Citation de Fabrice le 20 octobre 2021, 19 h 24 min

Le compte-rendu exhaustif de cette journée par Backstreets :

STEVIE VAN ZANDT, THIS IS YOUR LIFE
'Between the Lines' benefit gathers Springsteen and other old friends to celebrate a bestselling author and what Landau calls his "beautiful book, a true story of an incredible life"
"When I think of these kind of literary events, I do think to myself: Jersey bowling alley."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, that's when I think of drunken fistfights."

We can forgive Jon Stewart his momentary confusion, because it was indeed a bit surreal to witness Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Steve Buscemi, Richie Sambora, Nona Hendryx, Jon Stewart, and guest of honor Steve Van Zandt arrayed on a single stage… in a Jersey bowling alley. Before an audience of only 254 attendees.

Photograph by Shawn Poole

But it wasn't just any bowling alley — it was Asbury Park's bowling alley-turned-concert venue, Asbury Lanes. And the event was in support of a very real and important cause: the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation's TeachRock project.

TeachRock empowers teachers with tools and curriculum to ensure that the arts don't vanish from our school, and it was that worthy goal that brought tonight's stars to Asbury Park — that, and their love and respect for TeachRock's founder, Stevie Van Zandt.

Because this night was also a celebration of Steven's life, career, and his newly earned status as bestselling author of his autobiography, Unrequited Infatuations.

The event (which will be available online in full in the coming months) kicked off with a solo piano performance by Low Cut Connie in fine Jerry Lee Lewis form. Jon Stewart took the stage next as the evening's host and introduced the event's centerpiece, an all-star book reading.

Photograph by Nannette Bedway for TeachRock

Richie Sambora (a surprise addition) read about The Stone Pony's rise to fame from Chapter 7 of Steve's book before recalling his introduction to his mentor at the age of 16. Young Richie worked up the nerve to give Steven a cassette after spending many evenings studying him at the Pony. "Steve didn't show me the funhouse mirror; he told me the truth…. We became fast friends. He's my brother, and I love him."

Nona Hendryx quipped, "Like every band, they needed a black girl singer" before reading about the creation of "Sun City" from Chapter 19 (and doing a mean Miles Davis impersonation). "For me to have been a part of 'Sun City' and what [Steve] went through to get it done, it was incredible," she added. "That video changed the world. It changed MTV and opened doors. [MTV] saw that they were repeating what Steven was fighting against. It was apartheid, and they were doing the same thing in the music realm."

For the younger folks in attendance, Stewart helpfully noted that at the time, "MTV was all Buggles and Pat Benatar. Mostly Pat Benatar, a little bit of Buggles."

Jon Landau discussed the working dynamic between himself, Bruce, and Steve. "We had different opinions about what to do about everything. We usually had a great deal of fun trying to negotiate them out. (Sometimes less fun.) But we all came out alive and great friends. The thing about Steve: whatever he's doing it has to be great. If it's just good, he's bored. It has to be great." Like his "beautiful book, a true story of an incredible life."

Landau also recalled a recommendation from a friend: "I was on a trip somewhere, and I got a text from Bruce:"

For his reading, Landau's selection from the memoir involved his own famous review with the "Rock and Roll Future" quote, and Stevie's interpretation of it in Chapter 9.
"Until I read [Stevie's take], I didn't know what I meant!" he admitted to great laughter. "But when I read it, it resonated with me greatly."

Steve Buscemi gave the shortest remarks but the longest — and unsurprisingly, the most dramatic — reading of the night, retelling the origin of The Sopranos from Chapter 24. And Jon Stewart closed the panel by reading Steven and Bruce's daytrip to East Berlin from Chapter 14 (with difficulty, noting that "Steve's book is phenomenal, but the font size is fucked up… torturous!"

Each panelist was an icon in their own right, but at this point they cleared the stage to make room for the evening's headliner act: a conversation between Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt. Before bringing Stevie and Bruce on stage, Stewart took a moment to share his appreciation for what Bruce and Steve meant for people like him, who'd grown up in that area. "When you listen to their music, you never felt like a loser. You felt like a character in an epic poem… about losers. I consider it one of the great honors of my life to have been inspired by them to better myself from my standing and my position, which seems to be the essence of all of their art."

Photograph by Nannette Bedway for TeachRock

Springsteen interviews Van Zandt
After a short break, Bruce and Stevie took the stage for an interview that, as all great conversations between friends do, soon lost its structure and pacing (the event was scheduled to end at "6ish" but ran until 7:15pm) as these two lifelong friends fell into easy reminiscing and raconteuring.

Bruce set the stage for their opening topic: the summer of '65, a band called The Shadows, and their "paisley-shirted, top hat, oversized tie-wearing frontman" sitting to his right.

"We were the luckiest generation ever," Stevie opened. "It was a wonderful culture for teenagers at that time. There were all kinds of places to play. Ever since The Beatles had appeared on TV, it had become a band culture."

In those days, bands were a bastion for teenagers… and young teens at that. "Not even nineteen!" Bruce marveled. "You had to hire fourteen-, fifteen-year old kids. That was what all bands consisted of."

The idea of a band "communicates friendship, and family, and team, and posse, and gang. And ultimately, community. And I wanted to be part of that community." —Stevie Van Zandt 

In the first of many insightful exchanges, Bruce and Stevie discussed their differing rock 'n' roll epiphanies. Separated in age by only two years in an era when generations were only five or six years apart, that was enough for Bruce and Steven to have separate awakenings: Bruce's was Elvis's appearance on Ed Sullivan; Steven's was The Beatles. Both agreed, however, that it was The Rolling Stones that made rock star status seem attainable.

"The Beatles revealed this new world to us," said Stevie, "and The Rolling Stones invited us in."

Bruce noted that his friend's entire life ("to my great fortune") has been dedicated to the idea of bands. Stevie admitted that he never liked the spotlight. He wasn't about "me, me, me." The idea of a band, he said, was about us: "It communicates friendship, and family, and team, and posse, and gang. And ultimately, community. And I wanted to be part of that community. Maybe it came from my love of West Side Story, but there was something about a gang, about a team, about that friendship."

"There's a great song by Dawes," Bruce added, "where he's breaking up with his girlfriend or something, and he says, 'and I wish that all your favorite bands would stay together.' The fact that Steve and I are here together side-by-side, literally 50 years after we started, and that we found each other at all… to find someone with whom you felt such a deep kinship" is a testament to that ideal.

The two friends spent several minutes discussing the origin of their friendship, and how it was cemented by their weekend sojourns to Greenwich Village and Café Wha.

"I'd drive to Bruce's house," Steve remembered, turning to him. "Sometimes we'd go up in your room. You'd already started to write songs — and it hadn't occurred to me that you could write your own songs! You really were advanced!" Steve marveled to much laughter. "You'd play some songs you had written, we'd exchange records, we'd talk about the latest songs we'd heard. You turned me on to Love, Tim Buckley… and then we'd get on the bus and go up to New York. We started to hang out together."

"It was the beginning of a thousand great arguments," Bruce said. "I wish that friendship on everyone."

Photograph by Nannette Bedway for TeachRock

Bruce then jumped them forward in time, to a snowy winter day in Asbury Park. "A man walks down the street in a Hawaiian shirt, a straw hat… all that's missing is the drink with the little umbrella. And a parrot, I guess, but he had to leave something for Jimmy Buffett. That incarnation was the one and only Miami Steve!

"To show how limited our frame of reference was at the time," Bruce continued, "Miami Steve was christened Miami Steve for a very simple reason: he had been to Miami! None of the rest of us ever had. And while he was in Miami, he was sartorially influenced to the nth degree."

Steven recalled that he had quit the music business for a time, after his friend got signed to Columbia and he himself failed to make Bruce's ensemble.

Bruce explained: "My first record… I was signed as an acoustic musician — a singer-songwriter, basically. There was no electric guitar allowed on my first album! I was trying to satisfy both John Hammond and my own instincts, which were like, 'You don't understand, this is just what I do in my spare time! What I really do is this thing with all my friends!'"

To have Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes — with Steve in them! — as the house band in your local bar in Asbury Park was an a amazing gift, a fabulous thing that really gave everyone a home here in Asbury and the surrounding area for a long, long time" —Bruce Springsteen 

But there was a series of years where they didn't play together, and in those years, Stevie joined up with The Dovells and hit the oldies circuit, meeting rock's pioneers (who were only in their 30s and 40s at the time) as the first revival of '50s culture hit with Happy Days and American Graffiti.

That experience "really completed my education," Steven said. "When that tour ended in Miami (I'd switched to Dion by then), I came back in Hawaiian shirts, started the Jukes, and said, 'I'm never going to recognize winter again.'"

"He does not like the cold!" Bruce interjected with gusto. "You go into his house, and his room is 90 fucking degrees! Wherever you go it's hot!" ("It's ironic," Steve noted, "considering where I ended up on TV," clearly thinking of Lilyhammer.)

Since Steven brought up the subject of the Jukes, they discussed that period next. Bruce testified: "To have Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes — with Steve in them! — as the house band in your local bar in Asbury Park was an a amazing gift, a fabulous thing, that really gave everyone a home here in Asbury and the surrounding area for a long, long time."

Steven's introduction of a horn section led to a rock-and-soul fusion, an intentionally Stax-influenced sound ("Southside and I wanted to be the white Sam and Dave") that ultimately and organically became "the bar band sound. It became a bigger thing than just what we were doing."

Photograph by Shawn Poole

In the meantime, Bruce had made two records "and they were both bombs." Bruce remembered thinking, "If we don't make it on this next one, I'm going back to Asbury Park for good."

"And become a Juke!" Stevie quipped off-mic.

I can't do justice to their discussion about Stevie's contributions to Born to Run without Bruce's horn sound effects, but let's just say at that stage of their experience (or inexperience), Bruce could only provide direction to his hot-shot NYC horn players by verbalizing a horn sound. That didn't really work for their brass ensemble.

"It sucks," Steven badgered Bruce.

"Well, go do something about it!" Bruce ordered.

Now remember that Steven was not yet in the E Street Band or even part of the album's production team, and Bruce seemed to still get a kick out of the scenario, sending "just a guy, who had no relation to the record whatsoever except he happens to be in the room — I just send a guy out there to talk to the greatest horn players in New York City."

Steven just thought, "I'm glad someone's going to fix this." Modestly, he downplayed his contribution: "I separated the baritone parts out, gave them some riffs, and that's it. The record is very, very simple, but it was just a matter of getting the intention. I knew what [Bruce] wanted: he wanted Sam and Dave."

After that, Bruce knew he wanted Steven in his band, too.

"Stevie was just a guy, who had no relation to the [Born to Run] record whatsoever except he happens to be in the room — I just send a guy out there to talk to the greatest horn players in New York City." —Bruce Springsteen 

Writing his book gave Stevie a chance to analyze Bruce and the band's transition from Born to Run to Darkness on the Edge of Town for the first time, and he found it fascinating: "The first step in Bruce going from this shy guy who never said two words to anybody to the world's greatest entertainer (thanks to me) is him putting the guitar down. The guitar's a lot of things, but one of them is a barrier. When you put that guitar down, it's a more intimate relationship."

Bruce slowly and slyly lowered his guitar to the floor as Stevie continued: "[Bruce] reached inside himself and started to transform himself into this performer, and it was just remarkable. We played The Bottom Line… and suddenly my friend who used to be very shy and retiring is now walking on the tables and kicking people's food over!

"And at the same time, the band transformed. If you look at the pictures of the band on the first two records, they got short pants on and bathing suits. And then suddenly the band is in suits! Me and Clarence got these pimp suits — it was a transformation and a half."

It was the beginning of the E Street Band in its best-known form, Bruce said. "Max and Roy auditioned along with 30 drummers and 30 keyboardists. We insisted that everyone could sing, so they had to audition as singers also. Max and Roy managed to squeak by that part and never sang again."

Having Stevie there was important, Bruce said, because he brought "a tremendous amount of joy" to offset a tremendous amount of anxiety from his initial success.

Stevie Van Zandt: Rock star, actor, activist, bestselling author, cookie. Photograph by Shawn Poole

They talked about The River next, "a centerpiece of Steve's and my work together, when Steve officially became part of the production team. Steve had a lot of ideas about how the band should sound on record."

Stevie said that he figured out why '50s and '60s records sounded great but '70s records didn't. First, early rock drummers came out of jazz or took lessons from jazz drummers who taught them how to tune their drums. "This had become a lost art. So I had Max learn how to tune drums again."

Second, Steven realized that the older records featured drums with overhead mics, which captured the room sound. They needed the room sound, too. And they needed an engineer who understood how to capture room sounds.

Steven's wife Maureen knew a guy named Bob Clearmountain, who worked across the street from where they lived. He was about to do an Ian Hunter record, and Max was going to be on it. Stevie had Max do recon on how fast and good Bob was, and Max gave his stamp of approval. Soon enough, Bob joined the team and made a huge difference.

Next up: the European River tour and Steven's political epiphany. "Steve was all party all the time before then," Bruce noted. "Southside Johnny was all, 'No politics! Leave that shit out! This is supposed to be a respite from all that stuff.' But when we came back from that tour, a huge change began in Steve's aesthetic, and I believe that's when Little Steven was born."

Steven admitted it was a political awakening, and he became obsessed with what his country's government was doing overseas. "I started to feel like somebody should be talking about this. I grew up in the '60s, when everyone had a distinct identity. I thought maybe I'd be the political guy… and I left the band to do it."

And it mattered: Although Stevie talks about the commercial foolishness of his decision, the societal impact of it can't be overstated. Little Steven lost all fear and became twice as focused on politics, "because it was all I had. I had to make it count for something, because I'd just blown my life. It allowed me to go into some dangerous situations because I didn't have any fear at all anymore."

"We all sooner or later have some disappointment in our lives and maybe hit that wall and think your life is over. But if you can hang in there, you might just find a way to move forward somehow… If you can find a way to overcome that moment and keep moving forward, destiny will surprise you and find a use for you." —Stevie Van Zandt 

His work on "Sun City" and activism during those years raised American awareness about apartheid in South Africa and created a groundswell of support for American sanctions, leading to President Reagan's very first veto override when both Democrats and Republicans voted for it.

"That's how different the Republican party was in those days," Steve pointed out. "Republicans fought for Black people to be able to vote in South Africa. And now these days, of course, they're trying to keep American Black people from voting."

"A lot of important and good things came from Steve striking out on his own in 1984," Bruce noted. Steve agreed, adding, "Everything I've accomplished in my life has happened since I left the band. The second half of my life became a search for identity and purpose."

Steven got serious here, landing this next point with eloquence: "We all sooner or later have some disappointment in our lives and maybe hit that wall and think your life is over. But if you can hang in there, you might just find a way to move forward somehow. And don't numb yourself with dope or alcohol or commit suicide — all of which occurred to me. If you can find a way to overcome that moment and keep moving forward, destiny will surprise you and find a use for you."

Bruce offered, "I don't think Steve would have had the fullness of identity that he has now without having left the band at that time. When he came back, he came back as a different individual and had a much different and bigger place in our world and in his own. While it was difficult being apart and painful in many ways, I believe the overall picture was positive, great things that wouldn't have happened the same way."

Photograph by Shawn Poole

The event had run long, though no one but the timekeepers had noticed. Although they'd planned on 20 minutes for Q&A, there was only time for a few questions.
The first one was one fans have wanted an answer to for decades: Bruce, did you write Bobby Jean for Steve? Alas, we'll have to keep waiting: "I will never tell," Bruce deflected. "You can make up your own mind on that one."

"We'll be out there in the world again next year, I hope. And I guarantee: if you bring your children and younger brothers and sisters or grandma for that matter, they're going to see the band at its peak. It's a wonderful thing to be able to say, and a wonderful thing to be able to share with your friend. And that's a promise." —Bruce Springsteen 

The final question came from the winner of the Backstreets raffle, Ed Nigro, whose winnings not only got him into the event but also the chance to ask this of Bruce and Steven: What's the impact of being able to create so much positivity with your work?

Stevie answered first: "We achieved a miracle…. In the end, it just makes us grateful. If we had to pinpoint one particular emotion, why do we exude such positivity and put such hope into our music, it's because we are grateful for the generations who came before us and taught us how to do this, and we're grateful to the audiences that found us in New Jersey. The older you get, the more you appreciate the miracle that our lives are."

Bruce added: "Our band is unique in that it's been a healthy place to be. We'll be out there in the world again next year, I hope. And I guarantee: if you bring your children and younger brothers and sisters or grandma for that matter, they're going to see the band at its peak.

"It's a wonderful thing to be able to say," Bruce continued, "and a wonderful thing to be able to share with your friend. And that's a promise. We got so much from doing what we've done. You [the audience] changed my life. Your love and appreciation and dedication and immersion in our idea of what the world could be is a gift to us. To be able to share this side-by-side with a great, great friend and the rest of your friends is simply one of God's great blessings."

That was as fitting a note as any to end the evening on. Bruce and Steven left the stage together and left the audience with a promise of a bright future still ahead.

To learn more about the efforts of TeachRock or donate to their mission — empowering teachers and engaging students by using popular music to create interdisciplinary, culturally responsive education materials for all 21st century classrooms — please visit TeachRock.org.
- October 19, 2021 - Ken Rosen reporting