{"id":177,"date":"2017-03-10T14:49:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T19:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=177"},"modified":"2020-10-05T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T20:08:11","slug":"bruce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/bruce\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the night a rock and roll legend took the stage in Pollak Theatre to share stories about his career, it was a pre-show announcement from President Paul Brown that provided the most newsworthy takeaway.<\/p>\n

While welcoming the sell-out crowd to January\u2019s \u201cA Conversation with Bruce Springsteen,\u201d Brown announced a new collaborative partnership to establish The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University. Through the collaboration, Monmouth becomes the official archival repository for Springsteen\u2019s written works, photographs, periodicals, and artifacts.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Moderator Robert Santelli \u201973, executive director of the Grammy Museum, and Springsteen discussed everything from music to activism.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news elicited applause that only amplified with Springsteen\u2019s arrival on stage moments later. The evening marked a homecoming of sorts for the singer, who regularly performed on campus in the 1960s and 1970s. That\u2019s where moderator Robert Santelli \u201973, executive director of the Grammy Museum, started the conversation, asking Springsteen about his appearances on the Great Lawn and in the college gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played some big shows here,\u201d Springsteen recalled, smiling. \u201cAt $1 per head, 2,000 people\u2014that money lasted a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting center stage, opposite Santelli, Springsteen was funny, candid, and at times disarmingly modest throughout the 90-minute conversation. At one point he recalled how as a teen, he watched bands perform at CYO dances in Freehold, New Jersey. Looking at lead singers and guitarists, he\u2019d tell himself, \u201cI can\u2019t do that.\u201d He didn\u2019t understand the bass, and drums were too expensive, he said, so he focused on the rhythm guitarist, standing in the back, strumming chords, and \u201clooking cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could be that guy,\u201d Springsteen said.<\/p>\n

When Columbia Records signed him in the early 1970s, Springsteen recalled, you were either a New York or California artist. Record executives wanted him to be the next Bob Dylan and for audiences to associate him with the Big Apple. But Springsteen wanted to remain loyal to his Jersey roots. A postcard he saw on the Asbury Park boardwalk gave him the idea for his first album title and cover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pulled it out and said, \u2018Yeah, Greetings from Asbury Park<\/em>,\u2019\u201d Springsteen said. \u201cThat\u2019s New Jersey. Who\u2019s from New Jersey? Nobody. It\u2019s all mine!\u201d<\/p>\n

As Springsteen detailed his journey from up-and-comer to critical darling with meager album sales to international superstar, he kept fans entertained\u2014and laughing. Some highlights:<\/p>\n

About his early songwriting techniques: \u201cI had a rhyming dictionary and I was going with it 100 percent,\u201d said Springsteen.<\/p>\n

On the pressure he felt to make a hit album following lackluster sales on the first two: \u201cOutside forces could never put more pressure on me than I put on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the universal appeal of \u201cBorn in the U.S.A.\u201d: \u201cThat song has been interpreted and misinterpreted so many times it appeals to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his epic 2009 Super Bowl halftime performance: \u201cIt was the most terrifying and thrilling 12 minutes of my work life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the conversation, Springsteen touched on many of the same events chronicled in his autobiography, Born to Run<\/em>. (Was it therapeutic to write, asked Santelli. \u201cI\u2019ve benefited a lot from the therapeutic value of therapy,\u201d the singer joked.) Nonetheless, fans were thrilled to hear Springsteen share those stories in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d said Albert Holguin, a music industry major and one of the audience members called on to ask Springsteen a question. \u201cVery rarely does one get to hear about the behind-the-scenes story that led to success, especially for an artist as successful as Bruce Springsteen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springsteen, never one to shy away from talking politics, kept the conversation focused on his career. But one of the last audience members to ask \u2028a question that night asked him about his activism.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is important to activism in the sense that it stirs passion,\u201d said Springsteen. \u201cIt stirs interest\u2026 [and] curiosity. It moves you to question your beliefs and strikes straight to your emotions. After you\u2019ve heard it, it marinates inside you and ends up coming out in your own energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music of activist artists like Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger is important in the same way hymns are important to churchgoers, said Springsteen. \u201cIt makes us stronger in our beliefs. And in a certain moment, the right song can start a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Breanne McCarthy and Tiffany Wysocki.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Bruce, The Institution<\/h2>\n

The new collaboration broadens an existing relationship between Springsteen and Monmouth University, which has served as the home of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection since 2011. The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music will preserve and promote the legacy of Bruce Springsteen and his role in American music while honoring and celebrating icons of American music like Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, and others. The expanded partnership will help to more deeply integrate the history and inspiration of American music into the curriculum and research experience at Monmouth. It will also serve to bolster an already highly successful music industry program at the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonmouth University is excited by the opportunity to grow our relationship with Bruce Springsteen,\u201d Monmouth University President Paul R. Brown said in a statement. \u201cOur partnership has been a natural one\u2014just steps from Springsteen\u2019s birthplace and the site where Born to Run<\/em>\u00a0was written, Monmouth University\u2019s location brilliantly captures the essence of Springsteen\u2019s music while providing the academic heft of one of only nine university affiliates of the Grammy Museum. The establishment of The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music celebrates and reinforces the Jersey Shore\u2019s legacy in the history of American music, while providing a truly transformative experience for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boss returns to Monmouth for a candid conversation and to mark the start of a new partnership with the university. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":50,\"y\":46}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67,66],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-music-industry"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Features","issue":"Spring 2017","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11728,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/11728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}