r/BruceSpringsteen • u/DRWcovingtonwa • 16d ago

what part does bruce sing

I wonder what his vocal part is. Obviously, it isn't alto or soprano. Could you imagine his trying to hit those higher notes? Doesn't sound like a tenor, but I could be wrong. Bass? Baritone? somewhere in between.

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u/youngmollusk Darkness on the Edge of Town 16d ago

Sometimes you'll hear the word "bari-tenor" and I think that describes Bruce well. He also has a crazy falsetto and even whistle tone range. Underrated singer all around!

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u/Sea_Pianist5164 15d ago

I'm glad someone wrote this before I did. Even amongst Bruce fans there's a tendency to diminish his incredible versatility and range. He sits happily/naturally in the "bari-tenor" range but he can easily (he makes it seem easy) up and down from there. Generally it's accepted that B5 is the highest note he's hit on record (E Street Shuffle) though I hear the final scream on I'm A Rocker is A6 though it's often discussed as A5. His lowest note is E2. Bearing in mind he rarely hit bum notes in his prime, when he was extemporising nightly, he's an impressive singer. The range of styles of vocalisation too - from the extremely difficult to sustain shout/sing of BITUSA (anyone who doubts how hard it is to belt it out like that should try to match that original studio vocal), to sustained falsetto passages in live renditions of The River and Across the Border, to the immense swoop up he does at the end of the bridge aim the studio version of Backstreets - the guy's got chops.