If you pressed play on The Boroughs Season 1 and quickly found yourself wondering, “What is up with the Bruce Springsteen and ‘Thunder Road’ of it all?’ You are certainly not alone.

**Spoilers ahead for The Boroughs Season 1, now streaming on Netflix**

As noted above, the series — which stars Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Geena Davis, and Bill Pullman just to name a few — repeatedly makes reference to “The Boss,” and to the first song off his breakthrough album, Born To Run. “Thunder Road” is first heard by Sam (Molina) during the tragic scene where his wife (Jane Kaczmarek) falls to the floor from a stroke. From that point on, however, it continues to come back and haunt Sam as he spends his first few weeks in the neighborhood, so much so that he even chooses to sing it as a karaoke song in the penultimate episode.

But why this song, you might still be asking? Well, for co-creators Will Matthews and Jeffrey Addiss, it could not have been more perfect for what they were trying to say and do with the series, especially since the song has seldom been used in television and film.

“Well, partly because it had never been done before and everyone thought we were crazy for trying. ‘Thunder Road’ has never been used in any show or movie specifically. Bruce, in general, is very hard to get and so everyone thought that that was nuts,” Matthews told DECIDER in a sitdown interview. “But also, everyone agreed it was the perfect song. We needed a song that could be emotional enough in [Episode] 7 with the karaoke scene in The Manor, and also just cool enough to be playing while you’re cooking dinner and hanging out with your wife. Bruce can do both of those things.”

Matthews added, “We also needed a song that the minute you hear the first couple notes, you hear that harmonica, you know what’s going on. We needed something that iconic.”

To the pair, it also made all the difference to highlight an artist whose work is so prolific that it could “appeal to multiple generations at once.” Matthews said that, like Jena Malone’s character in the show, it was his own father who introduced him to Bruce and that he hopes the show does that for families everywhere, too.

Of course, there’s also the not-so-small fact that they needed the song to be (as the kids might say) a bop but also meaningful and emotionally driven. For a show that follows a group of overlooked senior citizens in a retirement community, it could not be a more perfect nod to the journey that the characters embark on. “The song just fit. It’s about reaching for something,” Addiss added.

We couldn’t agree more and we predict everyone’s Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year will reflect just how much of an impact it made.

The Boroughs Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.

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