There are few songs that I think of as personally empowering. And all of them have to do more with the age I first heard them than anything else. The short list is 'Sweet Thing' by Van Morrison and 'Born To Run' by Bruce. However, I would have to say that Phil Collins' Against All Odds is pretty damn good too. The songs are a lot more effective when you hear them on the radio. I think it is because you feel as if the cosmos has aligned at that very moment to tell you exactly how you should be feeling. And that feels good. You feel connected. I mean, it's not meant to be some dig deterministic/fatalistic plan that G-O-D has planned out for you. It's just that at that moment in time everything is aligned for you. Like the chick in "Silence of The Lambs." When she's screaming out 'American Girl' in her car. Now that is what I am talking about. Of course, she was about to be kidnapped to be used as a body suit, but who is to say that we don't experience the same thing.
As for the Bruce and Van songs - they represent completely different things. Sweet Thing is the commencement of a lengthy courtship alit on the wings of romantic notions. Born to Run is something entirely different. Although the romance is there it deals more with the notion of escapism. An idea that I think epitomizes Rock and Roll. However Rock may have been dissected by today's music critics (which, I believe, is the reason that rock is suffocating) there is always a desire to transcend, to move beyond the trappings into which we were born. The notion has its roots in the Blues, the desire for something more, something beyond the mundane.
Born to Run is simply the most distilled version of all these things: rebellion, desire, exile, escapism, transcendence, resignation, aspiration, hope, belief, faith, and love. It is the chance. The risk. It's the idea that it might not all work out but we'll leave that to tomorrow. Now, how often do we actually say that to ourselves in our lives?