(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Bruce Springsteen isn’t afraid of speaking truth to power in his music; though he isn’t necessarily considered a political artist, he has certainly talked about politics in various songs. His big hit, ‘Born in the USA’, is often mistaken as an anthem of patriotism, which many people use to look at their country with great pride. Springsteen, at times, does the opposite, and the artist he considers giving him a voice when it comes to writing music is someone he also dubs “father of my country”.
One of the main things seen throughout Springsteen’s career, whether you’re looking at the early days or now, is an uncompromising love for what he does. That’s most widely evidenced by the fact that he still tours so extensively. You don’t need to be a math genius to work out the man is rich and doesn’t stand to financially gain anything he doesn’t already have from touring; the runs of shows he does now come from loving to gig and play in front of his fans, and is representative of his positive attitude towards music as a whole.
That love for music and what it could do was sparked in Springsteen from a young age as he saw how easy it was to connect with artists who you have never met before. He first experienced this through the music of Bob Dylan, who he now calls the “father of my country”.
Though Dylan and Springsteen were not born in the same states, they had similar upbringings, both from working-class families in blue-collar towns. The Boss once said that he heard Dylan’s music and found that it spoke truth to Americans that other music wasn’t quite doing. Springsteen was inspired by the truthful vision that Dylan could give of what they both called home.
“Bob Dylan is the father of my country,” he said, “Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home were not only great records, but they were the first time I can remember being exposed to a truthful vision of the place I lived.”
When inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Fall of Fame, in his speech, The Boss recalled the first time he heard his music and what a transformative experience it was. He said: “The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. And my mother, who was – she was no stiff with rock and roll, she liked the music, she listened – she sat there for a minute, she looked at me, and she said, ‘That guy can’t sing.’ But I knew she was wrong, I sat there, I didn’t say nothing, but I know that I was listening to the toughest voice that I ever heard.”
You don’t have a career as extensive as Bruce Springsteen’s without loving what you do, and the power of connection and truth within music will significantly contribute to that love. It turns out it was initially realised thanks to Bob Dylan, and Springsteen still recognises it today.
