Bruce Springsteen: the “unremarkable” rock legend that never impressed George Michael
Every artist has a different way of approaching the live set. No one can make a living just copying what they have seen before, but if they can put some spectacle behind their original material, they will always have a home playing the stadiums of the world. Although George Michael rose to the top purely on the strength of the songs in Wham, he admitted that seeing Bruce Springsteen wasn’t as spellbinding as most people made him out to be.
Then again, it’s hard to really see Michael as being a casual fan of the heartland rockers. Wham had their own flirtations with social commentary on their pop hits like ‘Wham Rap!’, but his voice was always better suited to either love songs or heartache-inducing ballads like ‘Careless Whisper’.
While Springsteen could appreciate that kind of writing, it was far from his wheelhouse. There were still songs that tugged at your heartstrings, but not necessarily in the typical way. As he described the lost loves that made their way across the Jersey turnpike or the freedom of the open road, there was some unspoken truth between him and the listener that nothing that he was saying was bullshit. The stories he told could very well have happened, and when he sang them every night, it was borderline cathartic for any audience member.
If Springsteen approached his work with the band the same way a blue-collar worker did, Wham was the closest thing the pop sphere had to Beatlemania in the 1980s. And despite Andrew Ridgely having a firm partnership with Michael throughout their time together, there was no question that the singer was every bit the star of the group, complete with the bluesy soul voice that could cut through any backing track he put together.
And it’s not like Michael didn’t fashion himself as a songwriter on Springsteen’s level. He still understood what made tracks like ‘Born to Run’ work so well, and when sculpting his own tracks like ‘Everything She Wants’, he had just as much melodrama put into the story as ‘The Boss’ did on his tragic tales of romance.
Whereas Wham’s show was a massive party from start to finish, Michael was thrown for a loop when he first saw what Springsteen had to offer live, saying, “I’ve seen Springsteen twice now. I enjoyed the show, but I find it all very unremarkable compared to the reports. I suppose if you go along with the idea that it’s like going to church, it’s quite acceptable.”
But that allusion to going to church isn’t an exaggeration. What Springsteen talks about creating on that stage is nothing short of a religious experience for most fans, and when they hear him kick back into gear when playing the midsection of ‘Born to Run’ or the chorus of ‘Badlands’, it’s enough to make some of the most grizzled badasses in the world shed tears.
Even though they both have timeless tunes in their catalogue, Michael and Springsteen seem to be pulling from completely different experiences. Michael’s music has been about unpacking the layers of love in a relationship on albums like Faith, but Springsteen has always been about giving the audience a sense of hope within the span of a few minutes.
