Watch Four Decades of Bruce Springsteen Singing "Thunder Road"

"Thunder Road"—released on 1975's Born To Run—wasn’t just the first track on Bruce Springsteen’s breakout album, it was a song that put the young musician on the road to rock stardom. Since then, Springsteen has gone on to release 15 studio albums and become a music legend, but he’s never left "Thunder Road" behind. Over the past four decades, the song has become a staple of both his live shows and television performances, and remains a fan favorite to this day.

As Springsteen’s music has evolved over the last 41 years, so too has "Thunder Road." To showcase the ways in which the song has changed over time, filmmaker Phil Whitehead has created a supercut of Springsteen singing "Thunder Road" at venues around the world from 1975 through 2016. Somehow, Springsteen manages to transform the song into something completely new in each performance: Sometimes it’s melancholic and low key, others upbeat and optimistic; in some performances, Springsteen transforms the classic song into a slow ballad, while in others he shouts the song hoarsely, turning it into an angry anthem.

By focusing on the same song over the course of four decades, the supercut puts Springsteen’s versatility on full display, and shows that even if "Thunder Road" ain’t that young anymore, the rock anthem has lost none of its original power. Check it out above.

[h/t Slate]

Banner Image Credit: Phil Whitehead, Vimeo