Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
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 hat do Roy Bittan, Danny Federici and Garry Tallent have
in common with Nils Lofgren, Steve Van
Zandt, Clarence
Clemons, Max Weinberg
and Patty Scialfa?Among
other ties, they've all been entertaining Jersey Shore residents and
visitors for years: |
- In concert settings;
- In small local venues;
- In solo acts and;
- As members of a wide variety of bands.
The common thread in mind here though,
according to the official Bruce
Springsteen Web site, they're all members of the
E-Street Band.
During the more than twenty-five years since the release of his
debut album: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, Springsteen has been known
to make impromptu solo appearances at a variety of Jersey Shore clubs including
the recently resurrected Stone Pony,
and on occasion has been joined by one or more members of the band. These
appearances make the news because it's so unusual for a rock super-star of
international acclaim to take the time out to get personal with small
audiences.
Though there's little doubt those local performances would
have occurred over the years either way, their newsworthiness was by no means
guaranteed in the early days. With poor sales of that debut album and the
follow-up release of The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, Columbia was
considering dropping the act. Then came the wildly successful Born to Run
in 1975 and a long timeline
of achievements was in the making.
Controversy and stardom are usually synonymous and Springsteen is no
exception. His songs have been used and misused in philosophical arguments as
well as in political campaigns over most of his career. The most recent brouhaha
surfaced in response to the live
performances of American Skin (41-Shots) during the spring/summer 2000 concert tour.
This song doesn't mention the death of Amadou Diallo in a police shooting the
previous year by name, but the oft repeated chorus referring to forty-one
shots is an obvious reference to that case.
The controversies will come and go, but we certainly hope that
Bruce is making good music and those impromptu local stops
at the Jersey Shore for many years to come.
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