What exit is he from again?
We are all from somewhere. That somewhere could be where you were born. For many people that somewhere is where we consider ourselves to be from. For example: Robert Tantiado was born in Muntinlupa, the Philippines, but Bob, as many of my friends call me, is from Houston, Texas. Somewhere is where you tell people you’re from. It’s what most people would consider their hometown. It’s where the sports team you root for are located, and most importantly it’s where your socio-cultural identity was forged. As for one of America’s greatest troubadours, his somewhere is New Jersey.
Unlike a good number of UTD students and faculty who are migrants, domestic or international, Springsteen was born and raised in roughly the same geographic location. But what his upbringing lacks in spatial change, it made up for in cultural change. Born just as the cold war was starting to crystallize, he would spend much of his childhood in what we would call “the postwar boom”: a time of boundless growth, that we living in the 21st century are often envious of. But Springsteen’s early years were not the financially untroubled era that we often think of; he grew up in a blue-collar family in the Jersey Shore adjacent town of Freehold, NJ (whose other main point of interest is an abandoned carpet mill), with a father with mental health struggles who worked many odd jobs, and a mother who did her best to support a family of five. This is and was Springsteen’s somewhere.
The epoch in which Springsteen came into adulthood was even less stable. He was a concussion away from being drafted into the Vietnam War. He then proceeded to use his newly found time to get straight to making music. All of this is to say, Springsteen knew what it was like to have his somewhere be utterly nowhere. He grew up in a time and a place that is incredibly close and at the same time distant to the idea of America, growing up in what could be argued to be the greatest time to be an American (if you shared Springsteen’s socio-cultural background), while simultaneously seeing little of the benefits. A quote from a press conference puts it best: “I’ve spent much of my life judging the distance between the American Reality and the American Dream.” Not only did he make a career judging the distance, he grew up experiencing it.
Okay…. Enough of me rewriting his wikipedia article. You came here for an assessment of how the Boss’s music was influenced by his home state, and you will get that assessment. The thing is, Springsteen doesn’t write about New Jersey all that often. When you look at his discography as a whole, his music reflects the zeitgeist of post-industrial America. The somewhere of much of his music is anywhere that has been left behind by time and progress. Unless you grew up in Beverly Hills or the Upper East Side, his music is likely to a certain extent—reflective of your hometown. The music where he alludes to his home state often came from the earliest (some say best) part of his career. Let us take a look at a sampling of some of the Boss’s work, and see how the Cornerstone State gave him inspiration for much of his work.
Starting with one of his first albums: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. The track “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” pulls no punches in establishing Springsteen’s Jersey Shore bona fides. The song, which came out just over half a century ago, paints a vivid scene of a blossoming romance in the midst of the eccentric resort town of Asbury Park, where Springsteen and Company got their start. The track is contemplative without being too soft, the drums and accordion giving the song a sentimental yet active energy that is a trademark of Springsteen. The lyrics depict a man looking back on a romance with the eponymous woman which is often impeded by other potential suitors. Springsteen disparages the roaming gang of bachelors as being boorish. You really feel like a young man who is looking back in disenchantment at how a dispiriting 70’s Jersey Shore managed to push away one of his first loves.
Going from a song that recounts the tale of a botched romance, “Born to Run” tells the story of a courtship that kicks into high gear. We trade out the relatively laid-back easy listening of “Sandy” for an energetic and peppy glockenspiel and organ courtesy of Danny Federeci. The track is optimistic, as Springsteen writes to lover Wendy as they are “Sprung from Cages on Highway 9,” hoping to find greener grass away from Freehold to somewhere, if not anywhere else. This song is so upbeat and filled to the brim with optimism that the New Jersey State Assembly almost passed a resolution declaring the song the “the unofficial anthem of our state’s youth,” right up until many of them realized that this was a song about leaving Jersey for anywhere else, as soon as possible. Like with other songs of his (see: “Born in the USA”), Springsteen shares a subject that doesn’t inspire total joy in being a New Jerseyan or an American, yet still manages to get people on their feet belting out the lyrics in pride.
The final song that showcases Springsteen’s love for New Jersey’s history as lyrical inspiration is “Atlantic City” from his 1983 album Nebraska. But this track isn’t some detour from a focus from the Cornhusker state. Nebraska is all about people (and places) who are down on their luck, a description that 80’s Atlantic City certainly met. While the Atlantic City of today is filled with casinos, and tacky open air shopping centers, before gambling was legalized, the Atlantic City of 1978 was deep in the throes of urban decay. It was the last place in Jersey many people wanted to live in, and Sprinsteen encapsulated this desperation to live in this hushed track. As a young debt-ridden man seeks to flee the gang-ridden Monopoly City with his lover by taking up work with the same organized criminals that made him leave. Here Springsteen makes a point: being at the short end of the stick doesn’t exempt you from making poor decisions. There is nothing inherently virtuous with being at the bottom.
What are we supposed to make of Springsteen? Is he a red-blooded American who’s more than ready to write the anthem to a proud nation in “Born in the USA?” Or is he a cynic trying to spotlight the gaping holes between who we think we are and who we really are as a nation? And what about his home state?
So we’ve established that the Boss has a soft spot for Jersey. But does Jersey feel the same way? Well, as the aborted attempt to name a rest stop after him (it only failed after Springsteen asked them not to) shows, the people of Jersey have more than a soft spot for him—they have a deep seated admiration. And isn’t that one of greatest things we could get from the place we call somewhere? To be declared a native son or daughter, or have your work be considered part of your somewhere’s cultural tapestry? Especially if you don’t look like you’re supposed to be from the area, as many immigrants including myself can attest to. It means that is really where you’re from. That’s where you got your start. That is where people associate you with. That is the place you’re from.
