10 Bands Who Used Songs To 'One-Up' Rival Artists
3. The Traveling Wilburys Mimicked The Boss On 'Tweeter And The Monkey Man'
The supergroup the Traveling Wilburys coming together in the late 80's was a match made in rock and roll heaven. With some of the greatest rock songwriters like George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan in the same band, the material this group would create was destined to be modern classics. Then again, that didn't stop them from dabbling in other artists' styles too.
Towards the tail end of the band's first record, the song "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" comes on, telling a dark story of a man on the run and fleeing from the law. While the song is a near-cinematic event to listen to, the initial idea actually came from friendly mockery of another rock songsmith.
The composition was originally started by Dylan, who had become fascinated with the more everyman storytelling Bruce Springsteen employed in his tunes.
In an effort to capture that working class hard lifestyle, the band put together the song piece by piece until they created their ultimate road dog story. Though the other members maintain it wasn't meant to poke fun at the Boss, the entire song stands as one of the greatest Springsteen tunes not to come from the E Street Band.