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(Credits: Far Out \/ Bent Rej \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Tue 21 April 2026 20:45, UK <\/p>\n
Bruce Springsteen<\/a> could only hope to be a diligent student when he first picked up a guitar. <\/p>\n Even though he didn\u2019t hope to be the same kind of massive rock and roll singer that Elvis Presley was, he knew that something magical happened when he first played those ringing chords with that Fender Telecaster in his hands. And while \u2018The Boss\u2019 was more than happy with those few chords that he started out with, he will never forget the first song that set his world on fire.<\/p>\n But if you\u2019re going through a lot of what Springsteen was listening to, you\u2019d be shocked how much of it was learned secondhand. No one in their right mind would be disrespecting Chuck Berry<\/a> or Little Richard by any stretch, but when you look at how Springsteen\u2019s life played out, a lot of those signature licks he needed to learn secondhand by watching Keith Richards\u2019s fingers on every Rolling Stones song.<\/p>\n The same applies to the first time that he heard Bob Dylan. He knew of Dylan for years as one of the greatest wordsmiths of his generation, but way after the days of \u2018Blowin\u2019 In the Wind\u2019 and \u2018The Times They Are A-Changin\u2019, \u2018Like A Rolling Stone\u2019 was the first tune that Springsteen said kicked down every single door that was left in his mind when he heard rock. He found his calling, but there\u2019s no one else in his generation who wasn\u2019t shaped by The Beatles at least a little bit.<\/p>\n The Fab Four were practically a musical wrecking ball when they first performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, and when Springsteen was listening to them play, he became enamoured with the song \u2018Twist and Shout\u2019. It was already a major hit for the Isley Brothers in the soul charts, but with that Mersey spin behind it and John Lennon\u2019s searing vocals over top of everything, \u2018The Boss\u2019 fell in love and never looked back.<\/p>\n Everyone else had been smitten by \u2018I Want To Hold Your Hand\u2019, but when Lennon passed away, Springsteen always cited \u2018Twist and Shout\u2019 as the first song that he ever learned, saying<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s a hard night to come out and play tonight when so much has been lost. The first record that I ever learned [was the Beatles\u2019] \u2018Twist and Shout.\u2019 If it wasn\u2019t for John Lennon, we\u2019d all be someplace very different tonight. It\u2019s an unreasonable world that you get asked to live with a lot of things that are just unlivable. It\u2019s a hard night to come out and play, but there\u2019s just nothing else you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n And judging by the kind of vocal performance Lennon gave, Springsteen got more than a little bit of an education when he first performed the tune. Despite Lennon being mortified listening back to his performance<\/a> and saying that it was horrible, it opened the doors for people like Springsteen to walk through, especially with his gruffer voice sounding a lot more raspy than what most people were used to on the charts.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like Lennon couldn\u2019t see Springsteen putting in the work, either. While the former Beatle never got to meet one of the kings of heartland rock, he could see that he was in the business for all the right reasons, even if he did admit that he needed to keep himself in check from time to time so he didn\u2019t get too big of a head after notching up massive hits like \u2018Hungry Heart\u2019 on the hit parade.<\/p>\n For Springsteen, though, that kind of advice is all you could have asked for from someone like Lennon. He wasn\u2019t going to take a single second of his music for granted, and the idea of a Beatle approving of his work made every single lesson forming those first chords worth it when he first learned to play \u2018Twist and Shout\u2019. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n