During a 2012 talk at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference, Bruce Springsteen explained that he found the lick for “Badlands,” which appeared on Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), in “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by the Animals. Then he exclaimed, “Listen up youngsters, this is how successful theft is accomplished!”
The video of the entire speech is no longer on YouTube, but there are segments available, including the video below, which is set to start where he begins talking about the Animals.
In the rest of the speech, Springsteen explained the role that music has played in his life, including Elvis, Roy Orbison, and the Beatles. He discussed The Animals, complete with an acoustic rendition of “We Got to Get Out of This Place,” concluding, “that’s every song I’ve every written.”
I found the story about the “Badlands” riff interesting because I had not made the connection. But one may hear it now that he pointed it out. Here are the Animals performing “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” on The Ed Sullivan Show. The lick appears at several points, including the beginning and the end of the song.
Here is Springsteen performing “Badlands” at the Pinkpop festival in 2009.
Can you hear it? He did not mention the lyrics, but one might wonder whether “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” also inspired the “understood” line in the “Badlands” chorus:
“We’ll keep pushing ’til it’s understood / And these Badlands start treating us good.”
After the speech, Springsteen performed at SXSW and was joined onstage by Eric Burdon, the lead singer of the Animals (Chicago Tribune review here). So apparently there are no hard feelings about the larceny — or Springsteen’s comments earlier in the speech about how Burdon’s ugliness made him realize he could be a rock star too.
What do you think? Leave your two cents in the comments.
