Bruce Almighty

The Irish Times

1 June 2007

It might be hard to believe now, but there was a time when Bruce Springsteen was seriously uncool. As he releases his Live in Dublin album, recorded at the Point last November, Jim Carroll looks at how a New Jersey icon has become a towering musical influence again

Somewhere in deepest New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen is probably chuckling away to himself. Every time he goes into a record store these days - and he's still an avid music buyer by all accounts - he hears something on the sound system which reminds him of his own glory days.

It might be The Killers or The Hold Steady, Arcade Fire or The National.

Springsteen may well make a mental note to get his manager Jon Landau to talk to the label about re-releasing the back-catalogue. He continues browsing the racks for the new Four Tet CD.

It really does seem as if every new kid on the block at the moment has become a fully paid-up member of the cult of Bruce. Play any of Springsteen's classic 1970s albums, such as Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town , back to back with, say, Neon Bible, Boys & Girls In America and Sam's Town, and the similarities in the passion, drama and energy of the new school are there for all to see.

While songs such as Antichrist Television Blues and Chips Ahoy are clearly Springsteen-like in spirit and composition, his own songs about dreamers in dead-end towns, cars screaming towards the horizon and the other side of the American dream remain infinitely better.

Of course, there's nothing quite new about this kind of homage. While many Yankee rock bands gratuitously knocked off Born In The USA in an attempt to fill sheds and auditoriums, others went for the less obvious stuff in the Springsteen canon.



When you listen to the haunting, sparse, ghostly Nebraska, you can almost picture Will Oldham sitting on his porch in the twilight taking notes for I See A Darkness. It's apt then that Oldham, with the help of Tortoise, turned out the most spine-chilling version of Thunder Road you'll ever hear.

But what has changed on this lap of the tribute track is the sheer number of acts coming out of the indie-rock closet to tip the hat to Springsteen and The E-Street Band. You could say that even winsome harpist Joanna Newsom is getting in on the act, titling her new EP Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band.

Indie rock's constant need for reinvention was always going to end up at The River at some stage. Once a couple of indie bands had started listening to second-hand copies of The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, others were certain to follow. Naturally, then, some of the current wave of Bruce love can be attributed to how he has replaced Talking Heads and Gang Of Four as the hip name to drop.

On the other hand, though, many acts have embraced Springsteen's emotional maelstrom with considerable relish. After a couple of years of self-conscious, uptight introspection at every turn, the time is right for bands who are happy to wear their hearts on their ragged sleeves.

Audiences too have embraced the new Bruce creed, if the manner in which The Hold Steady, with their beery, cheery mini-epics about characters who could easily have holidayed for a week or two in Springsteen's world, have won over both critics and crowds is any guide.

A few weeks ago, a whole host of acts turned up for a Springsteen tribute at New York's Carnegie Hall. His peers Patti Smith and Steve Earle were there, but it was the new kids such as The Hold Steady, Josh Ritter, Jesse Malin, Badly Drawn Boy, M Ward and Joseph Arthur who were to the fore.

Springsteen himself also turned up, probably as keen to make sure this was not some kind of memorial bash as he was to check out the devotees. Just in case anyone thought otherwise, Springsteen's first words to the gathering were "I'm still alive!" Onlookers report his tongue was firmly in his cheek.



Bruce Springsteen and The Seeger Sessions Band's Live In Dublin is released today

The Boss and me: musicians pay tribute to the master

JOSH RITTER

Bruce Springsteen was always around when I was growing up, but it wasn't until I started writing songs and started thinking about a life in music that I began to look to him as an example.

He made me feel like everything was going to be alright, that people might not understand me, but that I needed to write and sing anyway. So when Mr Springsteen tapped my elbow while I was tuning up guitar before going onstage at Carnegie Hall and shook my hand, it meant a great deal to me.

CRAIG FINN (The Hold Steady)

Springsteen's first three records are a huge influence on us because they kind of defined how to do rock'n'roll piano tastefully. I suppose he is why I started using characters in the first place, because I'd hear references to these seemingly real people, like Wendy in Born To Run, and I'd think, "Wow, I'd like to know a little more about her."

PAUL NOONAN (Bell X1)

Born in the USA was the first record I bought. I loved the full-throttle bombast of it - that huge snare drum opening the title song, tight blue jeans, stars and stripes, blue collar. Then there are records like Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad, sparse and humble.

I suppose the constant is the power of the narrative and the conviction - be it the glorious cacophony of The E Street band or just him and the guitar - with which it's delivered. You're always right there.



Springsteen and friends live at the Sleep Train Pavillion in Concord, CA - June 2006

BRANDON FLOWERS (The Killers)

What struck me about him is that I believe what he says. Bruce always wears his heart on his sleeve. The guy is so incredibly sincere, whatever he sings. He touches on the American dream - and that's everybody's dream. Most of the songs are about making it to the promised land. It's not about getting rich, it's the idea of working hard and having your castle in the sky. When we were making Sam's Town, there was something in his music that touched what I was going through, that process of falling back in love with my America.

MUNDY

My friend Liam Owens played me the live collection when I was 13 or 14. His brother had tons of vinyl. I remember the long intro to The River and it used to put goose bumps all over me. Then the lonesome harmonica, and the song would start. It was a story that I could relate to. It's a small-town song. It's why everyone loves the Boss. He lets you wear his boots for a while in your home town.

RO YOURELL (Delorentos)

My dad was a massive fan and he played him in the car all the time when I was a kid. I've always been a big fan, but I wasn't allowed talk about it for years. I really don't know what made him so uncool, maybe it was the all-American image, but the music rocked.

WILL BUTLER (Arcade Fire)

I grew up in the suburbs in Houston and it wasn't cool. I didn't know anything about cool bands like Pavement or Dinosaur Jr or Radiohead or Björk - I listened to Bruce Springsteen. That was the stuff that was playing at the malls, and I was like: "I like that." I know that Springsteen is so much more over-the-top than our stuff but I think that the emotional quality in our music owes something to him.