Sunday, April 2, 2023 Entry #61
There are a handful of well-known people who have made their otherwise off the radar and non-descript places of origin famous and iconic. Off the top of my head right now I would name Presidents Jimmy Carter (Plains, GA) and Bill Clinton (Hope, AK); author Mark Twain (Hannibal, MO); and basketball superstar Larry Bird (French Lick, IN). And obviously, rock star and subject of this blog, Bruce Springsteen (Asbury Park, NJ).
Although Springsteen actually grew up in nearby Freehold, it was Asbury Park, right off the ocean, where the young Springsteen first experienced adolescent freedom, sunning and swimming at the beach by day and mingling with his friends and the characters on the boardwalk at night. Most importantly, Springsteen cut his first real teeth as a young rock guitarist, bandleader and songwriter at Asbury Park’s clubs, bars and boardwalk bandshells. If Springsteen’s celebrity raised the profile of the entire state of New Jersey, the resulting exposure given to his initial musical stomping grounds ensured that Asbury Park suddenly became one of the most identifiable spots on its map. A recent article on the place that the New York Times called “one of the country's coolest boardwalk towns” stated that “City officials give much of the credit for the resort’s transformation and popularity to Springsteen.”
Springsteen has written and recorded a plethora of songs that reference various locales, personalities, and landmarks from up and down the Jersey Shore including Asbury Park. Some of these tunes portray the area in downcast and cynical tones, others are more sentimental and affirming, but clearly Asbury Park has long been one of Springsteen’s primary muses. Even though Springsteen now can fill stadiums world wide, he still shows up at intimate local music venues like the Stone Pony to hang out, check out bands, and often enough take to their stages in completely unannounced appearances in front of dumbstruck and very lucky audiences. Springsteen has filmed music videos, posed for photo shoots, rehearsed for world tours, and performed at benefits in various locations mere miles from where he was born and raised. He still lives in the area today. Springsteen’s very first album which was released in 1972, his recorded introduction to the world outside his New Jersey home, was famously entitled “Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey.”
I’ve certainly known about Asbury Park from almost as far back as I have been a Springsteen fan. However, even though I spent a number of years living in the greater New York area, including a short stint in Hoboken, N.J. in the early 1990’s, I had not ever checked out the Jersey Shore. As The Boss started to occupy a renewed and increased slice of my attention during and after the pandemic, it became crystal clear to me that it would be important for my Springsteen journey that while in the area for Bruce’s Madison Square Garden concert, I make a pilgrimage to the places Springsteen wrote and sang about in songs like “My Hometown.”
Searching the internet, I found out about Stan Goldstein and Jean Mikle, who give Springsteen-focused tours of the area. Excitedly, I contacted them only to be informed that they were already booked solid in early April. I resigned myself to reading up on the the relevant sites and doing something self-guided. However, just a few weeks later, Stan wrote me to say that because of the heightened demand due to Springsteen’s upcoming concerts in New York and New Jersey, he was expanding from small car tours to large groups on coach busses, so there was now room for me-I was in!
Even after the high of Jungleland and the entire experience at the Garden, I still had to return to Greenwich Village after the show, this time to check out the late night stand-up comedy scene which I enjoyed almost (but not quite) as much as the music the night before. Nevertheless, I awakened early on the day after to return to Penn Station (which directly connects to Madison Square Garden), this time to actually catch a train on the North Jersey Coast Line.
From the Asbury Park station, I made my way to the Stone Pony, naturally our meeting place. The club is still a vibrant live music venue with a full schedule, featuring both local and national artists. As a scrappy musician with a growing hot-shot reputation who started making the scene when he was still a teenager, Bruce Springsteen had performed at plenty of other clubs in the area well before he first appeared at the Stone Pony during its inaugural year in 1974. But, at this point all these years later, Springsteen hasn’t played anywhere in the world more often than he has performed at Asbury Park’s Stone Pony, 100 appearances there and counting.
I located the bus, our guides Stan and Jean (also co-authors of “Rock & Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore”), and the dozens of Springsteen loyalists who like me had a ticket for the tour and who had come to Asbury Park literally from all over the world.
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It felt perfectly right that I was there and I was excited about what I was about to see and experience. Stay tuned for my report on the tour. All aboard!