“Why are we up so [expletive] early?” Springsteen asked the 3,000 fans who came to hear his speech today at the Austin Convention Center. “How important can this speech be if it’s being given at noon?”
Jokes aside, the 51-minute address touched on the state of music for young recording artists, as well as the influences that helped shape Springsteen as a performer—from Elvis Presley to Roy Orbison, from the Beatles to James Brown.
The keynote address—or “keynotes” address, as Springsteen called it, explaining that it was impossible to offer a single message on the state of music—is one of the first significant appearances before Springsteen and the E-Street Band are scheduled to kick off an initial 20-date U.S. tour on Sunday in Atlanta. The tour, which includes three New Jersey shows, is supporting “Wrecking Ball,” the band’s first album in three years and its first since the passing of saxophonist Clarence Clemons. The album earned the top spot on the U.S. album chart this week.
Being that this year would have been Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday, Springsteen made sure to refer to perhaps his biggest influence. He recalled the scene three years ago when he and Guthrie contemporary Pete Seeger performed Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the Obama inauguration. Springsteen described the moment as “things that come from the outside that make their way into becoming the beat for the heart of a nation.”
The speech was an opportunity for reflection by Springsteen. He remembered being signed by Columbia Records as an acoustic singer/songwriter. The label had hopes of him becoming “a new Bob Dylan.”
“The old Dylan was only 30,” he said. “I don’t know why they needed a new [expletive] Dylan.”
The address steered clear of the more serious overtones of “Wrecking Ball.” On guitar, he compared the riffs that influenced him from the Animals with the unmistakable riff from “Badlands.”
“This is how successful theft is accomplished,” he said to a laughing audience.
At 62, Springsteen is an elder statesman among musicians—and he warmed to the task of sharing some wisdom with the new generation.
“It’s all about putting what you’re doing together,” he said. “There is no right way, no pure way of doing it. There’s just doing it.”
He added: “It’s about what you’re bringing when the lights go down.”