Under The Influence #1: Suicide Boss

By some miraculous coincidence, my partner and I both put a Bruce Springsteen cover on our respective mixes for this round.  Or maybe this isn't such a strange thing, since it seems like so many indie bands are currently claiming the Boss as a musical influence.  This serendipitous event has given me the idea of creating Under The Influence, a makeshift column to point out and examine how artists are influenced to create some of the pieces we love.  My first look will be at Bruce Springsteen, but looking the other direction, on who has influenced him.

You may not know this, but Bruce was heavily influenced by the Suicide's seminal epynomous album which was released in 1977.  This can be heard 5 years later on (what I consider to be his best album) Nebraska.  The song that most prominently displays this influence is "State Trooper".  From the delay effect on his voice and the repetitive 2-3 note figure that lasts the length of the song, it is kind of like an acoustic version of the signature style that Suicide pioneered.  The most striking resemblance is in the ghostly vocal noises that Bruce makes near the end.  These whoops and moans are clearly a page torn right out of the Suicide book.  Also, it should be noted that a lyrical theme about driving runs throughout both of these albums, and that the 4th song on Suicide's album is named "Johnny", while the 4th song on Nebraska is called "Johnny 99".  Plus, both albums have the same red, white, and black color scheme.  It may just be some crazy coincidence, as was the case with my partners mix and mine, but something tells me that there is more to this one than just blind luck...