(Credits: Far Out / Larry Busacca – Alamy)
There aren’t many musicians who have been as emblematic of America as Bruce Springsteen. From his songs about working-class people to singing about the virtues of freedom awaiting in the heartland, Springsteen couldn’t be more American unless he had the flag literally tattooed across his chest. Before The Boss, though, there was the genesis of rock and roll, and the heart and soul of it lay in Elvis Presley.
Because when you break it down, rock and roll got its start in the sounds of America. Whereas most of the biggest names in the genre, like Chuck Berry, were taking elements of blues and jazz and incorporating them into their sound, no one had heard something that balls-to-the-wall when they first came out, sounding like they were about to unleash anarchy whenever they started playing.
Even though acts like Buddy Holly and Richie Valens were having hits around the same time, the genre had yet to have a true spokesman to bring the genre into suburban homes everywhere. While Presley may not have intended to become the voice of a generation, his way of interpreting songs by Little Richard and Carl Perkins cast a spell over any teenager born to break the rules their parents laid out for them.
Springsteen may not have even known who Elvis Presley was when ‘The King’ first started garnering hits, but those on the other side of the world certainly were. Inspired by everyone from Elvis Presley to Little Richard, artists like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones picked up guitars of their own and started carving out the next phase of rock, reselling rock and roll back to America.
While Springsteen admits that he learned about the early days of rock and roll secondhand from Keith Richards, he knew that nothing was going to compare to seeing Presley for the first time. As opposed to other artists who wore their influences on their sleeve, Springsteen thought that Presley was the ultimate example of what American rock and roll was about.
When talking about his influences, Springsteen said that Presley was the kind of generational artist that no one was going to eclipse, telling IMDB, “He was as big as the whole country itself, as big as the whole dream. He just embodied the essence of it, and he was in mortal combat with the thing. Nothing will ever take the place of that guy”.
Even though the end of Presley’s life played out tragically after he passed away in his bathroom at Graceland, Springsteen was already carving out a new path for the genre. Inspired by Bob Dylan, Springsteen was looking to tell stories about the people on the ground floor of America, painting the kind of pictures that were ripped straight out of small towns and factory jobs on albums like Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Both Springsteen and Presley may have had their unique approaches to rock music, but each of them ended up coming from separate angles. Whereas Presley was able to turn rock and roll into a spectacle, all of the spectacle Springsteen needed was his lyrics and playing like his life depended on it.
