Bruce Springsteen is looking back at one of the biggest honours of his career with surprising humility.
The rock legend, 76, recently reflected on winning an Oscar for Streets of Philadelphia, the song he made for the 1993 film Philadelphia, telling U2 frontman Bono during a Tribeca Festival Storytellers event that the achievement was largely down to luck.
“It really was because Jonathan Demme called me up and said, ‘I need a rock song for the movie I just made,’” Springsteen recalled of the late director behind the 1993 drama.
The Boss explained that Demme initially wanted a rock track and even shared a brief clip from the film to inspire him. But despite his efforts, Springsteen couldn’t make that idea work.
“I tried to write him a rock song when I just couldn’t,” he said. Instead, he turned to a small synthesizer and drum machine he had at home. “In a couple of days I wrote the song.”
Springsteen admitted he wasn’t even sure whether Demme would like the finished product. “I sent it to him and he roughed it into the film, and then I sent him a real version, and he threw that out and kept the rough version that I sent him, and then we won the Oscar,” he reflected.
“It was really one of those things. If you do good things, good things happen,” Springsteen continued. “So Jonathan Demme, who is deeply missed and was a wonderful, wonderful man, incredible filmmaker, kind of invited me into his film and I guess we lucked out.”
Philadelphia starred Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington and tackled the AIDS crisis through the story of a lawyer fighting workplace discrimination.
The song went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, multiple Grammys, a Golden Globe and several other major awards.
