According to Springsteen, he came up with the title "Badlands" before he started writing the song. He felt it was a "great title" but that it would be easy to blow it by not writing a worthy song for it.

The riff is based on The Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." According to the editors of Rolling Stone magazine, the song "tapped into the ferocity of the punk singles he'd been listening to at the time."

The song tells the story of a man down on his luck and angry at the world, who wants a better lot in life.

Learned real good right now
You better get it straight girl
Poor man wanna be rich
Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
'Til he rules everything
I wanna go out tonight
I wanna find out what I got

These themes are similar to the motivations of Charles Starkweather who is the explicit protagonist of another Springsteen song "Nebraska", although there is no stated connection to Starkweather in this song.

On March 15, 2012, in a keynote speech to an audience at the South by Southwest music festival, Springsteen discussed the Animals' influence on his music at length, praising their harsh, propulsive sound and lyrical content. Saying that his album Darkness on the Edge of Town was "filled with Animals," Springsteen played the opening riffs to "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and his own "Badlands" back to back, then said, "Listen up, youngsters! This is how successful theft is accomplished!"

The classic E Street Band sound is immediately presented on "Badlands", as a brief drum intro kicks in to a powerful piano-and-electric guitar riff. The song is taken fast but with a purpose, with Max Weinberg's most dynamic drumming on the album to the fore; indeed it contains his most famous beat, a one-two-three-four-five-six-(double time)one-two-three pattern underneath the verses. Late in the song a brief guitar break leads to a Clarence Clemons tenor saxophone part.

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Wikipedia