In many ways, Bruce Springsteen is the consummate American rockstar. While his enduring anthem, ‘Born in the USA’, ironically criticises the United States’ martial activity and treatment of veterans, he has a deep, burning love for his home country. Furthermore, Springsteen covers all bases as a dynamic showman, powerful vocalist, and important wordsmith.
The Boss’ comprehensive musical talent can be traced back to his three most crucial influences: Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. As it happens, the three artists entered the aspiring youngster’s life in that order. Having learned to loosen his knees to Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’, Springsteen realised his dream vocation while riding in the car with his mother.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in a past interview, Springsteen remembered a particularly romantic connection to an early Beatles hit. “The keeper was in 1964, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ on South Street with my mother driving,” he said. “I immediately demanded that she let me out. I ran to the bowling alley, ran down a long neon-lit aisle, down the alley into the bowling alley. Ran to the phone booth, got in the phone booth and immediately called my girl and asked, ‘Have you heard this band called The Beatles?’ After that, it was nothing but rock ‘n’ roll and guitars.”
The early Beatles material included mostly love-related lyrics, which inspired Springsteen’s romantic side. However, by the mid-1960s, the Boss became transfixed by Bob Dylan’s unique songwriting. By 1965, Dylan had all but abandoned his roots in folk to embrace an electric sound with a Beat Generation twist in his poetry. It was around this time that a young Springsteen first paid attention.
In 1988, Springsteen inducted Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whereupon he recalled another pivotal moment riding in his mother’s car: “The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’.”
Continuing, he observed the age-old argument over Dylan’s vocal talent or lack thereof. “My mother, who was – she was no stiff with rock and roll, she liked the music, she listened – she sat there for a minute, she looked at me, and she said, ‘That guy can’t sing,'” Springsteen smiled. “But I knew she was wrong. I sat there. I didn’t say nothin’, but I knew that I was listening to the toughest voice that I had ever heard.”
Dylan is no Luciano Pavarotti, but his voice had an ageless timbre that allowed him to impose a venturi of wisdom while delivering the words to classics like ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ from the age of 21. “It was lean, and it sounded somehow simultaneously young and adult,” Springsteen said of Dylan’s voice. “I ran out, and I bought the single. […] It was all I played for weeks.”
After wearing out his first Dylan single, Springsteen immersed himself in a couple of seminal albums during what became a coming-of-age moment. “He didn’t treat you like a child. He treated you like an adult. He stood back and he took in the stakes that we were playing for, he laid them out in front of you. I never forgot it,” Springsteen added in his autobiography. “Bob Dylan is the father of my country. Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home were not only great records, but they were the first time I can remember being exposed to a truthful vision of the place I lived”.