The 1965 song Bruce Springsteen called “one of the most powerful records ever made”
No one in music is more deserving of their nickname than Bruce Springsteen as ‘The Boss’. From the working man to the halls of power, Springsteen is loved by all, and it’s a testament to his status that in 2016 then-President Barack Obama quipped, “I am the President; he is the Boss,” before bestowing the New Jersey native with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This praise from the executive of the most powerful nation on Earth reflects Springsteen’s standing as one of popular culture’s most essential icons. His life is the stuff of legend, comprised of many soaring highs and crushing lows, a fascinating tale of personal discovery and the constant struggle to better himself.
His extraordinary life has imbued Springsteen’s work with a genuine authenticity that is unrivalled for an artist of his size. In many ways, his music is the ultimate artistic manifestation of the modern American experience, discussing real people and real issues without skirting around any subject, no matter how bleak they might be. In addition to this power, he is a genuinely endearing character, and those who aren’t fans of his music still have a deep respect for Bruce Springsteen as he always espouses candour in interviews.
There are many chapters of Springsteen’s career to delve into, from the raw intensity of 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. or 2020’s reflective journey through the past, Letter To You. His propensity to deliver a message without being too forthright or overbearing is remarkable, particularly considering how consistent he’s always been.
An absolute musical hero, who takes his cues from some of the best to do it, when Springsteen sat down with BBC Radio 4 for their flagship programme Desert Island Discs, he listed works by some of the all-time greats, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley.
His final choice came from one of America’s other finest songwriters, Bob Dylan – 1965’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’- with him labelling it “one of the most powerful records ever made”. His selection makes a lot of sense, as Springsteen is clearly one of the artists who followed in the wake of Dylan’s rise in the 1960s, with their many similarities between the lyrical angles of their work.
“This could be at the top of the list,” Springsteen said. “The first time I heard it, it came out of the radio. I didn’t know anything about Dylan’s acoustic music. I was a creature of top 40, so the first time I really heard him with this song, it just instantly started to change my life.”
For Springsteen, Dylan represented a completely different possibility for what popular music could achieve. Until hearing ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, rock music had largely existed for him as entertainment, something immediate and exciting but rarely literary or deeply observational.
Dylan’s writing showed that songs could carry the emotional and intellectual weight of novels or cinema while still retaining the visceral power of rock and roll. It is a revelation that can be traced throughout Springsteen’s own catalogue in the decades that followed.
The influence is particularly evident in Springsteen’s gift for populating his songs with vividly drawn characters searching for meaning in a changing America. Much like Dylan, he developed a style that balanced poetic imagery with grounded realism, allowing listeners to see themselves in his stories of ambition, escape and disappointment.
While Springsteen would eventually forge an identity entirely his own, there is little doubt that hearing ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ opened the creative door that led him there.
“‘Like a Rolling Stone’ feels like a torrent that comes rushing towards you. Floods your soul, floods your mind. Alerts and wakes you up instantaneously to other worlds, other lives. Other ways of being. It’s perhaps one of the most powerful records ever made, and it still means a great deal to me along with all of Dylan’s work.”
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