Three title songs of Bruce Springsteen albums depict teenage sexuality. In "Born to Run" (1975), the speaker tries to persuade Wendy to have sex: "Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend." The song's sexual persuasion centers on the image of "hemi-powered" cars: "[...] strap your hands across my engines". Amidst the verbal, adolescent energy of the earlier "Blinded by the Light" (1973), a first risk of teenage sexuality arises when a boy complains he "caught the clap." Then "The River" (1980) addresses the ultimate risk of teenage sexual energy: "Well I got Mary pregnant, and that was all she wrote." With pregnancy, that energy is lost to adult responsibilities. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 22 May 2025)