Bruce (80 page)
Virginia Commonwealth University,
64
–65,
103
“Visitation at Fort Horn,”
128
,
131
,
132
–33
Vitale, Neal,
154
“Viva Las Vegas,”
356
Voice of America,
309
Volman, Mark,
279
“Voodoo Chile,”
57
Waasdorp, John,
93
Wainwright, Loudon, III,
155
“Waiting on the End of the World,”
380
Waits, Tom,
165
“Walking the Dog,”
169
–70
“Walk Like a Man,”
333
–34
Ward, Ed,
166
“War Is Over, The,”
67
Warner Bros. Records,
208
“War Song, The,”
67
Washington, George (laborer),
7
Washington, Gino,
341
Washington Post,
251
Wasylczenko, Victor “Igor,”
126
,
145
Wayne, John,
435
“We Are Alive,”
451
–52
We Are One concert,
427
Week to Remember, A,
159
“We Gotta Get Out of This Place,”
448
Weinberg, Becky,
317
Weinberg, Max,
182
–84,
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,
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,
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,
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–70,
295
,
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–18,
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,
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,
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,
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on E Street Band’s breakup,
355
,
356
“We’ll All Man the Guns,”
67
“We Shall Overcome,”
424
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions,
424
,
430
,
455
West, Carl “Tinker,”
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Bruce’s first meeting with,
53
–55
in move to San Francisco,
68
–70
recording studio built by,
116
–17
resignation of,
103
at Woodstock,
61
–62
Westerberg, Paul,
413
Westheimer, Ruth,
350
“We Take Care of Our Own,”
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455
n,
457
Wexler, Jerry,
192
–93
“What’d I Say,”
29
“What Love Can Do,”
434
Wheeler, Harold,
132
“When Doves Cry,”
308
“When You Dance,”
117
“When You Need Me,”
332
“When You’re Alone,”
336
“When You Walk in the Room,”
199
“Whip My Hair,”
443
n
“Who’ll Stop the Rain,”
285
,
287
Wild and the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, The,
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–68,
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206
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386
n,
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“Wild Billy’s Circus Story,”
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“Wild Thing,”
440
Will, George,
317
–18
William Morris Agency,
149
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233
Williams, Big Bad Bobby,
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90
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93
Williams, Lucinda,
395
Wilson, Carl,
25
Wilson, Mike,
390
“Wind and the Rain, The,”
67
Wingate, Dick,
253
–54
“Wings for Wheel,”
188
“Wish, The,”
389
“With Every Wish,”
366
“Without You,”
380
Wonder, Stevie,
157
Woodhaven Swim Club,
31
Woody Guthrie: A Life
(Klein),
285
Wooley, Sheb,
21
tour for,
438
“Working on the Highway,”
295
,
303
,
307
“Worlds Apart,”
415
“Wreck on the Highway,”
282
“Wrestler, The,”
435
Wright, Jeremiah,
426
n
Wynette, Tammy,
228
Yardbirds,
44
Yetnikoff, Walter,
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–68,
219
n,
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306
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307
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348
“You Don’t Leave Me No Choice,”
96
–97
“You Mean So Much to Me,”
95
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96
,
152
Young, Jesse Colin,
272
n
“You Really Got Me,”
440
You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic,
268
Your Hit Parade,
7
Zane, Herb,
182
–83
Zerilli, Anthony,
6
,
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8
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–90,
142
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“Zero and Blind Terry,”
163
,
395
Zoom,
260
ZZ Top,
440
1
He may have died during the ocean crossing, or possibly before the boat even left Holland, depending on which genealogical record you consult.
2
Renamed Randolph Street in the 1870s.
3
And even more so when you count the number of songs he would write about frontier-wandering heroes bent on gaining control over their lives and the meaning of same. Asked to consider the connections between childhood fixation and lifelong creative vision, he laughs. “Rosebud! You found my Rosebud, man!” He does not appear to be serious.
4
Adele surrendered to her son’s pleas to leave the St. Rose schools in 1963, just in time for Bruce to matriculate at Freehold Regional High School, the public institution that then drew students from all of Freehold and some of the nearby small towns, too.
5
This introduces a level of controversy to the tale, because the Indians actually came within a whisker of winning the second game, only to be undone in the bottom of the final inning by a very rare—and to many minds, highly questionable—catcher’s balk call made by umpire Boots “Bootsy” Riddle. The ump’s call, made with the score tied, two men out, and the bases loaded, advanced batter Jimmy Mavroleon to first, thereby granting the Cardinals the game-and title-winning run. Opposing coach DiBenedetto insists the game-winning call simply hastened the classic’s inevitable outcome: “We beat ’em with half our team,” he says a half century later. “If we’d have had our whole team, we would have massacred ’em.” Mavroleon feels a bit more sheepish about the whole thing. “It was the silliest thing ever because umpires never call [catcher’s balks],” he says. “We were lucky.” He and Bruce had a chance to refresh their memories in 1976 when Bruce happened into Jimmy’s parents’ Monmouth Queen Diner late one night. Mavroleon was just finishing his late-night shift at the register, but Bruce lingered to catch up and reminisce about the old days and the dazzling speed of his old competitor’s fastball, which proved powerful enough to take him to the farm system of the Cincinnati Reds for two seasons, 1970–71. But if you think that resolves the matter of exactly who could throw that speed ball by you, as described in the song “Glory Days,” read Kevin Coyne’s story about Joe DePugh (
New York Times
, July 9, 2011). Lance Rowe, son of the Indians’ coach, also strikes former teammates as a possible candidate. Or maybe it’s some combination of all three.
1
Bruce says he was in third grade when he saw Presley on the
Sullivan
show, but this is difficult to square with Presley’s TV appearance schedule. The rock idol’s third and final appearance with Sullivan took place in January 1957, when Bruce was in first grade. Elvis entered the military in March 1958 and didn’t make any TV appearances until 1960, when he starred in Frank Sinatra’s “Welcome Home Elvis” episode of
Timex Special.
And that doesn’t seem likely, given that the songs Elvis performed on that show did not include any of the truly explosive hits that might have signaled the dawn of anything beyond a trip to Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau hotel, where the show was taped.
2
Subsequent years of reading and experiencing cultural and political processes sparked an even deeper analysis of Elvis and the 1950s rock ’n’ roll revolution. “There’s an element of early rock star that was simultaneously democratic, myth-like, and majestic,” Bruce says. “The King! Not the president of the United States.
The King of Rock and Roll!
So there was a fabulous sort of twisted aristocracy that said, This. Rules.
Now
. I’m the King! And you are all going to be subjected to the new rules that I have written.”
3
A British variation on American rockabilly music, with washtub bass, harmonica, banjo, and other front-porch-style instruments.
4
Western Auto sold its own line of electric guitars.
5
And for decades a standby in the encore-to-end-all-encores slot of his shows.
6
One promotional photo shot by Tex during the summer of 1965 shows Bruce slouched on a teeter-totter, his outstretched legs cloaked in skintight pants that were obviously several shades lighter than everyone else’s, tucked into suede boots that didn’t match the other guys’ shiny black shoes.
7
George Theiss also told the Brucebase website that one female patient worked intently to seduce the band members, while another guy ran around the floor screaming “Banzai!”
8
Born in Boston as Steven Lento, Steve’s parents broke up when he was a toddler. His mother moved her family to New Jersey when her son was seven, and soon married William Van Zandt, who adopted her son and gave him his Dutch surname. Steve never contacted or saw his biological father again. “He was just some kinda lazy fuck, I guess,” he explains.
9
The lead guitarist of the Beach Boys, whose Chuck Berry–meets–Dick Dale sound helped define 1960s surf guitar (though Carl was channeling his brother Brian’s directions, which often filtered through LA session guitarists first).
10
Also note the line where the singer says, “I fall down on my knees and I cry,” which would be repeated more or less word for word in Bruce’s “Downbound Train” nearly two decades later.
11
Much to the aggravation of his mother, Adele, not just because she was so excited to see her son graduate but also because she took a half day off from work to prepare for the large house party she had planned. The party, at least, came off without a hitch, becoming especially festive later in the evening when Bruce showed up, just in time to claim the beginner’s motorcycle Adele bought him as a graduation present. Still, she remains a bit peeved about Bruce’s teenaged thoughtlessness. “I was crying and everything,” she says. “Let
him
tell you that story.”
12
This entire paragraph is derived from Coyne’s
Marching Home
, a history of Freehold and the soldiers it sent to American wars (Viking, 2003).
1
While simultaneously keeping the military and the working world at bay with his college deferment.
2
Ginny and Mickey are still married, forty-four years later, with three kids and three grandchildren.
3
Obviously, the details have been changed. But anyone familiar with the Springsteens’ family story must think immediately of Virginia Springsteen, another little girl whose death came at the hands of a (faceless) truck on the pavement of McLean Street.
