You are correct, although Brian Wilson too should be added to Lennon/McCartney/Harrison....when it comes to "Top 40 Pop Groups" bringing those things to the mainstream in a way that was now suddenly "okay" for "mere" pop groups to do. See "Good Vibrations" for a famous and pivotal example (again, at least in terms of pop).
Since a lot of these seem to be production related, I'd throw in Cher's "Believe" with it first exaggerated use of Auto-Tune
Influences, certainly . And “ Telstar” as well. But nothing Spector ever produced was as powerful and intense as “ Born to Run” And there were no female voices in sight.
I guess this depends on how literally we interpret the thread's concept. Obviously "BTR" the song comes with a clear "Wall of Sound" influence, but I don't think there are any "WoS" songs that sound like it. Every song shows some influence. In the spirit of the thread, some have less influence than others, but nothing just appears out of nowhere without some nugget of precedent...
I don’t think there’s any one song that is not influence by something that came before. Even Autobahn or I Feel Love — or Blitzkreig Bop, for than matter—we’re influenced by something. But is the finished product fresh, new and exciting and unlike anything else in the air? I think the three examples above— and Born to Run fit that criteria. B2R is clearly influenced by Spector, but no Spector production I can think of was ever driver by such a powerful guitar riff.
You can name dozens of records that "Born to Run" kinda sounds like. "BTR" is arugably better than 95 percent of those records, but that doesn't mean there was no precedent for it.
This song always makes me wonder: How would you know what the first time feels like, if it's the first time?? Kind of messes with my head.
It's a bit of a hybrid. I've always thought it sort of sounded like Neil Diamond's BROTHER LOVE'S TRAVELIN' SALVATION SHOW had it been produced in the same manner as Dusty Springfield's STAY AWHILE. There's also an argument to be made that it sounds a little like Wizzard's "Angel Fingers" from a couple of years earlier:
Of course se was not, as the overmentioned Revolution. N. 9 was a take on musique concrete. Se was well familiar with - part of - the Fluxus movement and well attuned to contemporary and conceptual art. The point is: everybody is influenced by somebody or something, whether is it openly or covertly. But I think the point of the OP was to find originality inside of a specific delimited genre, that came to influence hugely what happened next. If we don't keep this in mind, well nobody is truly original.
"Smashed!Blocked!" - John's Children. All I know is,when I first heard this unique sound coming out of my radio, I had to go out and get the 45.
I don’t hear the similarity, but then again , I always thought — but no one ever knows. what I’m talking about — that Born to Run’s opening riff is distantly related to Take It Easy , by The Eagles Hearing Bruce’s acoustic version made me realize that.
That one has a strong Sunflower-era Beach Boys vibe to it. In fact, I'd call it a direct descendant of Cool, Cool Water (with about 10 cubic centimeters of All I Wanna Do thrown in the mix).