Friday, September 25, 2009

Fans Meet in Jersey to Mark 60th Birthday, Springsteen Scholars


Springsteen turned 60 on Wednesday. In his honor, fans and music-loving scholars from around the world have collected in his home state of New Jersey. The event is more than a rock star’s birthday party.
About 130 educators, journalists, historians and musicologists will present academic papers at [bn:URL=http://www.cpe.vt.edu/glorydays/registration.html
p://www.cpe.vt.edu/glorydays/registration.html] “Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium.” [] The event, which is open to the public, is taking place through the weekend at Monmouth University in West Long Branch and the Sheraton Center in nearby Eatontown.
Bruce Springsteen, at age 60, continues to be vibrant and relevant and a cultural figure worthy of study and discussion,” said Mark Bernhard, the director of continuing and professional education at Virginia Tech and the conference’s arranger.
Participants will hear from Vini Lopez, the first drummer in Springsteen’s E Street Band; Joe Grushecky, who has written songs, recorded and played with him, and the person Springsteen called his “landlordess” at the New Jersey house where he wrote his breakthrough album, “Born to Run.”
The symposium follows a similar event four years ago. Virginia Tech put together this year’s event with Penn State Altoona, which sponsored the 2005 symposium.
Lopez will appear on a panel about Danny Federici, the E Street Band keyboardist who died of melanoma last year. Robert Santelli, executive director of the Grammy Museum and author of the book “Greetings from E Street,” and Tinker West, a former Springsteen manager, will join him.
Stone Pony Concerts
Grushecky, who made the “American Babylon” album with Springsteen’s help in 1995 and later co-wrote the song “Code of Silence” with him, will talk about the collaborations. He will also perform at the Stone Pony nightclub in Asbury Park, which has scheduled three nights of Springsteen- related shows in conjunction with the symposium.
An onstage interview with Marilyn Rocky, the “landlordess,” will conclude the event. Rocky rented him a home in Long Branch, New Jersey, in April 1974. He lived there until after “Born to Run” was released the next year. She will also discuss her correspondence with the star.
This writer, who also attended the previous symposium, will conduct the interview and present “Greetings from Freehold: How Bruce Springsteen’s Hometown Shaped His Life and Work.”
The program includes talks by the authors of two books about Springsteen: Jim Cullen (“Born in the U.S.A.”) and Eric Alterman (“It Ain’t No Sin to Be Glad You’re Alive”).
Jim Musselman, whose Appleseed Recordings has released four songs featuring Springsteen, will host a panel examining his social consciousness. Another panel, “The Road to Resilience in Hard Times,” will address how Springsteen’s music helps fans deal with personal and economic loss.

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