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I'm doing a series of articles on the ten songs/45s that were essential in former Springsteen as an artist. The list I'm considering right now is (with the first two already written):

Elvis Presley - Follow That Dream
The Beatles - Twist and Shout
Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
Roy Orbison - Only the Lonely
Mitch Rider - Devil With The Blue Dress On
Eddie Floyd - Raise Your hand
The Animals - It's My Life
Hank Williams - Mansion on the Hill
Woody Guthrie - This Land is Your Land
Pete Seeger - We Shall Overcome

With being a limited to ten a few essentials will no doubt be missing by the time I'm done. If there are any arguments as to why the list should change, I'd love to hear them. Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, the Kingsmen, Gary US Bonds seem to be missing most notably on this list so far. I might still swap some selections.
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Well, you NEED a Stones song for sure. I would attack your project from more of a genre angle. For instance, Elvis, Dylan, the Stones, and Beatles have to be included. Then, you need a folk song (this land is your land), a soul song (Sam and Dave), a protest song (War or We shall overcome), a garage song (Have love will travel/Devil with a blue dress/etc).

You have a very good list and it's a great idea, I would just watch out for repetitive type songs.
Repetitive type songs is exactly the type of trap I'm trying to avoid. Sam and Dave is a good suggestion, especially since they were featured heavily in his sets and Springsteen's various contributions to Sam Moore's career. I might swap them for Raise Your Hand. That one made the list to make the transition into his controversial preacher acts, a type of performance Sam and Dave had a better grasp on than Floyd anyway. On the other hand, I do think that Eddie Floyd was the entry point for Bruce into Southern Soul.
Originally Posted By: PhillyCalling
The Ronnettes over the Stones? Bruce would list the Stones ahead of all the artists you just mentioned.


I wonder though if the Stones are more of a preference and less of an influence. It seems that from the British invasion acts the Beatles and the Animals have been much more of a key element in the development of Springsteen. The endless amount of choices are killing grin
The Van Morrison influence is definitely there, but I'd say his vocal style was more an influence than any one particular song.

What about the Beach Boys? I know they were a bit poppier than anything Bruce has made... but cars, girls, teenage rebellion and Spector-ish arrangements abound in their stuff.

Don't Worry Baby, Wouldn't It Be Nice...
Here's my off the top of my head ten:

Elvis - Heartbreak Hotel
Beach Boys - Don?t Worry Baby
Roy Orbison - Only the Lonely or Crying
Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There or if you want a cover versus an original stick with Twist and Shout
Sam & Dave - Hold On I?m Coming
Animals - We Gotta Get Out of This Place
Gary US Bonds - Quarter to Three
Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land
CCR - Fortunate Son

 

"I've done my best to live the right way"

An extra note on Van Morrison. In Uncut this month, there is a feature from the 80's about how Van Morrison was slagging Springsteen off, he refered to him as a "monkey on my back" and said Springsteen was copying him and should be paying royalties!

I would also have C.C.R on that list. Maybe traveling band.
The sweetest songs don't last too long on Broken radios.
Originally Posted By: SoulBoogieAlex
Originally Posted By: smokeyjoe
Originally Posted By: PhillyCalling
The Ronnettes over the Stones? Bruce would list the Stones ahead of all the artists you just mentioned.


I don't think that's true.

Somebody needs to ask him.


It might be the Stones over the Ronettes, but Spector over the Stones if that makes any sense.

I'd love to ask him grin Got his number?


Since he choose to work and perform with Ronnie Spector
and has never to my knowledge performed with any of the Stones
I give Ronnie the edge.
There should be a Zombies song in there, NOT Time of the Season or Tell Her No or She's Not There, but one of the more fast Brit-pop ones. Right now I'm thinking of one called "She Does Everything for Me" but there's another one with killer Farfisa/B3 whirlwhind of a middle eight, that I can't for the life of me remember right now - it's pretty much the blueprint for most of 'Restless Nights.'

Zombies and Animals should definitely be in that list; for some reason I see both those groups as being more influential on Bruce than the Stones - the Animals sound is like the Stones sound but to me it has a much more punk sensitivity that would have appealed to Bruce.
I like the Zombies link there, but I must wonder if it has been as career defining as either the Kingsmen or Mitch Ryder. Garage and British invasion bands played a major role in his career, but I'm having great difficulty picking the career defining ones.

The same goes for Phil Spector. His approach was obviously a major influence, but what was the first single Bruce heard or the one that won him over. There it gets iffy. It might just be the broader perspective on Spector.

I also wonder how you all think about CarolJude's interesting question, can late career influences be considered as career defining. I know REM's At My Most Beautiful was a huge influence on Your Own Worst Enemy, maybe spawned from the VFC tour.
The Kingsmen? Because he played Louie Louie a couple of times 30 years ago?

Originally Posted By: SoulBoogieAlex
can late career influences be considered as career defining. I know REM's At My Most Beautiful was a huge influence on Your Own Worst Enemy, maybe spawned from the VFC tour.


You want to consider REM's influence on one song "career defining"?
Band like the Kingsmen and other Garage bands were a big influence in spirit, just like Spector was. Bruce always struck me as a performer in love with the myth of R&R, of a small time band making into the big time. There are many more examples of Bruce doing one of performances of classic Garage songs, none of them individually made a career defining impact, but taken together they did.

On Magic Bruce, in my opinion, has been very successful in merging the classic wall of sound and sixties pop with more present day influences. It could just be the influence of Brendan O'Brien. But I feel Magic has a very surprisingly updated sound, far less out dated than the Rising sounded.
The man talks sense. Back when Bruce was a tyke people were listening to singles and their b-sides, and as a veteran shopper of the wonderful old Memory Bank on Hillside in Jamaica I can tell you there is a motherlode of awesomeness contained on the undersides of the hits (but of course you all know this, too.) Certainly he had his stash of treasured LPs, but singles were cheaper and he and his friends certainly would have had a lot more of those.

Steve would have introduced him to bands like the Zombies, who I hear more of in the music than what could be considered 'similar' bands such as the Yardbirds and the Who (I'm speaking in very general terms here.) The Zombs had much more of a jazz influence and a very cool, crisp sound that I and you hear in River-era Bruce. To me, one almost pays more attention to the things that everyone else isn't hearing on a regular basis as opposed to the biggies of the day. Sure, you paid attention to the Beatles, but when you heard them in everyone's home, at everyone's party, then things off that beaten track would be more pronounced, less atmospheric/background. Subliminal vs. overt influence.

Elvis, of course, proves me wrong, but Roy was more influential IMO so maybe I'm still right.

I'm a little drunk right now.
I think what you all are after is the DNA of the music that influenced Bruce. Not necessarily specific artists. CJ is on the money with the time period and what was happening in R&R. The Duane Eddy guitar sound or the three chord progression from Berry. The party frat rock which spawned Sherry Darling / Living on the Edge of the World. Soul is apparent in Land of a 1,000 dances which style migrates itself into the horns and guitar work on E Street Shuffle. Sonically and lyrically Bruce aligns with the Kinks Ray Davies as well as the Zombies and Animals already mentioned.

I enjoyed reading the Highway 61 piece very nicely done.

→→→→→→→→→→→→→→←←←←←←←←←←←←←←

In the basement at St. Johns well I found her where she fell

Just another busted sister of Heartbreak Hotel

Interesting connection, in which way do you hear the who back in his music?

Meanwhile here's a nice little nugget Gino Washington's I'm a Coward. Not really a major influence but fans of the Tunnel of Love Express tour might recognize it as the template for Springsteen's I'm a Coward. The remarkable thing about this particular single is that was never a major or lasting hit. I'm a little at loss how Springsteen ever came across it.

These days its available on the excellent Norton compilation of Gino's singles Out Of This World.
The general sentiment is that Billy Joel has been ripping off Bruce Springsteen (and a lot of others) for years, but I've always felt there was a back and forth between the two and Joel didn't get enough credit. Sure, you could go back and say that Joel can't be considered an influence because all he was doing was ripping off others, but that's true for all musical acts. You can keep going backward with everything until you reach two cavemen banging rocks together. The problem with that is Bruce wasn't listening to them, but he was damn sure hearing Billy Joel constantly on the radio and from label executives who had to want Bruce to gain the same level of popularity. To me that's what influence is really about. It's not who was the first, it's who did something that made Bruce do something. Which brings me to the biggest release of Bruce's career.

His biggest hits on BITUSA are things and themes that Joel did on Nylon Curtain. Bruce took them and made the songs deeper (Deep Cheese would be an excellent name for a BITUSA bootleg, if any of the techfags are reading). If only for that, he deserves credit for influencing Bruce. And again, this is a direct influence. Joel releases NC and his popularity explodes. Bruce had to respond to that because it was a direct influence, and not simply some song he heard on the radio in his mom's car.

There's other stuff I'd like to mention (earlier in their careers, Nebraska/NC released same month, they're both from same region and era, etc), but it's time for me to go out.







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