Credit: Far Out / Takahiro Kyono
Fri 11 September 2026 19:00, UK
Bruce Springsteen was already used to making songs that had a bittersweet undercurrent to them.
The life he had known in New Jersey didn’t always have happy endings for every small-town kid, and while ‘The Boss’ could spend his time writing songs hoping for a better future, there aren’t many that survive getting to the other side without some miles put on their heart by the end of things. And while Springsteen tried his hand at making the best kind of heartfelt songs that he could, no one seemed to know the shape of their heart better than some of his contemporaries.
But Springsteen didn’t ever envision himself being the kind of musician who was all about finding the greatest love songs of all time. His heroes were people like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, and he was more interested in crafting songs that made people think about the greater world around them, rather than listen to the tune for a few minutes to pass the time every time they turned on the radio.
It was all about trying to leave the best impression on the audience, and the biggest singer-songwriters out at the time felt the exact same way. Everyone from Joni Mitchell to Cat Stevens was trying to leave a mark on their audience that was much different from the folk acts that had come before, but if Springsteen represented the East Coast of America, the folks in Laurel Canyon had a much different outlook on life whenever they performed.
The Byrds had shown everyone that it was alright to bring a little bit of twang into your delivery, and there’s a good chance the biggest names in the genre, like Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles, wouldn’t have gone anywhere if not for their records. But in a world full of people trying to embrace their inner cowboy, Jackson Browne didn’t have to hide behind anything to leave an impression on anyone he saw.
His songs were intricate character portraits, and even though Springsteen tried his hand at making story-driven songs before, the relationships weren’t as detailed as Browne’s tunes. He was writing about people that seemed to have flesh and blood whenever he sang about them, and Springsteen didn’t think anyone could walk out of one of his acoustic shows without a tear in their eye.
Browne had a knack for making some of the most beautiful tunes of all time, and yet the heartache was what Springsteen always remembered, saying, “It’s true that Jackson wrote some of the most beautiful breakin’ up music, break your heart music of all. I think that’s what drew women to Jackson, besides the obvious, was that they finally felt they were listening to a guy who knew as much about love as they did. And what drew men to Jackson, besides the obvious, I guess, was that when they listened to him, they realised they knew more about love than they thought they did.”
Further reading: From The Vault
And that kind of empathy is what has kept many of his tunes alive over so many years. Sure, so many people can claim that they got on board after hearing tunes like ‘Doctor My Eyes’ when they were little, but some of the best tunes in his arsenal are the ones where he’s talking about the darkest parts of his soul, like ‘Running on Empty’ or ‘The Pretender’ later on in his career.
Springsteen can do alright when it comes to tunes that have a bit of a teardrop among their grooves, but Browne is the kind of artist you go to when you realise that your heart is in dire need of repair. He’s not always going to have the greatest message that you want to hear at the moment, but his songs are shot through with the kind of wisdom that everyone needs to hear at some point in their life.
