The Ten That Made Springsteen; 8. Creedence Clear Water Revival; Who'll Stop The Rain

Creedence Clear Water Revival, or CCR for short, is undoubtedly one of the key influences on the development of Springsteen's music. Although CCR hardly has the stature of the Stones or the Who these days, in their hey day they were almost as big as those two acts. CCR couldn't have escaped Bruce in the early days of his career. After the Castilles Springsteen made a sudden shift from the Garage to the Power Trio of Earth. Judging from their music and set lists the band was highly influenced by Cream, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. Suddenly Bruce was sporting long wavy hair and a Gibson les Paul, looking more like a carbon copy of Jimi Page than of the Beatles like he had in the Castiles. For a short period Springsteen indulged himself in long spun out jams. Necessarily maybe for him to get more versatile on the guitar, but hardly interesting music or something that had his distinct own voice. With Steel Mill (first called Child) Springsteen started moving back to more straight forward R&R. Although the music was still lengthy, Steel Mill would incorporate much more down home R&R in their sets and approach. Though Steel Mill is often credited with being influenced by the Stones or the Who, their approach to R&R was very much akin to CCR. Maybe Steel Mill's shift to a more R&R approach could be credited to Steven van Zandt, who played bass at one point, but the band certainly started to go from long jams to a more structured sound. Most notably on early Springsteen fan favorites like "Going Back To Georgia". With songs like "Dancing In The Street" making it into the sets Springsteen was moving back to his Garage roots again in an approach that reminds me of CCR's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (Download an early Steel Mill show here) .



I've always seen CCR and Springsteen as similar artists. Like Springsteen, CCR seemed to be a summary of the R&R that came before. With their classic albums CCR tapped into early R&R as much as Springsteen did with "Born To Run". The bands had similar backgrounds. CCR was born out of Garage bands the Velvets and the Golliwogs. Although the latter recorded some memorable singles, John Fogerty and his brother Tom failed to make a dent in the charts until they transformed their approach to a more personal and distinct sound. Creedence tellingly first hit big with their rendition of Dale Hawkin's classic "Suzie Q" (featuring the immortal James Burton on guitar) but were soon off to making it big with their own material. They stayed so close to R&R's roots sometimes that they had to settle out of court with Little Richard when their "Traveling Band" bore more than a little resemblance to his "Good Golly, Miss Molly". CCR's hit sometimes were so close to the R&R standards of its golden age that they became standards themselves. Their "Proud Mary" is often mistakenly credited to Ike & Tina Turner and got covered by greats Solomon Burke. Although Creedence is best remembered for their swamp blues like approach to music, their influences didn't stop their. CCR are has always been infused with a heavy dose of Country harking back at Hank Williams and the like. I suspect that Springsteen's later infatuation was smoothened by listening to acts like Creedence. When CCR fell apart Fogerty went solo with mixed results. "Rocking All Over The World" (covered by Springsteen two times) brought him some succes in '75, but by the time he released his '85 comeback album Fogerty was surpassed in popularity by the very artists he (partly) inspired.



But going into Country was the only path I suspect Creedence smoothed out for Springsteen. Somewhere around the recording of the River album Springsteen's political awakening started, coached by Jon Landau. One subject that hit close to home for Springsteen at the time was the Vietnam war. Springsteen had been drafted for the war but got out of it by claiming he was gay (amongst other things. He got 4-F on account of his motorcycle accident in which he had badly injured his leg and acting as crazy as he could. Others around Springsteen weren't so lucky. The drummer of the Castiles went and came back in a body bag. Ron Kovic's book "Born On The Fourth Of July" about Kovic's experience as a Vietnam veteran, is well known to have had a major effect on Springsteen, so Creedence's songs on Vietnam must have been easy for Springsteen to tap into. Song like "Who'll Stop The Rain" and "Fortunate Son" must have made Springsteen realize how R&R could work as a political force well before he started listening to Woody Guthrie. "Who'll Stop The Rain" had been adopted by the Vietnam veterans as their anthem, so when Springsteen was asked to play a benefit for the Vietnam Veterans of America, an organization dedicated to the interests of the Vietnam veterans, on august 20th 1981 in LA (download the show here), it was the natural opener for a visible emotional Bruce who warned in his opening speech "you guys out there that are eighteen and nineteen years old, it happened once and it can happen again". Some twenty years later the second Gulf war started and America landed itself in a situation very similar to Vietnam. At the time the of the show the Vietnam veterans suffered from a severe lack of recognition of the pain they had brought home from the war and were shunned by the anti war movement. The war had ended in '75 and many veterans were looked upon as baby killers when the world was confronted with when the home front saw the shocking footage through a press that wasn't as embedded as they are these days. An artists with the stature of Springsteen playing a show in their tribute was one of the first steps in setting things right.



Over the years John Fogerty's seem to have resurfaced every time Springsteen wanted to assert himself politically. He played "Bad Moon Rising" on 18 Jun 1988 at Chateau De Vincennes, Paris, France, at the SOS Racism Concert that was broad casted on French TV, but more significantly, when the Bush administration invaded Iraq of March 20th 2003 "Who'll Stop The Rain" started to reappear regularly in the sets of the Rising tour. When that tour was over Springsteen aligned himself politically for the very first time, at least in an explicit way, with his John Kerry endorsement and the "Vote For Change" tour. Before that his political loyalties had always been implicit in his songs. With "Vote For Change" it all came into the open as he opposed both the war and Bush openly. Although the campaign failed and America got stuck with four more years with the blunder in chief Dubya, for Springsteen the gloves were off. In recent years we've heard a more outspoken Springsteen than ever before, seemingly rallying against the war every chance he gets. His songs suddenly became open indictments against president bystander in "How Can a Poor Man (Stand Such Times And Live)" and against the war in Bring Em Home". VFC also got him some significant stage time with his hero John Fogerty teaming up "Fortunate Son" and "Promised Land" through out the tour. Two songs that represent both sides of the coin, America's nightmare and its lasting promise.



See also the December 2007 Newsweek article

"Who'll Stop The Rain" - Bruce Springsteen
"Rocking All Over The World" - Bruce Springsteen
"Suzie Q" - Dale Hawkings
"Don't Tell Me No Lies" - The Golliwogs

Buddy Holly Will Not Fade Away

Today in 1959 it was the day Buddy Holly died in a tragic plane incident, taking Richie Valens with him. In my mind Buddy Holly is possibly even more important than Elvis in the development of R&R. Although Elvis was the undisputed King that also made him untouchable, Elvis was iconic from day one. Nobody could dream of touching him, save for Jerry Lee Lewis for a while maybe, until Buddy Holly came along. With his nerdy glasses and his very wholesome looks Buddy was closer to where America's teenagers were than the highly sexual Elvis or the rough and tumble Jerry Lee. Buddy looked like he could have been that kid next door, like he could have been the boy from class. Though Elvis brought Black R&B to white teen agers, Buddy Holly (by accident) brought R&R back to the Black crowds when he was accidentally booked in the Apollo theater in Harlem. His appearance there might have been instrumental in making R&R acceptable to the black audiences leading to the temporarily abandonment of the R&B billboard charts when R&R and R&B started to cross over both ways for a while.



Like many of these tragic events the crash was caused by many unlucky circumstances. In the weeks before Buddy had been touring with a bus. Getting tired of the hectic schedule he decided to switch to a plane. Holly's base player at the time, Waylon Jennings, jokingly told him he hoped the plane would crash when he found out there wouldn't be any room for him on the ride. Jennings got stuck in the freezing bus while Buddy got to go on a comfortable plane ride. The plane would crash minutes after take off, leaving Jennings wrecked with guilt for years. Though Don McLean called the tragic crash "the day that music died" in a throwback to Buddy's hit "That'll Be The Day" this hardly seems to be the case. Buddy Holly proved to be highly influential on the development of R&R. Partly I wager because of his somewhat common looks combined with his highly sophisticated brand of R&R. Buddy Holly was a mean guitar player and an imaginative songwriter who managed to capture the teen experiences like few other R&R artists have. His songs have been covered by a large range of artists. Most notably of course the Rolling Stones, who scored one of their break through hits with Holly's "Not Fade Away". Which was Buddy's take on the Bo Diddley beat. The song was subsequently a a regular in the live shows of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and even Bob Dylan, who would later claim that his renaissance album "Time Out Of Mind" was highly influenced by Buddy. Springsteen also did a mean version of "Oh Boy" in the seventies.



Not just Buddy's music became important. His clean cut nerdy image has become somewhat of an icon as well over the years. Somehow when we think of the fifties we tend to think more of images that look like Buddy Holly than we'd think of Elvis. Somehow Buddy's clean cut image is synonymous with the fifties when everything just seemed cleaner and simpler. Though far from the case, Buddy does represent that idealized version of the fifties. It is that style pattern that artists like Elvis Costello would tap in to to built his image and that Weezer would wink at in their song and video "Buddy Holly". As wholesome as American pie, Buddy Holly today really does belong to that fantasy world of "Happy Days". In the movie Pulp Fiction Buddy Holly, or a waiter that is supposed to look like him, is played by Steve Buscemi in a scene set in a nostalgia restaurant. In series like the Simpsons Buddy Holly is used in similar references. He even had a posthumous film score hit with "Peggy Sue Got Married" for the 1986 movie with the same title, created from an unfinished demo tape discovered years after his death. Again the film is filled with nostalgic images of the fifties. Sometimes it seems like Buddy Holly is trapped in that nostalgic world filled with melancholy for a place that never existed. As such we'd almost forget what a great and fantastic artist Buddy was, but be it as it may, Buddy will not fade away. He's one of those artists that is forever inscribed in our collective conscious even if we never were part of the fifties.

The Blind Boys In New Orleans

Since 2001's "Spirit Of The Century" the Blind Boys Of Alabama have made one of the industries most unlikely comebacks. Where most Gospel groups seem to have slipped into obscurity, the Blind Boy Of Alabama have reached an increasingly broad audience and played for a diversity of crowds. Formed in the early forties The "Five" Blind Boys Of Alabama are an institution. Though it may be one of the music business longest running groups, few of the original members are still part of the current line up. In fact 79 year old Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter are the only original founding members still part of the group. But even Clarence seems to be dropping now as diabetes related health problems do not allow him to tour anymore. The current "Down In New Orleans" is the first album since the groups founding day that doesn't feature Fountain on vocals. Though the original members might be quietly slipping from the scene, as an institution the Blind Boys Of Alabama are still going strong. Traditions in Gospel music are handed down by the seniors in the group preparing the Benjamins to keep that Gospel train rolling.



Though Down In New Orleans sounds like a traditional album, it by no means is. In a sense the ancient institute that is the Blind Boys Of Alabama have been one of the most progressive Gospel acts in recent year. Traditionally the world of Gospel and R&B have strictly segregated world. There was a time when Blues was considered the Devil's music. Not for Jimmy Carter though. "No indeed! I'm a big fan of Blues music" Carter confesses in the liner notes. This has allowed the Blind Boys to seek alliances with artists who mainly work in the secular field. In 2004 that attitude resulted in a fine collaboration with Ben Harper on his "There Will Be A Light" and a subsequent as impressive tour. With Ben Harper the Blind Boys fused various strands of Blues with their brand of Gospel. A natural continuation of what they had been doing since the mentioned comeback album, on which secular songs and Gospel would compliment each other. Of course the secular material the group picks has a highly spiritual undertone. "We believe in songs with a positive message" Carter acknowledges in the notes, allowing them to branch out while not really crossing over into Pop like Sam Cooke or Bobby Womack did back in the day. But as above video testified Gospel and R&B might have had a little bit more in common anyway. The two styles have been jumping of each other since day one, with store front preacher using R&B theatrics to spice up their sermons and Gospels and Blues singers adding that Gospel fervor to fire up their tunes.



That relation between R&B and Gospel and the Blind Boys' open mindedness to it has brought them to New Orleans for a collaboration with some of the cities finest. From the greasy Funk of the opening track "Free At Last" it is clear we've got another gem at hand. The album is less traditional as it seems on first glance, this wasn't an easy ride for the Blind Boys. "New Orleans musicians use a different rhythm" Carter explains, "Push and pull". It took the Boys some getting used to he admitted. Yet with its syncopation and the use of call and response in the rhythmic foundation, New Orleans' music proves to be especially suited to bring that Gospel message home.The absolute high point of the album to me is "If I Could Help Somebody" with Allen Toussaint's lush and rollicking piano as solo companion to Carter's voice. Though shaky his voice hasn't lost any of its story telling powers through the decades. It is a voice that fill you up with hope, a voice that empowers. "Down In New Orleans" isn't just an album that brings the message of the Lord, its an album that again reaches out to the people of New Orleans and their trials and tribulations after Katrina. The marching band version of "Uncloudy Day" must have a personal resonance to many of that fine city's citizens. But maybe the song that captures the spirit of this album best is "Across The Bridge" as "Down In New Orleans" is truly an album filled with musical bridges, inviting you to cross that bridge of unity, that bridge of friendship, that bridge of freedom and that bridge of salvation.



"Across The Bridge"

Steve Earle Live At The Paradiso Won't Lay His Hammer Down

Last night was the first time I saw Steve Earle live. I haven't been paying too much attention to Steve's work, a mistake I need to correct. An artist like Steve will probably be placed in the sub genre Alternative Country, a term I always felt didn't do justice to the artists involved. Most artists that are swept in that category do country more justice than most of the drivel coming out of Nashville these days. Steve Earle is no exception. Like the great Country singers Steve manages to convey a broad impression of life, much broader than tends to happen in other genres. The greats in the genre always manged to go for the personal to the political or spiritual, or rather make the personal political and spiritual. Steve Earle seems to be one of those artists. His songs reflect personal trials and triumphs of both himself and others captured in often beautiful cinematic writing. Steve will as easily sing about a telephone conversation with his song, a kiss from his beautiful wife Allison Moorer or his regrets from past relationships, as he will sing about the tragic mistakes of the Bush administration and the experiences of others in these current hard economical and social times.

After a short opening set by Steve's wife Allison, Earle was to give a solo acoustic show. We were going to get Steve Earle naked, just him and his guitars and assorted other sting instrument. All the excess was cut away from most of the performance. Artists like Steve don't need a band anyway. As far as I could judge from this performance, a band is just unnecessary lubricant for his songs. On more than one occasion Steve managed to transport you out of the Paradiso into the lives of the people he sang about. If Steve was traveling the Rocky Mountains, so were you, when he sang about a young man going off to war, you could feel his uncertainty. Steve's songs manage to evoke sympathy for people you might ordinarily not give much thought to. When he sings about a man being send to the electric chair you get a strong sense of his point of view and the implications of the death penalty. "Could you take a long walk with me knowing that Hell was waiting there. Would you throw that switch sir with a strong and steady hand" are powerful lines, which in one broad stroke gives you an insight in the moral dilemmas surrounding the death penalty.

How hard a solo performance is was demonstrated by Allison when she opened up. Though Moorer has an amazingly powerful voice, she didn't capture me with her songs. It wasn't until she did a powerful rendition of Sam Cooke's "Change Is Gonna Come" that you got a sense of how strong she could be as an artist if she'd managed to get more out of her guitar and material. The songs she picked no where near had the same strong imagery as "Change" or her husbands songs and tended to blend into each other. With "Change" something wonderful happened, this blond bombshell took it from its civil rights roots to a more personal prayer. As is often with white performers doing this song it meant that Sam's most confrontational lyric was cut from the song. Singing "I go to the movie and I go downtown, somebody keep telling me don't hang around" wouldn't have made sense for Allison, though it did for Sam who reached out to the segregated South at the time.

Unlike his wife, Steve does have the capability to add extra colors and textures to his songs with a simple acoustic guitar. Although the banjo, mandolin and Dobro guitar were at times a welcome variation, I'm sure Steve could have carried the show without them. The same goes for the DJ Steve is experimenting with these days, live and on his new album "Washington Square Serenade". On some of his songs Earle was backed by firm but sober Hip Hop beats. Although it worked remarkably with some songs to a lot of other it felt like excess. On the Pete Seeger tribute "Pete's Hammer" the DJ gave the song the extra bite to send the anti war song home. But mostly the heavy beats tended to drown out Steve voice a bit or send his instrumentation to deep into the mix. The power "City Of Immigrants" fell apart because of a thunderous base beating your eardrums just a little too much. Though that might have been to the credit of the sound man, I couldn't help but wonder if Steve needed a DJ at all. Bold and successful at times as the experiment at times may have been, Earle is perfectly capably of carrying his material on his own. His guitar play is staccato and dare I say funky enough to keep you on your toes.

The show reached it peak with the encores where Steve got into much more story telling than he had done through out the show. Especially his story about his sons and the telephone conversations he'd have with them was very moving, the kind of thing that'll make a grown man cry. With the encores Steve was stretching out the evening to a marathon two and a half hours, yet leaving you wanting more.

"Sparkle and Shine"



Get Live at the Paradiso through the Dime or Megaupload

12 Angry Men; An Ongoing Discussion

When I saw "Twelve Angry Men" in the theater today again it struck me how timeless this movie is. A classic in every sense of the word. Although not a drop of blood is spilled in the movie it is a gripping thriller that works on many levels. Even though the film doesn't accurately depict a jury and its working, it worked at the time and still does as very compelling social commentary on many levels while at the same time it is filled with psychological suspense. The plot and the setting was simple, a jury of twelve men needs to decide whether they find the accused guilty of murder. If they do, the judge stresses at the beginning of the film, the capital sentence is mandatory. The 18 year old boy on trial will be send to his death. On a hot and damp summer day twelve men, all with their personal backgrounds and hang ups, are confined in a locked small room. The case seems clear cut yet one man has doubts and votes not guilty. Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) isn't so sure he feels sympathy for the kid and thinks his lawyer did a poor job in his defense, he is filled with questions he wants an answer to. This leads into an exhausting dialog with the eleven other jurors who were initially hoping to be done quickly in the suffocating heat of their small quarters. Director Sidney Lumet filmed the movie on the small budget, even for 1957, of $350.000 dollars, with the lion share of the scenes in one room, yet managed to instill it with a suspense that leaves you on the edge of your seat.

In the US of 1957 the capital punishment was still common ground, it's ramifications much less discussed as they are today. "12 Angry Men" does an excellent job of explaining why the death penalty should have no place in any legal system. With states like Texas still executing convicts thats is one of the reasons why this movie still bears a strong social relevance. The boy on trial in the movie is of poor backgrounds, born and raised in the ghetto of the city. In a clever casting move by Lumet, it is unclear whether this boy is from Latin, Polish or Italian descent. But it does become clear that his social economical background plays and important part in the film. Besides the explicit bigotry from juror #10, there seems to be an initial carelessness about this boys life, juror #7 has more important things on his mind, his baseball game and #12, who works in the advertising business, is caught up in his commercial slogans. The jury at first shows the same disregard as the boy's lawyer who bungled the case and failed to instill the jury with the reasonable doubt that was obviously there as would become clear at the end of the movie. "12 Angry Men" serves as a classic dramatized example of how class justice works. Although the innocence of the accused is never proved in the film, the risk is implied that the legal system can send an innocent to the chair. This so it seems is the main theme of the movie.

But there's more than meets the eye. Timeless as the movie may be it is obviously set in the fifties. Clothing styles and ashtrays around the room with nearly every juror smoking place the movie firmly in that time frame. Yet when juror #10 falls into another of his bigot "us" and "them" rants there is a frightening actuality to the film. His narrow world view is exactly what troubles discussion concerning the underprivileged today. In a key scene to the movie when juror #10 is ranting, the rest of the jurors stand up turning away from him, singling him out. Especially in the segregated America of 1957 this was an extremely power statement. But although segregation is a thing formally of the past prejudice is still very much alive today influencing society and thus the legal system.



To me one of the most interesting characters is juror #3, a self made man who runs a messenger service. Headstrong, short tempered and very butch juror #3 has become estranged from his own son, which makes this case personal for him. His reasons for wanting see this boy get the capital punishment haven't got so much to do with prejudice, they've got more to do with his own personal demons. #3 introduces most explicitly the human element in the film. He projects his own failure and feelings of betrayal on the boy on trial. He feels abandoned by his son and sees this reflected in the case where the boy murdered his father. Although highly dramatized it does an excellent job of showing how our objective judgment can be clouded and influence our decisions. #3 desperately tries to block out all doubt throughout the movie eventually coming to a spine tingling confrontation near the end of the movie whit Fonda who calls him on his personal interest.



"12 Angry Man" is brilliantly cast and watching the movie today you wonder why the film was ever redone in 1997. That later version is entertaining sure, but nowhere near as powerful and meticulously played out as the original 1957 film. Brilliantly shot and acted you forget its black and white before you're even half way through.

See also the in depth review by Tim Dicks

Grave Digging Heavy Trash In Amsterdam

Last night the Heavy Trash played the Paradiso in Amsterdam. The first chance I got to see Jon Spencer's new outfit live. Since Blues Explosion show could sometimes be a drag, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Last time I saw Spencer perform it was with that very Blues Explosion and I walked out before the encore. Jon Spencer clearly wasn't enjoying the Blues Explosion anymore. During the endless jams on stage they were were running out of ideas. Hardly one recognizable song was played. Even though song writing was never Spencer's strongest point but dropping them all together made the show a dragging mess of half inspired blues riffs, going nowhere basically. The show started an hour and a half later because of Henry Rollins endless rambles who played the Paradiso early that night with a spoken word show. Apparently mister Rollins likes to hear himself talk because his performance stretched well beyond the planned time. Rollins was sold out, so his machismo beefed up ranting must still have an audience. The minute Jon Spencer stepped on stage it was clear tonight would be different from the Blues Explosion show I'd seen last time around. Spencer was backed by the Sadies and partner in crime Mat Verta Ray, the other half of the Heavy Trash. The Sadies had played a lukewarm twenty minutes as an opening act. Though very capable musicians the Sadies simply miss the personality to make their retro fifties act work. Personality is what Spencer has in spades. He simply needed to step on stage, looks somewhere between a young Elvis and a Johnny Cash mean, lean & strung out on pills, to give the night that extra buzz. Jon was going acoustic, while he left the electric backing to the Sadies an Verta Ray. Clearly Spencer wanted to focus on something different, explore another side of his capabilities as a performer.

As I pointed out in the album review, the Heavy Trash is much more song based. On "Going Way Out" jams and incoherent boasting on explosive blues licks are replaced by an original take on Rockabilly songwriting. The Heavy Trash is more R&R, less Blues, more Hillbilly music, less explosion. The tighter structure of the songs elevates Jon Spencer as a live performer. On "One Of These Days" Spencer even turns out to be a mean story teller going into some heavy heavy rapping with a hard Soul edge. By paying tribute to the Godfather of Soul, Jaaaaaaaames Brown, by playing his "I Don't Mind", Spencer made it no secret what inspired his sudden attempt at stand up preaching. The show was filled with classic R&R references like this. If Elvis, Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran or Link Wray would still be alive they could sue the hell out of mister Spencer, his show is built up out of their corner stones start to finish. He has no qualms digging their graves for some nuggets. The swiping doesn't stop at licks, riffs and lines. Spencer's got the moves and the looks of a R&R renegade. The show was even spiced up with some hot sci-fi R&R honey dancers, Go-Go dancing their way from Venus to the Paradiso. Yet Spencer has this very distinct personality that ables him to get away with his pillaging of R&R past. If last night made anything clear, Spencer is the driving force behind both of his acts. But after last night I hope he will send the Explosion to its grave for good. The Heavy Trash makes good on the promise of that band in spades.



"Way Out With The Heavy Trash" is out on Yep Roc.

Live at Paradiso in available in FLAC format at the Dime or in MP3 format through Mega Upload. There's also two mediafire links for those having trouble with megaupload, disc 1 & disc 2

"I Don't Mind (live)"

The Ten That Made Springsteen; 7. Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions, People Get Ready

Soul music has been a constant in Springsteen's career. Maybe even more so than R&R. Albeit that the influence wasn't always as pronounced as his R&R influences. But from the very beginning Soul music was there. At first the influence might have been secondary, borrowed through the Beatles and the countless Garage acts. But soon enough Springsteen picked up on some originals and reworked them in his own fashion. Rufus Thomas' greasy Soul classic "Walking The Dog" was somewhat of a regular in the early days of the E-Street Band. Through Sancious' influence it came out decidedly jazzier than Rufus' funky original. More Funk came into the picture when Little Steven joined the band as a regular guitar player. On the "Born to Run" album Steve arranged the horns on "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" almost as a carbon copy of the Stax sound. That Memphis based label had been almost as influential on the development of R&R as Elvis and the Chess studios that gave us the likes of Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters. Bands like the Animals and the Rolling Stones looked at acts like Otis Redding and Rufus Thomas for their sound and inspiration. When the Stax revue hit Europe in '68 they were treated like major stars, where as in America they were still a few regular Joes from Memphis Tennessee. Of course this was a two way street. The British Invasion had an enormous impact on American music and soon the Soul and R&B stars from the states would be covering their British counter parts. With Springsteen's affinity for British Invasion music and Garage a dive into Soul would be inevitable.



Not only did Springsteen infuse his show with a few classics from the genre, most notably "Quarter To Three" from Gary 'US' Bonds and "Raise Your Hand" from Eddie Floyd fame, his showmanship borrowed a lot from the world of Soul. E-Street show were infused the Cropper like guitar phrasing from then 'Miami' Steve, Danny's soulful organ grinding and Clarence's wailing. Springsteen milked the Soul antiques for all they were worth, bringing down the band, slowly, softer, before taking them back into a R&R explosion that would have everybody jumping in the aisles, dancing on there seats. To top it off Springsteen stole James Brown's cape routine, where he would fall down, apparently from exhaustion, the Big Man rushing to comfort him and pick him up, leading him back stage to rest. But Springsteen would break free, bust loose, fueled as it were by the power of R&R, blazing in yet another chorus of "Quarter To Three", "Twist and Shout" or "Higher and Higher". Seemingly refusing to go home until both he and the audience were completely drained. He sometimes mockingly warned that the next tune might be bad for your health, asking those with weak hearts to step out, by the time he was through, that warning didn't sound as tongue in the cheek as it seemed at first.



But it didn't stop there. Springsteen infused his show with numerous raps. Something uncommon in R&R shows, but a custom that had a long tradition in Soul music. James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and much of the Stax roster were known to rap to their audience at length. Springsteen is one of the few R&R artists I've known to do that. That isn't to say that his raps were carbon copies of the great Soul acts. Springsteen had his own original voice when he was spinning his yarns. For one thing his stories were a lot more subdued at first, though they did grow cockier when success came knocking. For fans the story telling is part of what Springsteen is about. Some of his tales are considered to be as classic as his songs. There is the story of small town resident Ducky Slattery as in the intro to Änd The Band Played" in 1973, getting the band together as in the intro to "The E-Street Shuffle" in '75, his struggles with his father as in the intro to "It's My Life" and his uneasy first steps into the world of girls leading into "Pretty Flamingo", and of course the teenage werewolf story where God personally commanded Springsteen to "Let it ROCK!!!!" in 1978. His early raps hovered somewhere between that church Soul shouting, the romantic confessions from the classic Doo Wop records and Frank Sinatra's coy stage antiques.



As his success progressed and took him into the big arenas and stadiums, the story telling gradually changed into something that was getting closer and closer to Solomon Burke and his version of store front preaching. Springsteen gradually developed a thunderous preacher shtick. The preacher bit first surfaced during the "Born in the USA" tour where the "garden of eden" bit led into "Pink Cadillac". But gradually the bit grew and took a more prominent place in the shows. With the Tunnel of Love Express tour "I'm A Coward" was a staple, a show piece that came back every show and had an important narrative function in the set. There still was the more Doo Wop based rap leading into "All That Heaven Will Allow", but they would become a thing of the past after that tour. The big arenas and stadiums begged for a more powerful and more important, louder performance. The subdued raps had people scurrying to the beer stands, the preacher shtick commanded more attention, with added audience participation the shtick was more inclusive and about as intimate as you could get before tens of thousands of people. "I'm a Coward", built around Gino Washington's "Gino's a Coward", proved to be the perfect vehicle.



When Springsteen disbanded the E-Street Band and formed another road act in '92, the Soul influence became even more pronounced when he added a gospel like background choir to some of his songs. On his records his writing became even more soulful than ever before teaming up with the legendary Sam Moore, from Sam & Dave fame, on "Soul Driver" and infusing his songs with quite a bit more Soul imagery like in "Leap of Faith". The shows might have been heavy on the guitar but it was clear that Springsteen wanted to bring this side of him more to the front. Seeing how the albums and tour turned out, one might wish he made a more fundamental choice and went all the way tour with his version of the Mar-Keys. Though Dave Marsh claims in his live overview "On Tour" that Springsteen's audience may have been too "white" to grasp the concept, and thus shunned the tour and album, I think that is hardly why it was a relative failure. Springsteen always had a strong R&B influence in his music, it has always been part of the attraction, the problem was that Springsteen still had one foot in the E-Street Band with his music and material choice. The result was more E-Street light and less the Soul revival it could have been.

In spirit Springsteen's music, especially with the E-Street Band, has always had a heart full of Soul. Not just musically but spiritually as well. Soul music, as Ray Charles designed it and Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield molded it, has always been about the sanctification of every day life. With a heavy root in church music, Soul music is very much about rising to the occasion, transcending hardship, keeping your pride in times of strife. That humanist strand infused with an almost religious fervor is very much present in Springsteen's R&R. Springsteen has often stated that he views music as a force that can change people, called his shows a revival meeting and a political rally. It is clear that Springsteen feels his music is more than just hedonistic escapism. Springsteen's R&R is less sex & drugs than most of his counter parts in the world of Rock. Songs as "Promised Land" are more indebted to a song as "People Get Ready" or "A Change Is Gonna Come" than they are to the staples of R&R. Although the first might not be the song that introduced him to the genre I do feel it captures the essence of Springsteen's approach to his music best. "People Get Ready" was, when released in 1963 one of the first civil rights songs to be recorded in the R&B and Soul industry. It is a song of tremendous promise and although its a Gospel it does have the feel of rewards to come in this world. "People Get Ready" taps into that quintessential American imagery of the train. Through the rail roads the west was won. As such trains symbolize the promise of America a century or so earlier as much as cars did when Springsteen grew up. Of course in "People Get Ready" the train also calls back to the underground railroad that helped to free slaves in the south. As such it is a song about personal freedom. "People Get Ready" acknowledges the individual but stresses that the individual is lost when he or she isn't connected to the people around him, in order to achieve something people have got to work together, get on that train together.

It's the spirit of "People Get Ready" that lead directly to one of Springsteen's most powerful recordings in the past 10 years, "Land Of Hope And Dreams". Comparing the lyrics one might even say that Springsteen was more than just a bit inspired. "People Get Ready" was often included as an apt coda to the song it borrowed so much from. The coda returned during the curring Magic tour in Europe at the tail end of "Promised Land", somehow it sounded like it had been there all along. "Land Of Hope And Dreams" debuted during the Reunion tour were Springsteen got the band back together. In the tour that followed his signature raps were gone, but he did refine his preacher shtick in a raucous version of "Light of Day". The Reunion tour was very much about the reaffirmation of Springsteen's promise, proving R&R could save, if only for those two to three hours of sweat infused performance. In his speech he captured it perfectly, "Unlike my competitors" he belted out to an enthralled audience "I cannot, I will not, I shall not, promise you life everlasting......" clinging to his mic, looking like he's going to pass out, rising up again sweat dripping from his forehead "but I can promise you life, right NOW!!!!!". What more do you need?

"Pink Cadillac (live)"
"Light of Day (live)"
"Land Of Hope And Dreams (live)"
"Gino is a Coward (aka I'm a Coward)" - Gino Washington