The band Bruce Springsteen said “ushered in an entire world”
Most artists remember the moment when they were converted into a music fanatic. There may have been a few major tunes made before they had gotten started, but hearing one special band, one song, or even seeing one performance is usually enough for any potential musician to feel the ground shake beneath their feet whenever they laid ears on an artist. Bruce Springsteen could justifiably be considered one of those musicians, but before Born to Run was even a thought in his head, ‘The Boss’ thought the entire world changed when The Beatles debuted for the first time.
Because before the Fab Four came along, rock and roll was still in its first major movement. There were still groups that became big stars, but the focus was usually on just one member of the group, whether that was Elvis Presley shaking his ass, Little Richard screaming his brains out, or Chuck Berry pumping out guitar licks.
It’s not like Springsteen wasn’t a rock fan before The Beatles came along. He often spoke about how he learned his first Chuck Berry licks secondhand through Keith Richards, and when he first started making Born to Run, he wanted to make his voice sound like Roy Orbison, the same man who inspired John Lennon to write ‘Please Please Me’ after hearing the track ‘Only the Lonely’.
While it’s one thing for the group to start gaining traction in England, it was a different world when they descended upon the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1964. The reception of their arrival at JFK airport was already a frenzy before they played a note of music, but as soon as Paul McCartney counted off ‘All My Loving’ on their first TV appearance, fans were getting their first major look at the group that would change the face of the genre.
Aside from their look, Springsteen thought that The Beatles were responsible for bringing something completely different to rock and roll, telling Rolling Stone, “The Beatles ushered in an entire world that we’re living in right now. They created a culture that didn’t exist previously. The Beatles had a broader conceptual purpose and a sense of themselves. Artists like The Stones wouldn’t felt that was too pretentious for themselves. Everybody’s gotta take a moment and kneel down in front of The Beatles.”
Even with over half a century since that first show, that new world that Springsteen is talking about hasn’t stopped since. When going back at listening to albums like Revolver, Sgt Peppers or Abbey Road, people are still pulling notes from the way that the group constructed their tunes, whether it was the thinly veiled allusions to drug culture, the abnormal ways of recording or willingness to make something that they hadn’t heard before.
It’s not like that influence is lost on Springsteen, either. Considering that his best album involves a sweeping epic track to close out everything, you know that ‘Jungleland’ would never have existed if a song like ‘A Day in the Life’ hadn’t paved the way for it a decade prior.
Considering the way the music world has shaped up, The Beatles’ music feels more omnipresent rather than a standard musical inspiration. Even if an artist says that they hate the group with every fibre of their being, there’s still a good chance that they like an artist inspired by them.
