The artist Bruce Springsteen plays before every concert: “That keeps me honest”
Whether you’re walking out on stage in front of tens of thousands of people, or simply gearing yourself up to send a particularly important email, virtually everybody employs some form of ‘hype music’ in their day-to-day lives, and ‘The Boss’, Bruce Springsteen, is certainly no exception to that rule.
With a rich and illustrious career going back over half a century at this point, you would be forgiven for assuming that the rock and roll lifestyle is second nature to Springsteen by now. Contrary to his various contemporaries, though, the New Jersey native has always made a conscious effort not to get lost within the hedonistic trappings of that particular lifestyle.
Whereas other colossal stars of the same ilk might flitter their success away in a haze of drug-fueled arrogance, ‘The Boss’ has always tried to stay true to his origins. After all, his discography itself has always centred around ordinary, working-class tales, typically centred around his upbringing on the East Coast of America.
If, like many others, he had fallen down the trap of rock and roll hubris, those tracks and albums simply wouldn’t have the same impact. Authenticity is, and always has been, the root of Springsteen’s output.
That extensive maintenance of authenticity doesn’t happen of its own accord, though. “No matter who was out there, ten people or 10,000 people, there’s a lot to live up to,” the songwriter told Rolling Stone back in 1978, during the relatively early days of his stardom. Seemingly, though, not a great deal has changed during the intervening years.
“What happens is, there’s a lotta trappings, there’s a lotta things that are there to tempt you,” he explained.
Even during those early years, Springsteen was already making an effort to keep himself grounded, in spite of it all. Seemingly, he owes his continued sanity to the reassuring presence of one of his first rock and roll heroes: “I just try to…I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on,” he shared. Adding, “That keeps me honest.”
Buddy Holly was certainly an effective blueprint for songwriters of Springsteen’s generation, beloved by everybody from Paul McCartney to Bob Dylan. Aside from his incredible – if tragically short-lived – discography, which typified the first age of rock and roll, the power of Holly’s output lies in both his youth and unfaltering authenticity.
For a songwriter of barely 20, at his peak, to dominate the rock and roll landscape with such ease was essential in inspiring the next generation of songwriters to believe that they could do the same. What’s more, Holly never really subscribed to the theatrical arrogance of many of those early rockstars.
Holly was, in essence, just an ordinary, bespectacled young lad from Lubbock, Texas, in the same way that Springsteen was an ordinary young lad from Long Branch, New Jersey. So, as long as the pioneering sounds and, most likely, the tragic tale of Buddy Holly continue to ring through the songwriter’s mind, there is no danger of Springsteen losing sight of his roots.
