David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen come from a different world. Bowie rose into the mainstream in 1972 with his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The world knew him better than the alien guy due to his appearance and persona; however, Bruce was very normal.
Springsteen’s most successful period was in 1975 with his Born to Love. He sang about American life and his songs were relatable to many audiences. Although different, both of these musicians respected each other and Bowie also shared his opinion on Springsteen in 1973 and mentioned his favorite song from him.
David Bowie’s Favorite Bruce Springsteen Song
The story takes us back to the 70s. when Springsteen released his first album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” in 1973 and was about to release one of his greatest albums of all time, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars”.
For such exceptional work, Bowie praised him as a writer once and he praised Springsteen once more during an interview with a radio station in 1979. “Here is a great writer and I don’t like what he is doing very much now. I loved this album when it came out. It was ‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.’ and after I heard this track I never rode the subway again. It’s called ‘It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City’. That really scared the living ones out of me,” Bowie said.
“Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.” was Bowie’s favorite album, it only became a great hit in 1985 because of the track It’s Hard to Be A Saint in the City’, which explained the ongoing crimes that were happening in the city. “The devil appeared like Jesus through the steam in the street/ Showin’ me a hand I knew even the cops couldn’t beat”, with such lyrics they gained a great fandom in the UK.
During the interview, Bowie also stated that he loved Bruce records such as, “Born to Run” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, but wasn’t a big fan of his late 70s records.
Springsteen Stated That Sprinsgteen’s Band Was The Best One
Both of these musicians were busy with their schedules in the 70s due to their tours. Fortunately, they had a chance to meet with each other when Bruce Springsteen was performing live in 1973. During an interview with a Musician magazine in 1987, he recalled the moment when he went to see Bruce.
“I used to go and see him. I hated him as a solo artist, when he came on and did this Bob Dylan thing. It was awful. So cringe-making. He’d sit there with his guitar and be folky, have these slow philosophical raps in between the songs. As soon as the band came on, it was like a different performer and he was just marvelous,” Bowie said.
He declared the same moment on the radio a year before in 1986 and stated that Bruce Springsteen’s group was one of the best bands he had ever seen in his life, “It must have been 1974. He was playing on his own, he was just playing the piano. Then he brought the band on about halfway through. I was gonna leave, I went there to see Biff Rose.”
“I liked Biff Rose from the 60s and I found that he was playing in town. So he was the headliner act and Springsteen was sort of on as well. I thought he was sort of another Dylan copy when he came on and started his acoustic set. Then the band came on and I think it was probably the best Rock band I’ve ever seen in my life for about half an hour,” David Bowie added.
Springsteen’s Songs That Bowie Covered
in 1979, Bowie stated that his favorite song from Bruce was “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” and released a cover of the song a decade later in 1989. It was released as a Station to Station outtake but in The Complete David Bowie, Tony Visconti stated that it was recorded a few years later.
“It would seem that this was part of the Diamond Dogs recording sessions, but worked on later. The added instruments, vocals and mixing sound like a couple of years later, because of the sonic fingerprints,” he said.
In 1990, Bowie did another cover of Bruce’s song which was “Growin’ Up” from his debut album.
Springsteen performed “Rebel, Rebel” As A Tribute To David Bowie
The loss of David Bowie will forever be remembered by the rock community. He passed away in 2016, January at the age of 69 due to liver cancer. A few weeks after his passing, Bruce gave a tribute to his dear friend in Pittsburgh.
Before beginning his performance, he said a few words to the audience. “I just wanna take a moment and note the passing of our great good friend David Bowie. David supported our music way, way back in the very beginning in 1973. He rang me up and I visited him when he was making the ‘Young Americans’ record. And he covered some of our music, “Growin’ Up”, “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City”. He was a good supporter of ours,” he said.
Although David Bowie is no more with us, his music will forever carry on his legacy and will be an inspiring rock icon for the generation to come. No one will ever forget his persona and his performances.