“Still, today, underrated”: The star Bruce Springsteen called Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley combined
Bruce Springsteen has done more than enough to be considered a legend in his own right, but despite his musical innovations, he often gets most closely compared to a lot of artists who had been prolific within the music industry long before he had his big break. The Boss frequently receives comparisons to the likes of Bob Dylan for their parallel lyrical mastery, and musically takes cues from blues and rock and roll artists from the 1950s and ‘60s, despite having not released his first studio album until 1973.
This means that despite being regarded as being on the same level as these older legends of music, he would’ve been considerably younger than them when brushing shoulders with the giants who he looked up to. Given this, when he shot to success in the mid-1970s, it would have been a surreal experience for him to find himself performing on the same level as the people he had once considered his musical idols.
However, there was one idol who he considered to be leagues above all of the others he had once admired, and the experience of sharing a stage with this individual was something that he felt was incomparable to performing with any other big names. In a 2012 keynote speech that he delivered at SXSW Festival, Springsteen recounted how he was invited to share a stage with James Brown, someone whom not only he considers to be among the most formidable performers of all time, but someone whose legacy is celebrated by millions.
Discussing how he felt almost embarrassed to be booked to perform at a show after the King of Soul, he jokingly said to the audience: “Oh, yeah, can you put me in the schedule somewhere after James Brown? Fuck, no. Get out. Go home. Save it. Don’t waste it, man.” Further elaborating on his encounter with the enigmatic funk legend, he said that it was a surreal and unexpected moment to have been welcomed onto the stage to: “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Mr, Mr. “Born in the USA,” adding that he found the manner he was addressed in to be amusing. “I realised he didn’t know my name, so I ran my ass up there as fast as I could.”
“I can’t tell you, man,” Springsteen elaborated. “Standing on stage alongside of James Brown…it was like, ‘Fuck, what am I doing here?’” Clearly awestruck by the entire situation, Springsteen extolled the virtues of the soul singer even further, claiming that his talents were an amalgamation of some of the finest performers to have ever lived, all rolled into one individual.
“He’s such an influence,” he continued. “James Brown, underrated, still, today, underrated. He’s, He’s Elvis. He’s Dylan. Dylan from whom I first heard a version of the place that I lived that felt unvarnished and real to me.” While there’s more of an understandable crossover between the works of Elvis Presley and James Brown, considering the entrancing nature of their live performances, Springsteen’s link between Brown and Dylan feels a little more unusual, but there was plenty of good reason to compare the two.
Brown is often praised more for his vocal acrobatics and charisma than he is for his songwriting capabilities, but as far as Springsteen is concerned, there’s something comparable between him and Dylan for the ways in which they wrote lyrics that reflected the state of contemporary American society. Considering how Springsteen has always excelled at doing this as well, it’s understandable how he has drawn a significant amount of influence from Brown as both a performer and songwriter, and therefore, to refer to him as Elvis and Dylan all rolled up into one being is perhaps the highest praise one could give.
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