Five musicians who hate Bruce Springsteen with a passion: “He’s definitely ripped me off”
For starters, if he’s a man of the people, then why is he called ‘The Boss’? Surely, the co-worked or commerade would be more fitting? Alas, Bruce Springsteen seemingly thought otherwise, and that’s just one of the many reasons some of his peers consider him “contrived”.
Jokes aside, while he is hailed by many as the salt of the earth poet of heartland rock, there are a few folks out there who deride him as phoney.
Since arriving in 1973, Springsteen has cemented himself as a star in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll history—a rare figure worthy of being hailed as “amazing” by none other than Paul McCartney. Beyond the hooks and the fist-pumping energy in his balladeer tunes, there is a hint of the true America. That might not always be pretty, but Springsteen has always had the heart not to pull any punches.
At least, that is how some people see it. There are others who look upon his red, white and blue rock as hammy pastiche. While Springsteen might lament the continued misreading of ‘Born in the USA’, for the naysayers, it is easy to see why it continually gets clobbered in with soppy nationalism. These foolhardy folks view The Boss as corny and crass, like sonic double-denim.
We’ve assorted the folks who have sported these opinions and delved into their daring opinions. For a man who has sold almost 150million albums, he’s obviously got something going, but the likes of Randy Newman and Keith Richards clearly feel that public approval is hardly a stamp of class.
Five musicians who hate Bruce Springsteen:
Keith Richards
Keith Richards has never been afraid to criticise a friend; he made that much clear when he said Mick Jagger has a “tiny todger”, and while he did quite belittle The Boss’ manhood, he did declare in his autobiography that “If there was anything better around, he’d still be working the bars of New Jersey”. Perhaps, like McCartney, he was peeved with his peer for encouraging “indulgent” overlong rock shows.
But his criticism didn’t stop there. In a chat with Rolling Stone, the guitarist added, “Bruce? That’s a tough one, because I like the guy. But the music…I don’t know. I’m the toughest taskmaster of all time. I’m going to annoy a lot of people. Bruce? To me, it’s pretentious”. In Richards’ view, if you’re setting out to change the world with your music, you may need to adjust your grip on reality before you get going with four chords.
Is Keith Richards without fault when talking about how to approach rock music? No. But despite this, he has deemed himself the arbitror of what is and isn’t rock ‘n’ roll. Meaning that Springsteen isn’t the only member of the royal musicsal table to take abeating. And there’s some solace in that, at least.
Randy Newman
“I admire Prince,” Randy Newman proclaimed in an interview with David Sheff. “Even if it’s babyish sex stuff, he’s saying something. I prefer him to Springsteen—to almost anybody else, in fact. He tries new things. He’s brave.” Now, coming second to Prince is no embarrassment to anyone, the little Purple One is a certified maestro who Robert Plant famously said was second to none, but Bruce Springsteen couldn’t quite settle for second—Newman was simply geering up to knocking him a few pegs lower than that.
The ‘Short People’ singer scathingly added: “Springsteen’s all right, but I’m not one of the converted. I hear that as a performer, he’s the best in the world. I hear that from people who never liked him that much before they saw him. And, by the way, I loved Nebraska. I don’t think Springsteen as a writer can shine Prince’s shoes. They’re not even in the same league. Springsteen’s not in the same league as Stevie Wonder musically.” So, perhaps it isn’t quite hatred that Newman heaps upon his counterpart, but at the very least, it is a notion of ‘overrated’ indifference.
When you consider the music Newman makes, and the general geniality he makes it wiht, it is difficult to think of the songwriter sitting at his desk, probably playing wiht his toy Woody and Buzz, cursing Springsteen. But the image is more fun than the reality, so we will stick with it.
Todd Rundgren
“Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theatre, I saw rock ‘n’ roll past flash before my eyes,” Jon Landau once wrote. He had been trying – and failing – to write music himself and was growing weary in his role as a critic, so he went to a gig searching out inspiration. “And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen,” he went on. “And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time”. Landau soon became Springsteen’s manager and the rest is history.
History is a pertinent term because Todd Rundgren thought Springsteen represented music’s death by “nostalgia“. As he explained: “Even though Bruce Springsteen would represent them as still being real, the iconography was still out of the ’50s, you know? It was switchblades and leather jackets and motorcycles and that sort of junk“. The producer wasn’t impressed by what he saw as pantomime rather than invention.
“It was also so annoying to me personally that Bruce Springsteen was being declared the saviour of rock and roll,“ he told Billboard. “You know, he was on the cover of TIME magazine, and I thought, ‘this music is going nowhere’. He may represent the image that people want, but from a musical standpoint, it’s going backwards“.
John Lydon
While the list of artists who love Springsteen would likely feature praise for his narrative songwriting style, John Lydon took the opposite approach and tore into him for tall tales with about as much energy and purpose as a mid-season soap show. Speaking on a talk show in 1988, he made that very clear. “I don’t like that Bruce Springsteen type of noise,” the former Sex Pistols man declared.
In the past, the punk band even had a run-in with Springsteen that forced him to flee the building to get away from their wind-up antics. If it wasn’t clear then that Lydon had little respect for The Boss, it was when he commented, “I just find it really boring. You know, when they’re just telling this banal story that you’re not very interested in”.
If Springsteen was upset about the comments, there are two things that will likely provide a great salve for him. Firstly, Springsteen was always much more a fan of The Clash and Joe Strummer than Lydon’s Sex Pistols. And, secondly, Lydon could walk into an empty room and end up choking himself in an argument.
Van Morrison
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but Van Morrison thought of it more like flatulence when he accused the New Jersey rocker of ripping him off. “I have my own preferences for music and my own albums that I play,” Morrison told New Age. “So I’m not really influenced by what the media are running through. For years, people have been saying to me, ‘Have you heard this guy Springsteen? You should really check him out! I just ignored it’.” He’d soon get to the bottom of why he’d been subconsciously putting him off.
”Then four or five months ago I was in Amsterdam, and a friend of mine put on a video. Springsteen came on the video, and that was the first time I ever saw him, and he’s definitely ripped me off,” the Astral Weeks star commented, evidently peeved by Springsteen, who is indeed a fan. ”There’s no doubt about that,” he continued. ”Not only did Springsteen…I mean, he’s even ripped my movements off as well. My seventies movements, you know what I mean?”
Morrison might have a point here. Springsteen has certainly taken some points of interest from Van Morrison’s style, but if Van wants to pretend that was all his own style in the first place then he can do so while I call him a “liar, liar pants on fire” repeatedly.
