I don’t see Bruce making BITUSA to begin with if he’s not a success in 1975, because I don’t see him getting that far without the 1975 success…but maybe I misunderstood the question. This reply is a little late. I suppose if he somehow made BITUSA in 1984 anyway it would still be a success, yes, but stuff like “Glory Days” was obviously his response to stuff like John Mellencamp anyway, and Mellencamp only happened in the first place because of Springsteen. I was always told Born To Run was a “make it or break it” album, he did the whole “Bob Dylan writing, Phil Spector producing, Roy Orbison singing” formula in the first place because he badly needed a hit.