Americana Extra

Listening to Springsteen at a Monmouth University symposium

I join Rutgers Professor Louis Masur, former Rolling Stone editor Anthony DeCurtis, and Springsteen archive curator Melissa Ziobro to kick off the daylong commemoration of The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.

One of the most common cultural rituals at the turn of the twentieth century was reunion meetings for the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), an organization for Civil War veterans who fought for the Union. They would gather, engage in remembrance, and tell stories for younger generations too young to have experienced the war themselves and so mesmerized by those who were actually there. That’s how I felt to be among the 500+ people participating in the symposium commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 album The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle at Monmouth University. (Tickets sold out in an hour.) I was on a couple of panels to talk about my new book, but the stars of the show were the grizzled veterans—fans, journalists, and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, who recollected the quotidian work of making history. They were the Jews, so to speak, spreading the Good News on the Jersey Shore. Those of us who followed are the Gentiles. They forged a community of fandom that has lasted for generations.

Springsteen interviewed by Robert Santelli, Executive Director of the Grammy Museum, who was a Jersey Shore music journalist in the early 1970s.

The G.A.R. faded away by the 1920s, as will, no doubt, the huge body of Springsteen fans (though the announcement of a new $45 million building to house the Bruce Springsteen Archive and Center for American Music to open in 2026 suggests his legacy may last for a while). I wanted to write my book while Springsteen was still a living figure in American culture, but also to create a document that might help one understand what all the fuss was about.

Hey teenage Taylor Swift fans: you may not be old fashioned girls, but you’re gonna get dated. (I’m quoting Elvis—Elvis Costello, that is). Enjoy your eras.