Driving Jersey: Bruce Springsteen Part 2

I grew up listening to my oldest brother listening to his music and I looked up to him and favored his taste, just like any little brother would. It was the early 80’s. He would rise with rock each morning before school. I lay in my kid bed there in South Jersey, attentive to his tunes. Bruce Springsteen welcomed me into each early day and life really, so I grew up, like many, particularly many in Jersey, feeling like Bruce was related to me. Sure, celebrity can have a unique effect on people, to make the fan feel close to the total stranger, but there's something else when it comes to Bruce. He's on a first name basis for a reason. His intention or maybe his only best option was to tell the stories of people like him, from places like his and thusly they found some easier path into our souls. In 1977 Bruce Springsteen played the Carleton Theater, described by locals as a shuttered theater, which opened for occasional shows. Today it is the renowned Count Basie Theater in Red Bank. "Born To Run" had come out two years earlier and Bruce had already had his face on the cover of Newsweek and Time Magazine in the same week, but there was still something of the rising star, the local boy makes good about him and the shows at the Carleton had that neighborhood intimacy about them. The best kept secret was already being shouted from the rooftops, but the locals were still holding on. The stories that were later told about "that night" in Red Bank are part of the pantheon of ...

Channel: YouTube Video Length: 9m 50s Date Found: Mon, Nov 08 2010 7:48 PM Category: Entertainment Date Produced: Sun, Nov 07 2010 11:17 PM View Count: 0