The guitarist Bruce Springsteen thought nobody could touch: “Spectrally beautiful”
He’s called ‘The Boss’ for a reason. When you go to a Bruce Springsteen show, you aren’t seeing a man live out his last years as a rockstar by clinging on to what remnants of live performance he has left. You are seeing a pro, a man who has spent the last five decades on the road, playing gigs, and is constantly learning from them. He is now the culmination of all he has learnt. Simply put, the best live performer in the world.
Of course, an artist like Bruce Springsteen doesn’t just pop out of thin air. In order to establish himself as the artist that he was, a number of people played a big part in inspiring him. As far as lyrics were concerned, he found himself moved by Bob Dylan and the honesty he portrayed throughout his words. However, when it came to instrumentation and his guitar playing, look no further than The Rolling Stones.
Many people say that most British bands from the ‘60s wouldn’t have made it big were it not for The Beatles. There might be an element of truth to this, as The Beatles didn’t just put British bands on the map but provided a blueprint of how British bands should market themselves to make it big overseas.
That being said, to suggest that the Rolling Stones wouldn’t have had any success in the States were it not for the Fab Four seems a bit unfair. Rock ‘n’ roll and R&B were already established and thriving genres in the US, which is what the Rolling Stones took much of their inspiration from. The sound of artists such as Muddy Waters is buried into their music, and subsequently, they would have likely found fans in the US regardless of whether The Beatles had made their way overseas or not.
Bruce Springsteen can certainly attest to the appeal of The Rolling Stones’ hard rock sound to people who loved R&B. When speaking about his favourite guitarists; he was quick to mention Keith Richards, who not only inspired the way he played the guitar but was also a significant factor in Springsteen learning the six-string in the first place.
“I’ve come across many spirit-filled folk in my travels,” said Springsteen when discussing meeting Richards for the first time, “But no one as spectrally beautiful as Keith Richards.”
Springsteen also spoke about using Richards’s music to learn how to play the guitar. “That night I went home, pulled out the second Rolling Stones album, put it on and taught myself Keith Richards’s simple but great guitar solo to ‘It’s All Over Now’,” he said, “It took me all night, but by midnight I had a reasonable facsimile of it down. Fuck ‘em, I was going to play lead guitar.”
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.