Dr. J's Blog
Rock and Roll History, News & Views
Springsteen Pt. 3 - Born To Run
Although sales of “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” album remained slow, Springsteen and the E Street Band continued to perform live to great reviews. Music critic Jon Landau wrote a highly influential review after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater in Boston, and it included this soon-to-be-famous quote: “I saw rock and roll’s future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. On a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the first time”.
Springsteen Pt. 2 - Greetings From Asbury Park
Springsteen's road to recording his first album had many twists and turns. He had met Virgil "Tinker" West, owner of the Eastern Challenger Surfboard Company at The Upstage. Tinker started managing Child, and after moving out of the old family home in Freehold, Bruce began living at the surfboard factory in Asbury Park and using it as a rehearsal space for the band. Child was basically a bar band that played some original music along with covers.
Springsteen Pt. 1 - Freehold Days
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born on Sept. 23, 1949. He was the first of three children (he had two younger sisters) to be born to Douglas and Adele Springsteen. Although he came into the world in a hospital in Long Branch, New Jersey, Springsteen grew up in Freehold, a small town of under 10,000 residents located in Monmouth County, about 15 miles west of the New Jersey shore and the coastal town of Asbury Park.