“I should be singing soul”: the Motown song that made Bruce Springsteen switch genres
Switching up one’s music style isn’t something that an artist takes lightly. It’s a heavy burden trying to carve out a style all your own, but when you start hearing what can be done if you put something new into the mix, it doesn’t take a true artist long before they start letting it seep into their new songs. Although Bruce Springsteen has normally been happy to embrace all flavours of rock and roll, most of his songs are driven by emotion rather than style.
Listening back to any of his classics, ‘The Boss’ approaches every one of his tunes with his heart first. Even if a tune like ‘Thunder Road’ was strictly spoken word and didn’t have those fantastic piano lines or saxophone outro, the lyrics themselves about searching for something better would have already hooked people in. They might not have known Springsteen’s life in New Jersey, but everyone knew what it was like to feel lost in their 20s.
And even on Springsteen’s best songs, there is always that yearning for escape. Darkness on the Edge of Town is a far darker record than Born to Run, and Nebraska gets even heavier when talking about people from the wrong side of the tracks, but there isn’t a single soul in one of his songs that isn’t thinking of finding something better for themselves, even if it means going past the point of no return.
But even if it’s a heavier listen, Springsteen is always a true romantic when he writes. He isn’t quite sure whether his story will have a happy ending when it finally comes to pass, but for all of those that end up wounded in the middle of a tune like ‘Jungleland’, Springsteen always has that sense of optimism, almost laughing through the pain when going through the hardest experiences of his life.
“I did have a record previously that I made of me singing other people’s songs that wound up on the floor.”
bruce springsteen
That romantic feeling may have come from rock and roll, but if you were looking for the best in the genre, Motown was the optimal place one thought of for success. Hitsville had made their living off of some of the finest love songs of all time, and when Springsteen discovered Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You’, he knew that he had found his calling in an entirely new art form than the one he started in.
When putting together his record of soul covers, Springsteen said that Wilson’s classic was the catalyst for him to start working in different styles, saying, “I did have a record previously that I made of me singing other people’s songs that wound up on the floor. It wasn’t until I discovered ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’ by Frank Wilson, the Motown rarity, and my voice slipped in perfectly that I realised, ‘I should be singing soul music.’”
Despite the tune itself having little in common with heartland rock, it’s easy to see what Springsteen saw in it. There are many pieces of it that read as objectively soul music, but they were never that far off from Springsteen’s signature vocal tone, especially when looking at the way the vocal moves alongside everything.
Then again, this song only proved that Springsteen was never that far away from soul music to begin with. Heartland rock may have had an identifiable sound that resonated with millions of people, but if Springsteen hadn’t been born with a guitar in his hand, he would still be singing some of the most emotionally gripping soul music ever conceived.
