The greatest rhythm guitarist of all time, according to Bruce Springsteen
No, Bruce Springsteen was meant to be the most complicated thing in the world.
Even though he followed in the footsteps of artists like The Beatles, The Boss’ strong suit was about setting pictures in the listener’s mind whenever he told a story rather than relying on some strange studio trickery to get his point across. A lot of his music was fairly straightforward by rock and roll standards, but the hard part is making those bare essentials sound new and exciting again every time that you make a record.
It’s not like Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town have a drastic change in sound, but if you listen to how the songs are presented, they are like night and day. Springsteen didn’t even have to change that much about his voice, but compared to the kid with stars in his eyes on a song like ‘Thunder Road’, that same kid talking about going to the outskirts of town and drag racing on a song like ‘Racing in the Street’ feels cold, lost and alone after watching all of his dreams pass him by.
And that’s all, while using the same standard cowboy chords that most people learn during their first few guitar lessons. For someone who has spent years making the best rock and roll ever conceived, Springsteen has said time and time again that he hates using barre chords, and when he can make the guitar ring out in a certain way, it gives him the same sense of power that most people would feel when they listen to old AC/DC records.
Then again, his lack of technique is probably why Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren do much of the heavy lifting. ‘The Boss’ was never one to make any drastic lead lines, but the rhythm playing that he does feels like a lost art half the time he performs. Because while so many guitarists can’t wait to play those blistering leads when they’re starting out, hearing someone keep great time is always a lot more impressive when working off the rest of the band.
That even applies to the bands with only one guitar as well. Eddie Van Halen is one of the finest guitar players that the world has ever seen, and yet when he talked about his own technique, he felt that he was sorely neglected as a rhythm player. He could lock in perfectly with Alex whenever the band performed live, but even for someone who had put in that many hours with a guitar, no one could have imagined the kind of fury that Pete Townshend had when he first pulled off the windmill strum.
Since Keith Moon was flying off the handle at every opportunity in The Who, Townshend really was the timekeeper half the time, and his sense of groove wasn’t lost on Springsteen, saying, “Pete is the greatest rhythm guitarist of all time [cheers]. He plays such incredible rhythm, and he showed you don’t have to play any lead. It’s an amazing thing to behold, really. Pete managed to take the dirty business of rock & roll and somehow make it spiritual and turn it into a quest.” And looking at how Springsteen worked, he was a kindred spirit to Townshend in many respects.
What The Who did on records like Tommy was all about expanding the palette of what rock and roll could do, and while Springsteen played by the rules a little bit more, every one of his records had the same spirit that Townshend had. Both of them believed rock and roll could move people, and listening to what Springsteen did later down the line, he proved that he could enact real change on records like The Rising, even with a handful of chords.
Because while everyone can poke fun at the simplicity of a lot of rhythm guitarists, everyone from Springsteen to Townshend to Keith Richards are cornerstone pieces of what rock and roll was supposed to be. It’s called ‘rock and roll’ for a reason, and while many guitarists have the rock part of that argument covered, you need that groove to make every single song roll nicely.
