remembers the Boss, like any longtime shore-dweller worth their salt water taffy. She lived across the street when Springsteen was a resident, in 1974 and '75, and says he was very much the local celebrity at the time. But although at 25 he'd already made two records, the ballad he wrote in this house, "Born to Run," was the one that would ignite his career.
The price for what could be called the ultimate Springsteen collectible is $349,000. The 1920 shotgun house is just 828 square feet with two bedrooms, a bath, living room and kitchen, front porch, back patio, and small fenced-in yard. But it's also got location working in its favor, being just one block from the beach.
There are three current co-owners, who bought the home in 2009 for $280,000, hoping to save it from being razed. But now the home's lone resident and co-owner, who is 32, is moving out because he's getting married and he says he is stumped about what to do next with the property, so he and his partners are looking for the next caretaker for this artifact of New Jersey's music history.
