Springsteen: A Notion Deep Inside

By Greg Miller

Everybody has a hungry heart...and a Bruce story. At times comical, informative, and opinionated, author Greg Miller embarks on a casual jaunt through the timeline of Springsteen’s early career. From the diverse perspectives of unusual encounters and interviews, the author observes the emerging career of rock 'n roll's premier entertainer and explains why he is The Boss. .
Spanning a career of 47 years, Bruce has logged more than 1,750 concerts to date. There are fans and there are superfans. Springsteen A Notion Deep Inside interviews the superfans, one who attended 795 Bruce concerts (including all 113 on The Darkness tour), and explains why his fans know him as The Boss. Meet a fan with a 25-foot Bruce man cave mural and a fan who grew up with the family and reveals the location of Greasy Lake and an educated guess of where The River flows, and another fan who explains the science of getting those impossible-to-obtain Bruce tickets.
While the author shares stories of fans he met in the Caribbean, Peru and Ireland, fans who wanted to share their Springsteen stories, as with nearly all things Bruce, the journey begins and ends in New Jersey.
For the uninitiated, The Shore is explained, top to bottom, Keyport to Cape May, Shoobies and BENNYs, Mt. Mitchell, The Upstairs, The Student Price, and The Stony Pony, Jenks to Jimmy Byrne’s—they’re all in the book.
As a final observation, the author locates Bruce in the all-time rock ’n roll pantheon, and chisels his place on Rock’s Mt. Rushmore.
The companion website lists every Springsteen concert (and shows cancelled), unique memorabilia, rock lists, never-before-seen concert photos, and suggests road trips and further reading to explain the origin of the darkness that seeped into Bruce’s edge of town.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Section 1— Hors d'oeuvre—How to use this book
Section 2―Everybody Has a Hungry Heart
The French West Indies—of all Places
The Boss Almost Played Loyola in 1972
The Best Seats to See Bruce Were Free
Memorabilia- A Piece of the Boss
Intimacy–You Talking To Me?
Section 3—The Performer—New Jersey Finds Its Pride in Springsteen
When The Boss Outranks the Chairman of the Board
The Payoff—I’m On the Cover of Time and Newsweek
Getting tickets – Shut Out of the Meadowlands in 1984
A Hard Act to Follow
Growing Up—Variations on a Theme
The Venues—The Bottom Line
Section 4―His Music – More than Just an E Street Shuffle
Sparks Fly on E Street
Rock ’n roll Fusion
What Rock ’n roll Isn’t
At Its Best Rock is Inspirational
Bruce’s Music—“Lapsed-Catholic” Rock
Why are Bruce’s Songs So Dark—Connecting the Shadows
Jersey Calling—9/11
Section 5—The Fans and the Super Fans —Tramps Like Us
Philip “PJ” Petchers—A Bruce Concert Veteran
The Joe Lamm Interview
The Man Cave of John Norjen
Jim Erdman―In a League of His Own
Will O’Connor—The Professional Fan—A Local Hero
The B Street Band—The Replacements
How Long Can Bruce and the E Street Band Continue?
Section 6—Backstreets
Bruce and his Politics
Making Rock ’n roll Lists
What to Take to the Island—Rock ’n roll Lists
Being In the Conversation
Section 7—Trying to write this book
References—Sources and Suggested Reading Materials
About the Author
Also By The Author
Road Trips to Consider
If eBooks Had a Back Cover—This Would Be It
Endpiece

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greg Miller
• Release date: Jul 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311548535

Greg Miller

GREG MILLER is a national security reporter for the Washington Post. He was part of the team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their groundbreaking stories on Russia’s 2016 election interference and also part of the team awarded the 2014 Pulitzer for coverage of American surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden. 

Book preview

SPRINGSTEEN

A Notion Deep Inside

Everybody has a hungry heart…and a Bruce Story

By

Greg Miller

Copyright © 2016 by Greg Miller

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, or transmitted by email without permission in writing from the author.

While all attempts have been made to verify the information in this publication, the author does not assume any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretations of the subject matter this publication covers.

Smashwords Edition. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Visit the book’s companion website at www.BossScribbler.com.

Any perceived slight of any individual or organization is purely unintentional. This book is unauthorized by Bruce Springsteen.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Section 1— Hors d'oeuvre—How to use this book

Section 2―Everybody Has a Hungry Heart

The French West Indies—of all Places

The Boss Almost Played Loyola in 1972

The Best Seats to See Bruce Were Free

Memorabilia- A Piece of the Boss

Intimacy–You Talking To Me?

Section 3—The Performer—The Pride of New Jersey

When The Boss Outranks the Chairman of the Board

The Payoff—On the Cover of Time and Newsweek

Getting tickets – Shut Out of the Meadowlands in 1984

A Hard Act to Follow

Growing Up—Variations on a Theme

The Venues—The Bottom Line

Section 4―His Music – More than an E Street Shuffle

Sparks Fly on E Street

Rock ’n Roll Fusion

What Rock ’n Roll Isn’t

At Its Best Rock is Inspirational

Bruce’s Music—Lapsed-Catholic Rock

Why are Bruce’s Songs So Dark—Connecting the Shadows

Jersey Calling—9/11

Section 5—Fans, Super Fans and Tramps… Like Us

Philip PJ Petchers—Growing Up with The Boss

Joe Lamm—A Bruce Concert Veteran

The Man Cave of John Norjen

Jim Erdman―In a League of His Own

Will O’Connor—The Professional Fan—A Local Hero

The B Street Band—The Replacements

How Long Can Bruce and the E Street Band Continue?

Section 6—Backstreets

Bruce and his Politics

Making Rock ’n Roll Lists

What to Take to the Island—Rock ’n Roll Lists

Being In the Conversation

Section 7—Trying to write this book

References—Sources and Suggested Reading Materials

About the Author

Also By The Author

Road Trips to Consider

If eBooks Had a Back Cover—This Would Be It

Endpiece

Introduction

He was out of third chances most people don’t get. Not many people find themselves at the defining moment of their career having seen the path that led to it with such a clear-cut vision. He did and his failure at this moment of truth would be that much more crushing. This time, no circumstance of bad luck, bad timing, false reliance on someone else’s performance, an unforeseen miscalculation, or serendipitous accident—nothing out of his control—was going to destroy this chance. It was here, now, and in his hands.

That weight did not go unnoticed. His voice got huskier but he fought back.

Bruce Springsteen, a local boy from across the river, from a small New Jersey town named Freehold, made his way to the stage at The Bottom Line, an iconic New York City rock venue. Along the way, his progress was interrupted by a person with a microphone, connected to a live radio broadcast. The interviewer wasn’t a friend. Professionally speaking, he was a form of the enemy―a doubter, a blasphemer, an unbeliever. This man with a chip on his shoulder was asking—no, daring—this performer to put up or shut up.

If Springsteen faltered, the enemy and his allies would be on him like a pack of relentless, musical hounds on a troubadour fox. All he had to do to succeed was step up on that small stage and deliver the greatest rock ’n roll performance in The Bottom Line’s history—no small feat given who had graced the stage before him.

Sounding a bit punchy, much like a Rocky Balboa on the way to meet Apollo Creed, he made a raspy promise listeners would get his best effort, nothing less.

Then he got up on that stage and rocked liked few people had ever rocked before:

"One…Two…Three…Four…"

The rest is rock ’n roll history.

Acknowledgements

I wrote this book as a labor of love. I tried to make my personal reflections on the art and musical craft of Bruce Springsteen as accurate as possible. Memory is a dangerous resource to rely upon and time plays tricks on any retelling of even the most personal experiences. I haven’t made direct use of lyrics because that’s not what this book is about. There are many more Springsteen books out there that do a great job dissecting his songs and their authors have had much more direct access than I. This book is different from the others because the focus is not on the lyrics, specifically. Here, I try to explore the fans’ reaction to Bruce’s music and conversely, the impact his music has had on them and on me in particular.

This book is completely unauthorized by Bruce but then he shouldn’t have any say in how I form my own opinion about why and how I think his songs impacted his audience—and me in particular. Comparing the supposed intent and the relative degree of Bruce’s execution of his art is for critics, biographers and rock historians. Their stories are told from the outside. These chroniclers would do well to talk to me for a true fan’s perspective. I am an insider on the subject they are reporting. Before they knew who he was, I was a fan—an early adopter. That makes me a part of that history they’re reporting.

This book relates the story of my journey following Bruce down through the years with more of an emphasis on the early years rather than the last few. What he did and how he managed his commercial output had a huge impact on how I followed him but my involvement is serendipity. While Bruce is busy being a prisoner of rock ’n roll, I’m busy being a prisoner of everyday (normal, when compared to his) life.

I’ve read quite a few of the Springsteen books available and, in the appendix, I list the best of them, along with what makes them good and suggest which to read, intended to save you time. Like if you had time to read only one book—I mean after you’ve read mine—which one would I recommend reading first? This book is like an appetizer—lots of fun as a starter—and then, depending if you like your meals light or heavy, a precursor to the main entre.

There’s another reason why there are very few lyrics in this book. No need here to quote his songs. We all know them by heart.

In this book, I hope I make a convincing case why I think Springsteen is the epitome of a rocker. I have tried to characterize the reasons, using my personal experience as a basis. The kernel idea of this book is to back up that opinion using the details of his excellence, explained by my personal perceptions made during his rise to stardom.

I like to think that I was there at the very beginning but, I really wasn’t. My first brush was the fall of 1970. After that, there was a gap of two years and then an awakening in 1972, when Bruce appeared slightly again on my personal radar. A year after that, a college roommate, Chris, took me aside at our first college alumni homecoming weekend—October of 1973—and excitedly told me that a kid from his neighborhood just released an album.

Normally this would not be such a big deal but my total respect for my roommate’s appreciation and understanding of rock music had deep roots and his assertion that it wasn’t just a local kid making good but that the album was one of the best he’d ever heard was enough to make me take a serious second look. In later years, I remembered that my roommate was talking about Bruce as early as 1970 but I never made the connection between that guy and this New Jersey local’s first album. That story is detailed in this book.

Like so many other people, I couldn’t understand Chris’excitement and had to listen for myself. My first impression was that Bruce was the perfect merger of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, at least in how they sounded up to that point in their respective careers. That was the sound. What impressed me more were the lyrics. My belief is that sound always gets people into the tent. To keep them there and make them true believers, the lyrics have to have meaning. Not only did the lyrics make incredible sense, but I was questioning if I had ever heard ideas expressed like that before. He spoke in Dylan-esque images and metaphors but they were more understandable than Dylan’s. They were about a Jersey boy, not some guy from Minnesota inventing his identity as a dust bowl troubadour interpreting hard times in New York City.

Previous to that October of ’73, during late night dorm debates, my roommates had argued about who was the best rock band frontman (throw in Janis Joplin at the time if you ignore the man reference). Morrison, Robert Plant, Ozzy, Jagger were names we tossed around but Chris was adamant about this one, unknown guy, and he didn’t hesitate to name the lead singer of Steel Mill. That was October 1970, and my roommate was quite familiar with the bands that plied the Jersey shore bar scene. In that respect, I can say my exposure to Bruce goes back to then but my direct experience only dates to 1973. That easily trumps anyone who bought or received Born in the USA as their first Springsteen album as a Christmas present in 1984.

Over the years, I bumped into people who saw him perform at various venues around the state (usually college concerts—Seton Hall or Notre Dame, for example) but it would take until June 6, 1978 until I would attend my first live concert featuring Jersey’s favorite son. Move over Frank Sinatra. We love you, but you’ve been replaced as the Boss, the Chairman of the Board or whatever spot you’ve claimed for yourself. Frank, you’re classic but we’re talking mob-free rock ’n roll. You were the coolest guy on the planet—Snoopy with the sunglasses―but Bruce is the greaser kid who lives down the street. When you enter the state via any major road, Route 202, Route 80, the New Jersey Turnpike, or come out of the Lincoln Tunnel, signs do not evoke your first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, they mimic Bruce’s Greetings From Asbury Park.

This is my story, which takes an alternate look at Bruce’s stardom, and adding to the small mountain of information on the subject, hopes to bring some new perspectives to the table. This is a very personal story, a personal journal of experiencing the Bruce Springsteen phenomenon.

There were a lot of people who contributed in varying degrees to my narrative and what follows is a limited list of people I am indebted to in compiling this story. There’s PJ Petchers, the man who sold my daughter her first car, whose love for Bruce’s music made him tape a set list to his office wall, where I stumbled on it. The members of the B Street Band who were gracious enough to share their thoughts. My friend, April Higuera, allowed me inside a recording studio on the Upper West Side to see how her music is made and translated to audio medium and gave me good insights into how accomplished musicians are real people, too. Thanks go out to buddy, Bryan Gardner―for spectacular reference tools, Bruce ideas, and getting me tickets when I had given up. Bryan is a gifted rock critic who, for some reason, refuses to write critiques professionally; my other work buddy, John Disposti, for the rock ’n roll skull sessions that keep me from making too many egregious errors of fact as my brain and memory dry up. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Christiane Bezerra, a cover design wizard, who improved my original design, drawing on her extensive experience and mastery of desktop publishing. My long-time friends, Harold and Nina—for the blind faith of allowing me to spend their money on very expensive tickets, Bruce being to them, a total unknown, and then giving me the vicarious thrill of watching them go through the shock of their first live Bruce experience at the same time as I did.

I know I’m leaving people out. Steve and Nancy Collins, Mike Kaiser, my crazy apartment roommates from Loyola: Tom Montgomery, Rick Cumby, Billy Wiegand and of course, the biggest early adopter of Bruce, Chris Connolly. Thanks to Jim Erdman, John and LaDonna Norjen and Joe Lamm for letting me invade their privacy and sharing why they went to that many concerts. Thanks also to Will O’Connor for his honest thoughts about performing Bruce songs and, Aidan Quirke, owner of the Round Tower Hotel in Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland who introduced me to Will.

I thank my kids for allowing me to enjoy their appreciation of Springsteen but more for their patience listening to so much Bruce in the car during the parent-taxi years. Finally, to my wife, a true Jersey Girl, who long ago stopped rolling her eyes at the mention of the Boss, but allows me to indulge in my minor obsession. She burned out on the Boss about 1979 but, as I found out writing this book, that’s not uncommon when you’re married to a person who values Bruce’s rock ’n roll above all others.

Section 1— Hors d'oeuvre— How to Use This Book

After graduating from college, after ingesting all that required reading, I discovered one of the best ways to read a nonfiction book. The funny part was not only was it normally there all the time, staring me in the face, but conveniently, it is usually the first part in the book after the acknowledgements and prefaces. The title to this hint isn’t disguised either. Most times it reads How to Use This Book.

As an adolescent you hated being told how to do anything, like read a book. You open it, skip all the front matter until you get to the stuff that was going to be on the test. Professors in college hated it when they were peppered with that question at the class before the test, exam, quiz or whatever. To them, the question had to sound something like we really don’t care about learning the material, we just need to know what to read to score a passing grade on your test, and of course, knowing what you’re going to ask would help us a lot.

I decided not to tell you how to read this book, but I will tell you how I would read it and where you can find things if you’re in a hurry. So few things were written about Bruce in the first twenty years of his career that when I found something I would savor it, ration it, save it for a time when I could quietly cuddle up in a favorite chair and enjoy it. And, in those early days, for the first five to ten years, when Bruce and his manager were media control freaks, there was very little video available. In this day of YouTube and streaming concerts that may sound odd. There were no DVDs, only VHS cassettes.

I can only remember two cuts of concert footage being released. When Bruce played Madison Square Garden, the New York area TV stations played the tease game. At the beginning of the newscast they announced, Bruce played the Garden, and [reporter’s name] was there. They would tease that two or three more times at every commercial break until the last two minutes of the broadcast and then cut to a 20-second, long-distance shot of the stage, for footage taken near the beginning of the show. Then they would cut away and toss about news studio banter and joke the next 20 seconds to give the audience the impression that they followed Bruce’s career and they were hip.

The alternative was to show fifteen seconds of the same video clip of either Rosalita or Thunder Road from an early concert. There just was nothing else available for the media. I felt as though I was part of a cult following Bruce. The mainstream media only commented here and there to express either surprise at how good he was, coming from nowhere (code word for New Jersey), or the article would take a pot shot declaring that he was popular at the moment, a flash in the pan poised to fizzle out shortly. After all, he was from Jersey, rock’s wasteland. But I digressed from how to read this book.

The first part modestly deals with some of the unique Bruce situations I found myself in, some from around the world. I devote several chapters to Bruce the performer, what makes him special, the emphasis on how he was experienced as he matured and developed his career. The next section deals with the music without doing a titration of his lyrics. No need, everyone else already has, nobody needs to hear again who Scooter was. But for fun I do have a photo of the shore town street sign where the band got its name and I identify the real Greasy Lake and make an educated guess which river he was talking about in The River.

Then, one of my favorite parts follows, interviews of several super fans, one who went to 895 Bruce concerts, including all 113 of the Darkness tour shows. The last narrative part tries to summarize this whole tract and challenges you to place Bruce in a rock ’n roll perspective, making a fictional trip to Bruce Island and pre-empting the role of a Saint Peter at rock ’n roll’s Judgment Gate.

At the end of the book is an appendix with references. I list what I think are the primary books to read, assuming you’ve never picked up any actual books on Bruce, but I also included the major periodical articles that are must-read, that is, if you consider yourself a true Bruce fan. If you qualify, then you can either quote the articles to me chapter and verse, or you can start writing that thank-you email to me for wising you up before your fellow fans call you out. The web links are on the book website.

One of the best parts of a Springsteen concert is when he weaves stories into his songs. I was fortunate enough at the outset to get my hands on several good bootleg cassettes from his club days and from the beginning of the arena tours. I find it curious how much I valued those bootlegs at the time, and today those and many more are easily available on the net. On the companion website to this book (http://www.BossScribbler.com) I included a list of the bootlegs that were available in 1980. The listing shows 93 different performances.

That gives you an idea of how his cult following was already developing a network of bootlegs. Now, 36 years later when this eBook is being published, the list of bootlegs is endless. Back then bootlegs came on cassette tapes and cost me a whopping $2.00 each, so I gave the guy a ten and asked him to pick out the ones with the best stories. (Concert tickets cost $8.50 then.) After 1980, I lost track of that bootlegger. The website lists every performance from every tour.

The stories in this book relate to how I experienced his early career and what was happening at the time. Those of us in the early cult following literally grew up with Bruce. He’s sixteen months older than me so I can pretty much match a lot of what I was feeling at that part of my life with the parts of his personal life that he was peeling onion skin-like in his songs. Granted, my decisions weren’t how to fight a legal battle with my first manager but my major early career decisions came at about the same time as his. Decisions about marrying, starting a family, and where my next dollar was coming from occupied me at about the same time, just sometimes on different scales.

I would be wondering how much of my salary I should put aside each week to meet my college loan repayment or if I could even afford to contribute to a 401(k) plan. At