New Jersey or Bust
On April 14, 2023 I fulfilled a long-time dream of seeing Bruce Springsteen in his home state of New Jersey. As soon as I heard that Bruce was going on tour, I decided this was the tour because who knows how many more opportunities there will be. Afterall, Bruce is in his seventies. I fought through all the hurdles of Ticketmaster’s lottery ticket buying process and scored seats for the April 14th show at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The concert in Newark did not disappoint! Just waiting to enter arena, met fans from as far away as Netherlands and Italy. Bruce opened the show with a special performance of Local Hero which had not been heard on tour. The E Street Band sounded awesome and the brass section he had on this tour really added to the live performance. At one point during the show, a young lady celebrating her 21st birthday invited Bruce to share a shot which he gladly did. On his first encore, Bruce performed a very moving acoustic version of I’ll See You in My Dreams as a tribute to his nephew who had passed away earlier in the day. The entire night was magical, but for me the highlight had to be when he and 18,000 fans sang Jersey Girl. Bucketlist item checked!
The morning after the concert, I decided to make a pilgrimage to Bruce’s hometown of Freehold, New Jersey. So many of Bruce’s lyrics are about growing up in this quaint central Jersey town. It is a must visit for any true Springsteen fan! I began my Freehold visit on Randolph Street to visit St. Rose of Lima catholic church where Bruce was baptized and attend elementary school. Unfortunately, his childhood home at 87 Randolph Street is now a parking lot for the church so you can only experience it through his description in his Born to Run autobiography.
Next stop in Freehold was the home at 39 ½ Institute Steet where Bruce lived during his middle school years. There is a famous publicity photo of Bruce leaning up against this old tree on the property. A popular stop for stalkers, I mean fans, is to recreate that iconic photo. The two-story white duplex at 68 South Street was Bruce’s last home in Freehold. This home is the setting for so many of Bruce’s stories of confrontations with his father including the morning he returned home from his draft physical: he was rejected! Bruce also lived in this home a short while after his parents moved to Northern California. He shared the home with early bandmates Mad Dog Lopez and long-time E Street organist, Danny Fiderici.
A stroll down Main Street in Freehold you can’t help but hear his music in your head. In order to really understand his music, you have to walk the same streets. Inside the Freehold Fire Department is a bright yellow tanker truck bearing “Born to Run” on the door. Bruce donated money for the new truck years ago. Ironically, Bruce’s youngest son, Sam, is a firefighter in Jersey City. Bruce has traveled all over the world, but he still lives 10 minutes from his hometown in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey. As a departed Freehold on my way “down the shore”, I listened to his live 1985 performance of My Hometown.
The next stop on the Jersey tour was the seaside town of Asbury Park. This boardwalk town used to be a popular seaside escape for New Yorkers, but really fell into tough times and decay during the 1980s. Thanks to the efforts of dedicated citizens and a few famous benefactors, Danny DeVito is from Asbury Park, the town is really on a rebound. Bruce refined his musical skills during his years in Asbury Park and his name is synonymous with the town. As a young musician, Bruce played in many of the bars in town including the Student Prince on Kingsley Street. As Bruce tells the story, on one stormy night he was in the Student Prince jamming when a young saxophone player named Clarence Clemmons walked through a door that was literally blown open by the storm. The rest was history. Other venues in town that Bruce performed as a young musician were the Upstage Club where he met Little Steven and the Wonder Bar on Ocean Avenue.
But of all the Asbury Park clubs, the Stone Pony stands out as an icon. The club located at Ocean & Second is where Bruce has performed more than any other venue. He met his wife Patti at the Stone Pony one evening when she auditioned for him prior to the Born in the USA tour. Sitting inside the Pony enjoying a cold beer you can just feel the history of the place surrounded by wall-mounted guitars including a Strat signed by Bruce behind the bar. There were many people in the club that afternoon who had also been at the concert the previous evening. Before leaving had to purchase a classic, black Stone Pony Asbury Park t-shirt to say I was there!
Finished up with visit to Asbury Park with stroll down the boardwalk along the Atlantic Ocean. Started at the south end at the beautiful Victorian era carousel house and ended at the Convention Hall where as a young man Bruce saw Chubby Checkers, The Doors, and The Who. Prior to the 1999 reunion tour, Springsteen and the E Street Band rehearsed in the historic Convention Hall for three weeks often opening up the doors and windows to the beach letting fans listen in on rehearsals. No trip to the Asbury Park boardwalk would be complete without a visit to Madame Marie’s psychic booth which has been a staple since 1932. Lyrics from Bruce’s song Fourth of July (Sandy) read “the cops finally busted Madame Marie for telling fortunes better than they do”. The Asbury Park boardwalk and Madame Marie’s were also featured in the classic episode of the Sopranos titled “Funhouse”: that was part of a dream sequence Tony had after getting food poisoning. Before leaving the boardwalk, I wanted to visit the memorial bench for Clarence Clemmons and pay my respects to the “Big Man” while enjoying the ocean view.
RIP Big Man
I finished off my Springsteen pilgrimage by visiting the intersection of 10th Avenue & E Street in Belmar, New Jersey. Both streets have great significance in Springsteen lure. The song Tenth Avenue Freezeout has been a mainstay on the Springsteen set list for decades. In the early days of the E Street Band, they had a keyboard player who lived on E Street in Belmar. As Clarence told the story, they spent so much time on E Street waiting for this guy that they decided to give the street’s name to the band! And that is how a Rock N Roll Hall of Fame band got its name. My final stop of the day was at 7 ½ West End Court in Long Branch, New Jersey. Between 1974-1975, Bruce lived in this tiny blue house with not much more than his aunt’s piano and wrote his breakthrough album Born to Run…and the rest was history!
On a quiet Sunday morning drive through the upscale suburbs northwest of Newark, I drove up to 14 Aspen Drive in North Caldwell, New Jersey. If you’ve ever seen the hit TV series The Sopranos, this home needs no explanation. This large house with a sweeping driveway was the filming location of Tony Sopranos home for the duration of the series. Although the home is privately owned and they have polite signs asking visitors to “stay off the lawn”, fans arrive by the bus loads to visit this iconic home and take pictures from the street…include myself! I finished up my own Sopranos tour by visiting the filming location of the final scene from the series: Holsten’s in Broomfield, New Jersey. It is actually an old ice cream parlor with a candy store that serves burgers as well as ice cream concoctions. They do a pretty good job hyping up that they were the scene of the finale. The booth where Tony and his family were seated has a plaque commemorating the event and they sell t-shirts. I enjoyed a lunch of a cheeseburger, onion rings (they were excellent), and a hot fudge sundae.
After eating like a gangster, I drove over to the Thomas Edison National Historic Park in West Orange, New Jersey. The park is operated by the National Park Service, and you can walk about his complex of workshops, laboratories, and offices. I really enjoyed touring through all the old machine shops with all their visible belt-drive systems from the original stream powerplant later converted to electric motor. Edison’s library is a two-story cavernous room with his roll-top desk right in the middle and several cool artifacts such as an electrified winged angel from the 1893 World’s Fair and an early movie projector. Interesting note on his library was Mrs. Edison had a bed installed so that Mr. Edison could take naps in his later years. Roaming the grounds, you can see the world’s first movie studio that is actually on a turntable to be repositioned to allow natural sunlight inside. There are numerous artifacts displayed on the top floor as well. A short drive from the lab complex is Glenmont which was Edison’s private estate. Although it was closed in mid-April when I was there, I was able to walk around the grounds and pay my respects to the Edison and his wife, Mina, who are buried out back. If you’re ever in the Newark area, it is well worth a visit…very cool place!
Before heading back to New England, I made a trip about an hour south to Millstone Township, New Jersey. I wanted to visit Colonial RV who was the only dealer on the East Coast at the time that had a Winnebago Ekko on display in the showroom. I had been researching this particular model for about a year and really wanted to see one in person. I liked it so much that I placed an order for one with an expected delivery of about April 2024. I drove home from New Jersey after a great four day trip and dreams of the adventure to come!
