“The best songwriter in the country”, according to Bruce Springsteen
For nearly 50 years, Bruce Springsteen has mesmerised audiences on the global stage, consistently selling out arena tours with his dynamic ensemble, The E Street Band. Old-school legends like Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Bob Dylan remain Springsteen’s most important career influences, but he’s no stick in the mud.
In the realm of songwriting, Springsteen is regarded as one of America’s finest, alongside the Nobel Prize-winner Bob Dylan. “Bob Dylan is the father of my country,” Springsteen proclaimed in his autobiography, Born To Run. “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”.
In 1988, Springsteen inducted Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “He was a revolutionary, man, the way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind,” he said during his speech. “And he showed us that just because the music was innately physical, it did not mean that it was anti-intellect.”
Springsteen continued: “He had the vision and the talent to expand a pop song until it contained the whole world. He invented a new way a pop singer could sound. He broke through the limitations of what a recording artist could achieve, and he changed the face of rock and roll forever and ever.”
The reason Springsteen was so able to deliver the sermon was that, for a large swathe of the country, he had become the successor to Dylan’s crown. Through a run of truly inspirational songs, in which Springsteen took up the role of the country’s defender, he was soon anointed as the champion of America’s working man.
If Dylan passed the baton to Springsteen, it appears that the baton now lies in the hands of esteemed singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey. In the star’s 2012 song ‘American’, she references one of her most cherished influences: “Springsteen is the king, don’t you think/ I was like, hell yeah that guy can sing.”
Springsteen played the song during an episode of his podcast, From My Home To Yours, and revealed his mutual appreciation. “She’s, uh, name-checking some guy from New Jersey in there. I’m not sure who,” he joked while introducing ‘American’. But the name-check would be enough for Springsteen to make a serious claim.
“She is from New York and was raised in Lake Placid,” Springsteen continued. “Lake Placid, a fabulous little American town where I have spent many a lovely summer evening with my children and my family over the years.”
“And Lana is simply one of the best songwriters in the country, as we speak,” he added. “She just creates a world of her own and invites you in. So a big favourite of mine, the lovely Lana Del Rey.”
Springsteen has rarely refused the opportunity to share his favourite singers and songwriters. While you might anger a whole generation by comparing Dylan and Del Rey, one thing cannot be denied: they both have the ability to not only please Springsteen but to define the American experience.
