The 1960s band who gave Bruce Springsteen the blueprint for success: “That’s every song I’ve ever written”
Bruce Springsteen‘s nickname, ‘The Boss’, had humble beginnings.
Given to him by his E-Street Band because he was the man who dished out the brown envelopes at the end of a week’s worth of shows, the singer soon lived up to his name in more ways than one. While he’s far away from ordering his bandmates around or docking their wages, he is certainly the one in charge, and that extends beyond his band, too.
Springsteen’s position as one of the best on-stage performers has been routinely reaffirmed over the years. His ability to deliver hours upon hours of fantastic shows has left esteemed acts like Paul McCartney in awe of his physical and emotional power. But you can’t produce such a long gig without having the material to get you there.
This is another facet in which Springsteen can be considered a chairman of sorts. With an impressive collection of records, Springsteen’s set is absolutely jam-packed with hits all the way from the 1970s to today. The songwriter has rarely failed to go many years without providing a sterling reminder of his brilliance in the form of a foot-stomping, barn-storming banger of a tune.
Having initially been inspired by acts like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Springsteen could easily have followed guitar-laden artists down to more folkish roots. However, the introduction of three ats would change his outlook and push him down a more rock and roll path. Of course, like so many his age, The Beatles would greatly influence Springsteen, changing his attitude towards music almost overnight. Another prominent figure was Elvis Presley, a performer who encouraged a six-year-old Springsteen to shake his hips at the black and white images on the screen. But there was another group who would have perhaps a more profound impact on Springsteen and certainly his songwriting.
What made those early influences so powerful was not just their sound, but the sense of possibility they carried. For a young Springsteen, music was not simply entertainment; it was a way out, a means of understanding the world beyond his immediate surroundings. The records he gravitated towards often carried a sense of urgency, stories that felt lived-in rather than imagined, and that grounded quality would become central to his own writing in the years that followed.
There was also a growing awareness of the kind of voice he wanted to develop. Rather than chasing technical perfection, Springsteen seemed drawn to artists who conveyed something real, even if it came wrapped in rough edges. That instinct would shape his approach from the outset, prioritising feeling over finesse and ensuring that, no matter how big the stage became, there was always a thread connecting his music back to those early moments of discovery.
The Animals are one of the more overlooked figures of the 1960s. Their preference for covering blues artists instead of writing their own material has meant they are usually forgotten when considering the heavyweights of the era. In a 2012 keynote speech for South By South West, Springsteen shared that while many people dismissed the group as just another British invasion act, for him, they were so much more: “The Animals were a revelation. The first records with full-blown class consciousness that I had ever heard.”
“‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’ had that great bass riff, that (playing the bass line), and that was just marking time,” he shared with glee before singing the track. Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, the song would not only shape a young Springsteen but often be considered the foundations of punk. When speaking to Songfacts, singer Eric Burdon noted: “I’ve always viewed myself as a punk. The Animals could have evolved that way. We had the energy and the anger, but we didn’t stick together. When the punk scene became commercial, I was all for the politics of the movement, but the music didn’t really stand up, and ultimately, it was self-destructive.”
For Springsteen, the song isn’t just a great one but is arguably the foundation of everything he has ever written, as he told those in attendance at the 2012 speech: “That’s every song I’ve ever written. Yeah. That’s all of them. I’m not kidding, either. That’s ‘Born to Run,’ ‘Born in the USA’, everything I’ve done for the past 40 years, including all the new ones.”
The Animals connected with a young Springsteen more than Elvis, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. This band offered something that he could really feel an affinity with: “It was the first time I felt I heard something come across the radio that mirrored my home life, my childhood. And the other thing that was great about The Animals was there were no good–looking members. There were none.”
For a young songwriter, this was a key moment of realisation, you didn’t need to be perfect to be a great artist: “That was good for me, because I considered myself hideous at the time. And they weren’t nice, you know. They didn’t curry favour, you know. They were like aggression personified. It’s my life, I’ll do what I want.”
When considering the widespread appeal of an artist like Bruce Springsteen, it can feel reductive to pinpoint certain artists or bands as huge influences. To try and encapsulate one mammoth creator with a single song or group feels a little trite, to say the least. However, if there might be considered one spark that lit the fuse for Bruce Springsteen, then it was Eric Burdon, The Animals and ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’ that is the brightly burning match.
