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The Stone Pony

The Stone Pony

The Stone Pony, located in Asbury Park, New Jersey, is one of the world's most well-known music venues. It is known as a starting point for many musicians, including New Jersey natives Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Jon Bon Jovi, Guido Marzorati, and Massachusetts native actor/musician "Miami" Steve Van Zandt. It continues to attract top musical artists from across the world. According to the vice president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Robert Santelli, "the club has already earned its place in history as one of rock 'n' roll's great venues. Most rock critics and historians that I come in contact with on a regular basis feel that The Stone Pony is one of the greatest rock clubs of all time." Since it opened in 1974, many of the world's most popular musical artists have played on its stage. The club was renovated in 2000, preserving the character associated with its early years while adding a permanent exhibition of art and artifacts from the history of the city and the venue itself. State of the art lighting and sound equipment were installed, and outside, facing the Atlantic Ocean, The Stone Pony Landing area has been redone with a beach motif, tenting and a food facility. "A visit to The Stone Pony has been considered a pilgrimage to rock 'n' roll fans around the world," said then New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman as she officially reopened the club on Memorial Day weekend 2000. "It is a place that is important—not just to us, but to the world."

The Stone Pony and the community

Even before it reopened in 2000, The Stone Pony made a commitment to become involved in the Asbury Park community. The club and the city co-sponsored a weekend-long Asbury Park Festival along the oceanfront. The festival was free to the public and featured local arts and crafts vendors as well as live music both inside and outside the club. The U.S. Postal Service created a special cancellation for the event, and hundreds of people lined up to have envelopes stamped for the occasion. The club was open for business in the evening hours, and part of the proceeds were donated to the Stephen Crane House on Fourth Avenue in the city, where the author of The Red Badge of Courage lived during much of his short life. Since the opening weekend, The Stone Pony has hosted a number of events involving community groups and charities. The club was the scene of the first Asbury Park showing of a photography exhibit spotlighting the city by students of the Rugby School at Woodfield for learning disabled and behaviorally challenged students. Proceeds from a concert entitled "Remembering Harry Chapin" benefited causes which fight world hunger, and the club has been designated as an official drop-off point for the Food Banks of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. The club opened its doors for fundraising events for the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation and the Acoustic Musicians Guild. The Stone Pony also sponsored a concert at which Bruce Springsteen appeared in support of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, and a benefit event for the family of a young man who lost his life in a motorcycle accident. The Stone Pony Foundation has been established to promote music education at the elementary and high school levels. An amplifier was purchased for an aspiring teenage blues guitarist from the area, and the club was a sponsor for an event at another venue which benefited music and art education in Asbury Park schools. (Used with permission from [http://www.stoneponyonline.com/about.html About The Stone Pony])

Asbury Park

Asbury Park is a City located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 16,930.

Geography

Asbury Park is located at 40°13'21" North, 74°0'44" West (40.222399, -74.012098). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.1 km² (1.6 mi²). 3.7 km² (1.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 10.62% water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 16,930 people, 6,754 households, and 3,586 families residing in the city. The population density is 4,571.1/km² (11,842.0/mi²). There are 7,744 housing units at an average density of 2,090.9/km² (5,416.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 24.77% White, 62.11% African American, 0.32% Native American, 0.70% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 6.49% from other races, and 5.53% from two or more races. 15.58% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 6,754 households out of which 31.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 20.2% are married couples living together, 26.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 46.9% are non-families. 39.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 15.2% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.46 and the average family size is 3.36. In the city the population is spread out with 30.1% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 18.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 88.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83.2 males. The median income for a household in the city is $23,081, and the median income for a family is $26,370. Males have a median income of $27,081 versus $24,666 for females. The per capita income for the city is $13,516. 30.1% of the population and 29.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 40.5% of those under the age of 18 and 27.1% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

History

poverty line poverty line A seaside resort town, Asbury Park once flourished, but businesses later moved out and large parts of the city lay abandoned, so much so that a city manager called it 'Sarajevo-by-the-sea'. In the past few years, there has been a resurgence in the real estate market as the town center has gradually become more gentrified and as developers have begun various large projects in different areas of the city. From 2002 onward, Asbury Park has been in the midst of a cultural, political and economic revival led by a burgeoning industry of local and national artists. Its dilapidated downtown district is slowly being rebuilt, and the vacated beachfront is undergoing a massive revitilization project. In 2005, the Casino's walkway re-opened, as did the boardwalk pavilions.

Culture

Asbury Park is considered to be a mecca for musicians, particularly for a subgenre of rock and roll known as the Jersey shore sound. It is home to The Stone Pony, founded in 1974 and a starting point for many musical artists. In particular, Asbury Park became famous after Bruce Springsteen released his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. in 1973. On his follow-up album, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, one of the songs is entitled "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)". In the movie Dogma by Kevin Smith, God took the form of an old man so that he/she could play skeeball in Asbury Park. This is in reference to Smith's earlier feature Chasing Amy, wherein the characters played by Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams played the same game in (presumably) the same location. Asbury Park was once home to Palace Amusements, an amusement park famous for the grinning fun face on the side of it called "Tillie". Asbury Park was once home to the famous bandleader Arthur Pryor.

Gay Asbury Park

Today Asbury Park has become a major Gay resort, drawing large Gay crowds from New York City and its surroundings. There are many Gay clubs in Asbury Park including "Paradise Nightclub," "Anybody's," "Georgies," "Cruisin'," and "The Circuit." Gay or gay friendly restaurants include Taka, Bistro Ole, Chat and Nibble,the Harrison, and several others. See GayAsburyPark.com for up-to-date information. See also "The Empress Hotel." New Jersey's first Same-sex marriage occurred here in 2004. Highlights of the summer season include "Jersey Gay Pride" in June and the "Roadtrip Weekend" in August. A gay community existed in Asbury Park as far back as the 1940s during World War II. It flourished discretely even during the McCarthy era in the 1950s. Gay life became more open during the sixties and seventies with such bars as The Blue Note, the Chez-Elle, Danny's, the M&K bar (at two locations on Cookman Avenue), Archies, PJ's, the El Moroccan Room, the Albion Hotel, the Hudson Hotel, Boots, the Atlantis, Teddy's, the Bond Street, and the Owl and the Pussycat. Although the oldest gay bar on the east coast is reputed to be the A-House in Provincetown, Asbury Park's M&K was the first in NJ to offer a "disco dance" venue during the 1970s, complete with dj booth. In 1967 the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a precedent-setting decision asserting that the state liquor commission was no longer justified in forbidding bars from serving gay men and lesbians. The Den went to court and helped to change the course of history for the gay community in New Jersey. On November 6, 1967, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the State Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control was not justified in suspending or revoking liquor licenses because “apparent homosexuals” were permitted to congregate at the bar. The ABC’s regulations stated that a bar was a public nuisance if it permitted “apparent homosexuals” to congregate. This was automatically labeled “offensive to common decency and public morals.” Three bars had been threatened with suspension or loss of their licenses after an ABC hearing on the issue. The bars took their case to the courts, and eventually to the state Supreme Court. One of these bars was Manny’s Den in New Brunswick, later known as The Den. (The other two: The Chez-Elle in Asbury Park, operated by Margaret Hogan, and Val’s in Atlantic City.) At the ABC hearing for The Den, one of the state agents testified that the bar was full of “what appeared to be homosexuals, also commonly known as fags and fruits.” He further testified that these “apparent homosexuals or fags and fruits” immediately attracted his attention because of the odd and different clothes they wore. He stated that they wore things such as tight jeans, turtleneck sweaters, gaily printed shirts, very casual wear, sneakers, moccasins and boots. He added that some wore sandals and a few wore shirts and ties. He continued that some of these “fruits” were drinking tall drinks through straws, and even bought drinks for each other. This, of course, helped him to determine that these customers were indeed, “apparent homosexuals.” (The case is One Eleven Wines & Liquors, Inc. v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 235 A.2d 12.) Sex between consenting adults has been legal in New Jersey since the early eighties, even before similar ordinances were passed in New York City. Domestic Partnerships are also legal in New Jersey.

Nightlife

Asbury Park's nightlife is primarily, but not all, gay oriented. The Stone Pony, the bar where Bruce Springsteen hangs out, is still serving the rockers of the Jersey Shore. The Fast Lane, the club where Bon Jovi got his start, is still rocking too, as are other venues in the city that appeal to both gay and straight travelers.

Government

The City of Asbury Park is governed under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law. The Asbury Park City Council consists of Mayor Kevin G. Sanders, Deputy Mayor James Bruno, Ed Johnson, James Keady and John Loffredo.

Federal, state and county representation

Asbury Park is in the Sixth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 11th Legislative District.

External links


- [http://www.cityofasburypark.com/ City of Asbury Park website]
- [http://bobjagendorf.smugmug.com/gallery/634251 Asbury Park - Beauty, Character and Decay. A photo essay!]
- [http://www.gayasburypark.com Gay Asbury Park]
- [http://www.side-o-lamb.com Historic postcards and current photos of Asbury Park- including the inside of the Casino and Palace Amusements]
- [http://asburypark.net asburypark.net: News and information about Asbury Park.]
- [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/papr:@FILREQ(@field(TITLE+@od1(Annual+baby+parade,+1904,+Asbury+Park,+N+J+++))+@FIELD(COLLID+workleis)) Movies of the annual baby parade, 1904]
- [http://www.savetillie.com Details of the struggle to save historic Asbury Park landmarks and reclaim the town.]
- [http://www.gayasburypark.com Asbury Park's gay travel guide.]
- [http://www.OceanfrontAsburyPark.com/ The Asbury Park Waterfront Redevelopment Plan.]
- [http://www.weirdnj.com/stories/_abandoned03.asp 'Asbury Park' feature in Weird NJ.]
- [http://www.AsburyEmpress.Com The Empress Hotel- On the Oceanfront] Asbury Park's Gay resort. Category:Monmouth County, New Jersey Category:Cities in New Jersey Category:New Jersey District Factor Group A Category:1923 Municipal Manager Law

New Jersey

New Jersey is the fourth smallest and most densely populated state of the United States of America; the U.S. postal abbreviation is NJ. The state is named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel.

History

Once inhabited by the tribes of the Lenape Native Americans, New Jersey was settled by the Dutch in the early 1630s, who formed a settlement at present-day Jersey City. At the time, much of what is now New Jersey was claimed as part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which also included parts of present-day New York State and had its capital at New Amsterdam, now known as New York City. Some of southwestern New Jersey also was settled by the Swedes in the mid-1600s as part of the Swedish colony of New Sweden, which included parts of Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania. These territories were taken by the Dutch in 1654 and incorporated into New Netherland. The entire region became a territory of Britain in 1664 when a British fleet under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls sailed into what is today New York Harbor and took over the colony. They met minimal resistance, perhaps because of the unpopularity of the Dutch colonial governor, Peter Stuyvesant. The newly taken lands were divided by King Charles II of England, who gave his brother, the Duke of York (later King James II) the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony (as opposed to a royal colony). James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River (the land that would become New Jersey) to two friends who had been loyal through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton. During the English Civil War the Channel Isle of Jersey remained loyal to The English Crown and gave sanctuary to the King. It was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was first proclaimed King of England in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I of England. In 1663 in recognition of his loyalty to the English Crown Sir George Carteret, Jersey's Royalist Governor, was gifted a large tract of land in North America henceforth known as New Jersey. Settlement for the first 10 years of English rule was in the Hudson River region and came primarily from New England. The first permanent English settlement was Elizabethtown, now Elizabeth. On March 18, 1673 Berkeley sold his half of New Jersey to Quakers in England (with William Penn acting as trustee for a time) who settled the Delaware Valley region as a Quaker colony. New Jersey was governed as two distinct provinces, West Jersey and East Jersey, for the 28 years between 1674 and 1702. In 1702, the two provinces were united under a royal, rather than a proprietary, governor.

Revolutionary War era

New Jersey was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. During the American Revolutionary War, British and American armies crossed New Jersey numerous times and several pivotal battles took place in the state. Today, New Jersey is often referred to as "The Crossroads of the Revolution" because of that. On Christmas, 1776, the Continental Army under George Washington crossed the Delaware River and engaged the unprepared Hessian troops in the Battle of Trenton. The river crossing has become an iconic moment in the early history of the United States of America, having been immortalized in Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. Slightly more than a week after victory at Trenton, on January 3, 1777, the American forces scored an important victory by making a surprise attack on Princeton, evading the British under Charles Cornwallis. Later on, the American forces underneath George Washington engaged the forces underneath General Henry Clinton at the Battle of Monmouth. The result of the battle was indecisive. In the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall at Princeton University, making Princeton the nation's capital for four months. It was there that the Continental Congress learned of the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the war. On November 20, 1789, the state became the first in the newly-formed Union to ratify the Bill of Rights. Ironically, on February 15, 1804 New Jersey became the last northern state to abolish slavery by enacting legislation that slowly phased out slavery. However, by the close of the Civil War, about a dozen African-Americans in New Jersey were still apprenticed freedmen. New Jersey initially refused to ratify the Constitutional Amendments banning slavery and granting rights to America's Black population.

Women's suffrage

The [http://www.state.nj.us/njfacts/njdoc10a.htm New Jersey Constitution of 1776] gives the vote to "all inhabitants of this Colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money." This included blacks, spinsters, and widows. (Married women could not own property under the common law.) It used to be held that this was an accident of hasty drafting: the British were at Staten Island when the constitution was proclaimed, and it declares itself temporary, void if there was reconciliation with Great Britain. Klinghoffer and Elkis ("The Petticoat Electors: Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776–1807." Journal of the Early Republic 12, no. 2 (1992): 159–193.) show that it was a considered decision, and enforced by later law. Both sides in elections mocked the other for relying on "petticoat electors"; both accused each other of letting unqualified women (including married women) vote. A Federalist legislature passed a voting rights act which applied only to those counties where the Federalists were strong; a Democratic legislature extended it to the entire state. In 1807, as a side-effect of a reconciliation within the Democratic Party, the legislature reinterpreted the constitution (which had been an ordinary act of the Provincial Congress) to mean universal white male suffrage, with no property requirement; but they disenfranchised paupers, to keep down the Irish.

Law and government

The state capital of New Jersey is Trenton. Jon Corzine was elected Governor of New Jersey on November 8, 2005, and will take office on January 17, 2006. Currently, Richard Codey (Democrat) is the Acting governor, because he is (and concurrently serves as) President of the State Senate. Former Governor James E. McGreevey resigned on November 15, 2004, and New Jersey (along with Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming) had no position of Lieutenant Governor at the time. However, on Election Day, November 8, 2005, the voters passed an amendment to the state constitution that creates the position of Lieutenant Governor, effective with the 2009 elections. The amendment also provides that in the event of a permanent vacancy in the office of Governor after January 17, 2006 (when the next Governor is sworn in) and before the first Lieutenant Governor takes office in 2010, the President of the Senate, followed by the Speaker of the General Assembly, would become Governor (rather than Acting Governor) but will now be required to vacate his or her Senate (or Assembly) seat. The New Jersey governor is considered one of the most powerful governorships in the nation, as it is the only state-wide elected office in the state and appoints many government officials. Additionally, an acting governor is even more powerful as he simultaneously serves as president of the senate, thus directing the entire legislative and executive process. Current Acting Governor Codey will likely be the last Acting Governor to serve simultaneously as Senate President, as a result of the Constitutional amendment approved by the voters in 2005 (as the current dual role would remain in effect if Codey were to step down before the new Governor takes office). The state's two U.S. Senators are Frank R. Lautenberg (Democrat) and Jon Corzine (Democrat). As governor-elect, Corzine will appoint his own replacement after he steps down from the Senate and is sworn in as Governor in January. New Jersey has 13 Congressional Districts. New Jersey is a politically competitive state; the Governorship has alternated between the parties since the election of Richard J. Hughes in 1961; the legislature has also switched hands, and one house was evenly divided from 1999–2001. Three of the last four gubernatorial elections have been close. The Congressional seats have also been as evenly divided as thirteen seats can be. In national elections, the state now tends to lean towards the national Democratic Party. It was, however, a Republican stronghold for years in the past, having given comfortable margins of victory to the Republican candidate in the close elections of 1948, 1968, and 1976. New Jersey was a crucial swing state in the elections of 1960, 1968, and 1992. In national elections, the state gave large victories to Democrats in the 1990's, while in the 2004 presidential election, John F. Kerry defeated George W. Bush by about 6%. The last elected Republican to hold a Senate seat from New Jersey was Clifford P. Case in 1979. (Nicholas Brady was appointed a U.S. Senator by Governor Thomas Kean in 1982 after Harrison A. Williams resigned the Senate seat following the Abscam investigations. Brady served eight months. The state's Democratic strongholds include Mercer County around the cities of Trenton and Princeton; Essex County and Hudson County, the state's two most urban counties, around the state's two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City; as well as in Camden County and most of the other urban communities just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York City. More suburban northern counties in the orbit of New York, such as Union and Middlesex, also trend Democratic. The more suburban northwestern and southeastern counties of the state are reliably Republican: Republicans have strong backing along the coast in Ocean County and in the mountainous northwestern part of the state, especially Sussex County, Morris County and Warren County. Somerset and Hunterdon counties, more suburban counties in the region, are also Republican in local elections, but can be competitive in national races. In the 2004 General Election, Bush received about 51% in Somerset and 56% in Hunterdon, while up in rural Republican Sussex County, Bush won with 64% of the vote. About half of the counties in New Jersey, however, are considered swing counties, but some go more one way than others. For an example, Bergen County, which leans Republican in the northern half of the county, is mostly Democratic in the more populated southern parts, causing it to usually vote slightly Democratic (same with Passaic County, with a highly populated Hispanic Democratic south and a rural, Republican north), other "swing" counties like Cape May tend to go Republican, as they also have population in conservative areas. The governor's mansion is Drumthwacket.

New Jersey State Constitution

The [http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/lawsconstitution/constitution.asp constitution] was adopted in 1947. It provides for a bicameral Legislature consisting of a Senate of 40 members and an Assembly of 80 members. Each of the 40 legislative districts elects one Senator and two Assembly members. Assembly members are elected by the people for a two-year term in all odd-numbered years; Senators are elected in the years ending in 1, 3, and 7 and thus serve either four or two year terms.

The New Jersey Supreme Court

The New Jersey Supreme Court [http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/supreme/index.htm] consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. All are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of a majority of the membership of the state senate. Justices serve an initial seven-year term, after which they can be reappointed to serve until age 70.

Geography

New Jersey is broadly divided into three geographic regions: North Jersey, Central Jersey, and South Jersey. North Jersey is within New York City's general sphere of influence, with many of its residents commuting into the city for work. Central Jersey is a largely suburban area. South Jersey is within Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's general sphere of influence. Such geographic definitions are broad, however, and there is often dispute over where one region begins and another ends. High Point Mountain, in Montague Township, Sussex County has the highest elevation in New Jersey. Sussex County, in North Jersey, and its Gold Coast featuring Goldman Sachs Tower.]] New Jersey is bordered on the north and northeast by New York, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania (the latter two across the Delaware River.) Prominent geographic features include:
- Delaware Water Gap
- Musconetcong River
- New Jersey Meadowlands
- The Palisades
- Passaic River
- Pine Barrens
- Rancocas River
- Raritan River
- Sandy Hook
- South Mountain

Economy

[http://www.bea.gov/ The Bureau of Economic Analysis] estimates that New Jersey's total state product in 2003 was $397 billion. New Jersey's per capita income is the highest in the nation. Its per capita personal income in 2003 was $40,427, 4th in the United States of America. Its median household income is also the highest in the nation with $55,146. It is also ranked 2nd in the nation by the number of places with per capita incomes above national average with 76.4%. Nine of New Jersey's counties are also in the wealthiest 100 of the country. Women in New Jersey earn the highest per capita income as stated in a 2002 article in the Newark Star-Ledger. Its agricultural outputs are nursery stock, horses, vegetables, fruits and nuts, seafood, and dairy products. In particular, cranberries and eggplant are two of the state's largest crops. Hammonton in the southern part of the state is known as the blueberry capital of the world. Its industrial outputs are pharmaceutical and chemical products, food processing, electric equipment, printing and publishing, and tourism. New Jersey's economy has a large base of industry and chemical manufacturing. Additionally, New Jersey is home to the largest petroleum containment system in the world, outside of the Middle East. Although the state is certainly not defined by these activities, their existence and visibility to those passing through the state along some of its major highways does contribute to many jokes about pollution and ironic plays on the state's nickname, the "Garden State." In terms of quantity and quality, New Jersey ranks ninth in the union, in the number of manufactured goods that come from this state's factories. New Jersey is also a leader in the number of businesses that have their headquarters or do business here. 50 Fortune 500 companies alone have headquarters or do business in Morris County alone. Nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or conduct business in New Jersey. This allows New Jersey to have the largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the world. Paramus is long noted for having one of the highest business per person ratio in the nation, because of the huge number of shops in that town and the surrounding area. Several New Jersey counties such as Essex, Morris, Middlesex, Union, and Bergen counties have been ranked in the World Almanac 2002, as being among the top 15 highest per person per capita income areas in the country. New Jersey has the nation's most diverse economy, with its major industries being agriculture, tourism, nursery products, electronics, manufacturing equipment, pharmacuticals, etc. It is for this reason, New Jersey is able to weather severe economic declines in the national economy and it is why New Jersey's unemployment rate is well below the national average. New Jersey's location between Philadephia and New York City, has allowed New Jersey to grow and thrive since the time of its creation as a state in 1702. Another of New Jersey's great strengths is its large and well-educated labor pool that allow the myriad of industries to exist today. The Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal is the world's largest container ports. Newark Liberty International Airport is ranked as number 7 in the top ten list of the nation's busiest airports and among the top 20 busiest airports in the world. Six Flags Great Adventure is one of the largest theme parks in the world. It is home to the largest wild safari out of Africa and is now home to the world's tallest and fastest coaster, Kingda Ka. As of 2001, New Jersey makes $30 billion each year from tourism as stated in the Star-Ledger's article The Best Of New Jersey. New Jersey is one of the top ten most visited states in the nation.

Demographics

As of 2004, the population of New Jersey was estimated to be 8,698,879. There are 1.6 million foreign-born living in the state (accounting for 19.2% of the state population). New Jersey is the tenth most populous state, but the most densely populated, at 1,134.4 residents per square mile. [http://www.njfaq.com/njfaq4.shtml].

Race, ethnicity, and ancestry

The racial makeup of New Jersey is:
- 66.0% White Non-Hispanic
- 13.6% Black
- 13.3% Hispanic
- 5.7% Asian
- 0.2% Native American (U.S. Census)
- 2.5% Mixed race New Jersey has the 15th largest percentage of minority residents of any state and the 2nd highest percentage in the North. Race/ethnicity citation with state percentages: [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t6/tab02.pdf](Adobe PDF) Diversity index citation with state percentages: [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/divers.xls](Microsoft Excel) It also has the second largest percentage of Jews (after New York), the second largest percentage of Muslims (after Michigan). New Jersey is the third most Italian-American state in the nation, according to the 2000 Census, and has large percentages of Blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, and Asians. Ancestry citation with state percentages: [http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf](Adobe PDF) The five largest ancestry groups in New Jersey are: Italian (17.9%), Irish (15.9%), African American (13.6%), German (12.6%), Polish (6.9%). Newark and Camden are two of the poorest cities in America, but New Jersey as a whole has the highest median household income in the nation, as well as the second highest per capita income, after Connecticut. This is largely due to the fact that so much of New Jersey is comprised of suburbs, most of them affluent, of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey is also the most densely populated state in the nation, and the first and only state that has had every one of its 21 counties deemed "urban," as opposed to rural. The dominant race, ethnicity, or ancestry by county, according to the 2000 Census, are the following:
- New Jersey
  - Italian - Bergen, Morris, Somerset, Ocean, Monmouth
  - Irish - Sussex
  - Black - Essex, Union, Mercer
  - German - Warren, Hunterdon
  - Polish/Slavic - Middlesex
  - Puerto Rican/Hispanic - Hudson, Passaic Ancestry citation with county maps: [http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf] (Adobe PDF) Specific ancestry maps by county, place, and census tract available at: [http://factfinder.census.gov] 6.7% of its population were reported as under 5, 24.8% under 18, and 13.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.5% of the population.

Religion

The religious affiliations of adults of New Jersey are:
- Christian – 77%
  - Roman Catholic – 39%
  - Protestant – 36%
    - Baptist – 9%
    - Methodist – 6%
    - Presbyterian – 4%
    - Other Protestant or general Protestant – 17%
  - Other Christian – 2%
- Jewish – 5%
- Muslim – 1%
- Other Religions (e.g. Hindu, Sikh) – 1%
- Non-Religious – 16%

Culture

Music

New Jersey has long been an important area for both rock and rap music. Some prominent musicians with connections to New Jersey are:
- Musician Bruce Springsteen, who has sung of New Jersey life on his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and in many of his most popular songs, including "Atlantic City," "Born to Run," "Darlington County," "Freehold," "Jersey Girl" (written by Tom Waits), "Jungleland," "Spirit in the Night," and others. Fellow musician Jon Bon Jovi has also written many songs about New Jersey and even named one of his albums after it (see New Jersey). Both reside in New Jersey today.
- Frank Sinatra, born December 12, 1915, the only child of working-class Italian-American immigrants, in a tenement at 415 Monroe St. in Hoboken. He sang with a neighborhood vocal group, the Hoboken Four, and appeared in neighborhood theater amateur shows before he became an entertainment legend and Academy Award winning actor.
- Whitney Houston was born in the city of Newark, New Jersey but grew up in neighboring East Orange, and is best known for her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" which set new records for sales and weeks at number one. Houston has sold well over 180 million records internationally.
- Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane" is about the accusation and trial of Rubin Carter which took place in Paterson. Dylan's view is that Carter was innocent. (In 1985, United States district court Judge H. Lee Sarokin ruled that Carter had not received a fair trial, saying that the prosecution had been "based on racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure.")
- Legendary jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie, born in Red Bank in 1904. In the 1960s, he collaborated on several albums with fellow New Jersey native Frank Sinatra.
- Asbury Park, home of The Stone Pony, where Springsteen and Bon Jovi frequented early in their careers, which is still considered by many to be a "Mecca" for up-and-coming musicians.
- The Velvet Underground, who had their first performance as a band at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey. Songs included "There She Goes Again" and "Heroin."
- Jerseyan Zakk Wylde of Jersey City, who is currently the guitarist with Ozzy Osbourne and is with another popular rock band, Black Label Society. Wylde is famous for his signature "Bulls-eye" Gibson Les Paul guitar.
- Former Fugee Lauryn Hill, a South Orange resident and hip-hop's best-selling solo female artist. Her 1998 debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, sold 10 million copies internationally.
- Hip-hop's longest running radio show, founded by two Jerseyans, Special K (Kevin Bonners) and Teddy Ted (Ted Whiting) of Hackensack, who began on New York's WHBI in 1982 and now appear on WPAT-AM.
- Other rap artists, including Irvington's Queen Latifah, the first female rapper to succeed in music, film, and TV, and the Grammy-winning Naughty By Nature of East Orange, who cut 1992's smash hit "O.P.P." Redman, an influential underground figure and Newark native, has recently found commercial success through collaborations with Eminem and the Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man.
- Singer/Actor Constantine Maroulis, a popular finalist on the television show, American Idol, Season 4 (2005), spent a good portion of his formative years in Wyckoff, where he graduated from Ramapo High School. Maroulis is developing a television sitcom which is based on his growing up years in New Jersey and the surrounding metropolitan New York City area.
- Musical artists Fountains of Wayne [http://www.fountainsofwayne.com/home/], a group of New Jerseyians who took the name of a semi-famous lawn and garden store [http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NJWAYfountains.html] on Route 46 in Wayne, New Jersey (also featured on an episode of The Sopranos).
- The band Snowball 37 [http://www.snowball37.com/], a group of brothers who were inspired by a Kevin Smith reference, is based out of Jersey City.
- The genre Emo until recently thrived in New Jersey, particularly near New Brunswick. Such bands that fit into this category include Thursday, My Chemical Romance, Midtown, Senses Fail, Saves The Day, Hidden In Plain View, The Early November, Armor For Sleep, The Escape Engine, for some more popular bands, recently, the growth of Jersey emo bands has seen somewhat of a decrease as the genre has moved elsewhere.
- Punk music is also an important alternative style in New Jersey, perhaps starting with the band that essentially invented horror punk, The Misfits from Lodi, in the 90s, The Bouncing Souls and Catch 22 were also prominent figures in New Jersey punk, strongly influenced by New Brunswick's Sticks and Stones.
- The DeLeo brothers of Stone Temple Pilots are both from New Jersey. The brothers, Dean and Robert, are the guitarist and bassist for the band.
- Pete Yorn is another New Jersey artist. He has two albums out: musicforthemorningafter (2001) and Day I Forgot (2003).
- Deborah Harry from Blondie was raised in Hawthorne, New Jersey.
- Blues Traveler was formed at Princeton High School in 1987. John Popper, along with high school buddies drummer Brendan Hill, guitarist Chan Kinchla and the late bassist Bobby Sheehan are all natives of New Jersey.
- Spin Doctors began as Trucking Company in 1989 with Chris Barron (lead singer) and Eric Schenkman and were high school friends of the aformentioned Blues Traveler frontman John Popper at Princeton High School.
- American Idol season 4 contestant Anwar Robinson, considered to be one of AI's most talented male singers, was born in Newark and grew up in East Orange and Montclair, in addition, he teaches music at Edison Middle School in West Orange
- Legendary rock band Queen (touring with Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers) chose a New Jersey venue - the Continental Airlines Arena - to perform their first USA concert in 23 years on October 16, 2005. The crowd surprised them with a strong reaction and plentiful participation, even in what were thought to be the lesser-known songs.
- The three members of the Fugees were from South Orange, New Jersey.
- Coheed and Cambria mentions the Jersey Devil in one of their songs
- Indie Rock band Yo La Tengo makes its home in Hoboken, New Jersey.

TV and film

Motion pictures and televisions shows also have been set in New Jersey. The popular television drama The Sopranos depicts the life of a New Jersey organized crime family and is filmed on location at various places throughout the state. Although not credited, at least one scene from The Godfather (1972) was filmed in New Jersey. The scene with Clemenza's famous line, "Leave the gun. Take the cannolis," was filmed in the marsh along the Hudson River in Jersey City, just west of the Statue of Liberty, in what is now Liberty State Park. The 2004 Sundance Film Festival favorite Garden State (starring Zach Braff and Natalie Portman) was shot on location in Morris Township. Also, the popular animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Megas XLR take place primarily in New Jersey. Director Kevin Smith sets many of his films in New Jersey, particularly his "New Jersey Trilogy" of Clerks., Mallrats and Chasing Amy. The 2004 movie Jersey Girl is also based in New Jersey. Clerks. also had a short-lived animated series spin-off with the same name. It took place in the same locations as the movie. 2001's A Beautiful Mind had several scenes shot at Princeton University. The movie is a biopic of the mathematician John Nash, who currently lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Actor Jack Nicholson grew up on the Jersey shore, and went to Manasquan High School in Monmouth County. The 2004 stoner film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle took place in New Jersey. Several locations seen in the movie include Princeton University, Newark, New Brunswick, and a fictional White Castle in Cherry Hill. Although supposedly set in New York, the 2003 movie School of Rock was filmed primarily in Edison and Mahwah, perhaps due to the significance these towns have on rock music. The 1988 comedy film Big starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, Jon Lovitz, and Mercedes Ruehl was also filmed in Bergen County, New Jersey. The 1983 cult classic Eddie and the Cruisers was filmed mostly in Somers Point and Ocean City. Bruce Willis grew up in Penns Grove, New Jersey. The movie War of the Worlds was filmed in many locations in New Jersey, including Bayonne and Newark. The infamous radio show broadcast starring Orson Welles, The War of the Worlds was set in Grover's Mill (a section of West Windsor Township) and other locations around New Jersey. The Ron Howard film Cinderella Man and The Elia Kazan film On the Waterfront both take place in the old Hudson County docks.

Legends and Ghosts

A long circulated legend says a creature, the Jersey Devil or the Leeds Devil, terrorizes the population of the Pine Barrens (New Jersey). New Jersey is also home to several other urban legends, such as the ghost of Annie's Road in Totowa, Midgetville in Edgewater, Albino Village in Clifton, the haunted and demon-possessed Clinton Road in West Milford, and the Witch of Igoe Road in Marlboro. There is also the popular attraction of the Atco Ghost where the ghost of a little boy runs across the street late at night chasing a basketball located on Burnt Mill Road in Atco. It is also rumored that Jimmy Hoffa, the late leader of the Teamsters union, is buried beneath Giants Stadium or the New Jersey Turnpike. Camp NoBeBoSco in Blairstown was the location of the original Friday the 13th movie (some believe the series of films to be set in New Jersey, although this is never confirmed onscreen), which was partially based on real murders that have occurred near the campground, in the state's rural northwest. Such horror stories were the inspiration behind the now nationally-famous Weird NJ magazine and website.

Miscellaneous

Weird NJ The properties in the United States version of the board game Monopoly are named after the streets of Atlantic City. Diners are considered very common in New Jersey, and it's thought that nearly all medium-sized and larger towns have one. New Jersey is home to many diner manufacturers. New Jersey is often known by outsiders with little respect for the state as "America's Armpit", both for its shape and location on the Eastern seaboard and for the smell in certain parts of the state due to the landfills.

Transportation

Diners DinersThe New Jersey Turnpike is one of the best-known and most-trafficked roadways in the USA. This toll road carries interstate traffic between Delaware and New York. Commonly referred to as simply "the Turnpike," it is also known for its numerous rest-areas named after prominent New Jerseyans as varied as inventor Thomas Edison; United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton; U.S. Presidents Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson, ; writers James Fenimore Cooper, Joyce Kilmer, and Walt Whitman; patriot Molly Pitcher; Red Cross advocate Clara Barton, and football coach Vince Lombardi. The Garden State Parkway, or just "the Parkway," (or "The Garden State Parking Lot" on Fridays during the summer), carries more in-state traffic, and runs from the town of Montvale along New Jersey's northern border with New York to the southernmost tip of the state at Cape May. It also acts as the trunk that connects the New York metropolitan area to Atlantic City. Many New Jersey residents who live near the Parkway or the Turnpike (a majority of the state population) locate their hometowns according to their respective highway exits, though very few New Jerseyans living elsewhere in the state will do so. Other expressways in New Jersey include the Atlantic City Expressway, Palisades Interstate Parkway, Interstate 76, Interstate 78, Interstate 80, Interstate 280, Interstate 287 and Interstate 295. The New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) operates extensive rail and bus service throughout the state. NJ Transit is a state-run corporation that began with the consolidation of several private bus companies in North Jersey. In the early 1980s, it acquired the commuter train operations of CONRAIL that connect towns in northern and central New Jersey to New York City. In 1989, NJ Transit began service between Atlantic City and Lindenwold, extending it to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1990s. New Jersey has interstate compacts with all three neighboring states. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Delaware River Port Authority (with Pennsylvania), and the Delaware River and Bay Authority (with Delaware) operate most of the major transportation routes into and out of New Jersey. Tolls for the bridges are charged in one direction—it is free to get into New Jersey, but people have to pay to get out. The Washington Crossing and Scudders Falls (on I-95) bridges near Trenton, as well as Trenton's Calhoun Street and Bridge Street ("Trenton Makes") bridges are still free as of this writing. Newark Liberty International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the United States. Run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who runs the other two major airports in the New York City region: John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, it is one of the main airports serving the New York City area. Continental Airlines is Newark's largest tenant, operating an entire terminal at Newark which they use as a hub. United Airlines and FedEx operate cargo hubs. The airport has its own railroad station on New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line which is also served by Amtrak.

Cities, towns, boroughs, villages, and townships

New Jersey has 566 municipalities; until recently, 567. Unlike other states, all of its municipalities are incorporated entities, with fixed boundaries, and no local government can simply absorb land from another.

Types of government

When the types of government were devised in the nineteenth century, the intention was that cities would be large built-up areas, with progressively smaller boroughs, towns, and villages; the rural areas in between would be relatively large townships. This is still often true, although Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey has been divided until it is less than a square mile, and consists of a single housing development. Some townships -- notably Middletown, Brick, Hamilton, and Dover (which includes Toms River) -- have, without changing their boundaries, become large stretches of suburbia, as populous as (if often more spread out than) cities, often focused around shopping centers and highways rather than traditional downtowns and main streets. As with Toms River, many locations in New Jersey are simply neighborhoods, with no exact boundaries; often the cluster of houses, the traditional neighborhood, the postal district, and the Census designated place will differ. The Federal Government has often failed to understand that a New Jersey township is just another municipality; and some municipalities have changed forms to become the Township of the Borough of Verona or the Township of South Orange Village to receive more Federal aid. The Census Bureau also has a hard time every ten years.

Forms of government

The five types of municipality differ mostly in name. Originally each type had its own form of government, but more modern forms are available to any municipality, even though the original type is retained in its formal name. This is the only difference between boroughs and cities or townships: only boroughs can have the "borough form" of government. Starting in the 1900s, largely driven by reform-minded goals, a series of six modern forms of government were implemented. This began with the Walsh Act, enacted in 1911, which provided for a 3 or 5 member commission elected on a non-partisan basis. This was followed by the 1923 Municipal Manager Law which offered a non-partisan council, a weak mayor elected by and from among the members of the council, and introduced Council-Manager government, with an (ideally apolitical) appointed mana

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has frequently recorded and toured with the E Street Band. Springsteen is most widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks and Americana sentiments. His eloquence in expressing ordinary, everyday problems have earned him numerous awards, including Grammy Awards and an Oscar, along with a huge fan base. His most famous albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., epitomize his penchant for writing about the struggles of a young man growing up in the streets of his native New Jersey. Springsteen's lyrics often concern men and women struggling to make ends meet. He has gradually become identified with progressive politics. Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." was so popular that Ronald Reagan attempted to co-opt it during his 1984 presidential campaign, misinterpreting it as a plainly nationalistic song rather than one about the negative after-effects of the Vietnam War. Springsteen is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on which his album The Rising reflects. Springsteen's recordings have tended to alternate between commercially accessible rock albums and somber folk-oriented works. Much of Springsteen's popularity stems from his concerts, marathon shows in which he and the E Street Band revolve amongst intense ballads, rousing anthems, and party rock and roll songs. Springsteen has long had the nickname "The Boss," a term which he was initially reported to dislike but now seems to have come to terms with, sometimes jokingly referring to himself as such on stage.

Early years

Bruce Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Freehold Borough, New Jersey. His father, Douglas, was a bus driver of Dutch and Irish ancestry and his mother, Adele Zirilli Springsteen, an Italian-Puerto Rican or Italian-American legal secretary. He was inspired to become a musician when he saw Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show. At the age of 13, he bought his first guitar for US$ 18. In 1965, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in his town. They helped him become the lead guitarist of The Castiles, and later became the lead singer of the group. The Castilles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Bricktown, New Jersey, and played a variety of venues, including Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said that even when Springsteen was a young man, she believed him when he said he was going to make it big. [http://newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2002/0417/Front_page/003.html]. Bruce's sister, Pamela Sue Springsteen, had a brief film career, but walked away from acting for good to pursue her still photography career full time. He began performing in Richmond, Virginia, in late 1969 and through 1970 with singer Robbin Thompson in a band called Steel Mill. They went on to perform some memorable shows at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Before being discovered nationally, he returned to Asbury Park, New Jersey, and performed regularly at small nightclubs there and along the Jersey shore. His New Jersey shows quickly gathered cult-like appeal for their energy, passion and longevity, most lasting in excess of three hours. Jersey shore Jersey shore Even after gaining international acclaim, Springsteen's New Jersey roots would reverberate in his music, with him routinely praising "the great state of New Jersey" in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, his appearances in major New Jersey and Philadelphia venues routinely would sell out for consecutive nights and, much like the Grateful Dead, his show's song lists would vary significantly from night to night. He would also make many surprise appearances at The Stone Pony and other shore nightclubs over the years. He began his recording career with the E Street Band in 1973. He signed a solo record deal with Columbia Records in 1972 with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same record label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey-based musician friends, including guitarist Steven Van Zandt, into the studio with him, many of them forming the E Street Band. His debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., from January 1973, established him as a critical favorite [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/107193], though sales were slow. Manfred Mann's Earth Band subsequently turned one song from the album, "Blinded by the Light", into a number one hit. Because of his lyrics-heavy, folk rock-rooted music and the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics frequently compared Springsteen to Bob Dylan in the early days of his recording career. [http://home.theboots.net/theboots/articles/bangs_btr_review.html] Later in 1973 his second album, The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle came out, again to critical acclaim but no commercial profit. The long, full-of-life "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" from this album would go on to become one of Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.

Commercial success

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) In the May 22, 1974 issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time" [http://home.theboots.net/theboots/articles/future.html] (Landau subsequently became Springsteen's manager and producer). With the release of Born to Run in 1975, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. This was Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make a commercially viable album; its wall of sound production had an enormous budget. The album succeeded: while there were no real hit singles, the title track, "Thunder Road", and "Jungleland" all received massive FM radio airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations to this day. A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for a while, and probably also contributed to the much more somber tone of his 1978 album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. Musically, this album was the turning point of Springsteen's career. Gone were the rapid-fire lyrics, out-sized characters, and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first three albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. Many fans consider Darkness Springsteen's best and most consistent record; tracks such as "Badlands" and "The Promised Land" became concert staples for decades to come. Other fans would always like the adventurous early Springsteen best. [http://slate.msn.com/id/2117845/nav/ais/nav/ais/] Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the double album The River in 1980, which yielded his first hit single, "Hungry Heart". In the liner notes of his Greatest Hits album, he says that he actually wrote "Hungry Heart" for the Ramones but that he played the song for Jon Landau and Landau advised him to keep it. He followed this with the stark solo acoustic Nebraska in 1982. According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. The title track on this album is about the murder spree of Charles Starkweather. While this album did not sell especially well, it garnered him widespread critical praise. Springsteen did not go on tour with the release of this album. Springsteen is probably best known for the multi-million selling Born in the U.S.A.(1984), and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a tribute to Springsteen's buddies that had experienced the Vietnam War, some of whom did not come back. The song was widely mis-interpreted on release as nationalistic. In later years Springsteen performed the song accompanied only with acoustic guitar to restore the song's original meaning. "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at number two on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen. This famous appearance helped launch Cox's career. The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (this was further helped by releasing Arthur Baker dance mixes of three of the singles). The three-disc Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live/1975-85 summed up Springsteen's career to this point, and displayed some of the elements that made Springsteen shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long emotionally intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Some felt the song selection on this album could have been better, but in any case, Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans. After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered. It coincided with the breakup of his first marriage to actress Julianne Phillips. Reflecting the challenges of love, on Tunnel of Love's title song, Springsteen famously sang: "Ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman, and they fall in love. But the house is haunted, and the ride gets rough. You got to learn to live with what you can't rise above."

1990s

1990ss for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" on the Philadelphia soundtrack.]] In 1992, three years after breaking up with most of the E Street Band (Roy Bittan remained) and risking charges of "going Hollywood" by moving to Los Angeles (a radical move for someone so linked to the blue-collar life of the Jersey Shore), Springsteen released two albums simultaneously. Human Touch and Lucky Town were even more introspective than any of his previous work. Also different about these albums was the confidence he displayed. As opposed to his first two albums, which dreamed of happiness, and his next four, which showed him growing to fear it, these albums saw a finally satisfied and mature Springsteen. However, most fans view these albums (especially Human Touch) and the "Other Band" tour that followed as the low point in Springsteen's career; it was also during this tour that Springsteen first began using a teleprompter so as to not forget his lyrics, a practice he has continued with ever since. An abortive acoustic band appearance on the MTV Unplugged television program that was later released as In Concert/MTV Plugged further cemented fan dissatisfaction. Springsteen seemed to realize this dissatisfaction a few years hence when he spoke humorously of his late father during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech: "I've gotta thank him because -- what would I conceivably have written about without him? I mean, you can imagine that if everything had gone great between us, we would have had disaster. I would have written just happy songs -- and I tried it in the early '90s and it didn't work; the public didn't like it." [http://www.loose-ends.it/halloffame.html] A multiple Grammy Award winner, Springsteen also won an Academy Award in 1993 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia," which appeared in the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The song, along with the film, was applauded by many for its sympathetic portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS, especially coming from a mainstream, heterosexual musician. Unusually, the music video for the song shows Springsteen's actual vocal performance, recorded using a hidden microphone, as he refused to lip-sync to a prerecorded vocal track. In 1995, after temporarily re-organizing the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the documentary Blood Brothers), he released his second solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad. This was less well-received than the similar Nebraska, due to the minimal melody, twangy vocals, and didactic nature of most of the songs. The small-venue solo tour that followed successfully featured many of his older songs in drastically reshaped acoustic form, although Springsteen had to explicitly remind his audiences to be quiet during the performances. In 1998, another precursor to the E Street Band's upcoming re-birth appeared in the form of a sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks. In 1999, the E Street Band officially re-united and went on an extensive world tour, lasting over a year in length. Highlights included a sold-out fifteen show run at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

2000s

Springsteen's reunion tour with the E Street Band ended with a triumphant ten night sold-out engagement at at New York's Madison Square Garden. The shows were also notable for performance of the song "American Skin (41 Shots)" each night, which examined the issue of race and American citizenship using the police shooting of Amadou Diallo as a starting point. The final shows at Madison Square Garden were recorded and resulted in an HBO Concert, with corresponding DVD and album releases as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City, the first album he recorded with The E Street Band since 1984.]] In 2002, Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, was a critical and popular success, and hailed the return of "The Boss". The title track gained airplay in several radio formats, and the record became Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years. A massive tour was made to promote The Rising. While Springsteen's popularity has dipped over the years in some southern and midwestern regions of the U.S., it is still strong along the coasts, and he played an unprecedented 10 nights in outdoor football Giants Stadium in New Jersey, a ticket-selling feat that no other musical act can come close to. [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1478248/20030916/story.jhtml]. During these shows Springsteen thanked those fans who were attending multiple shows and those who were coming from long distances or out of the country; the advent of robust Bruce-oriented online communities had made these practices easier. The final Giants Stadium show concluded with an even better thank you: a performance of "Jersey Girl". The Rising tour would come to a final conclusion with 3 nights in Shea Stadium. Bob Dylan was a surprise guest on the last night, the two performing "Highway 61 Revisited" together. During the 2000s Springsteen has become a visible advocate for the revitalization of Asbury Park, and has played an annual series of winter holiday concerts there to benefit various local businesses, organizations, and causes. These shows are explicitly intended for the faithful, featuring numbers such as the unreleased (until Tracks) E Street Shuffle out-take "Thundercrack", a rollicking group participation song that casual Springsteen fans would be mystified by. He also frequently rehearses for tours in Asbury Park; his most devoted followers stand outside the building to hear what fragments they can of the upcoming shows. At the Grammy Awards of 2003, Springsteen performed The Clash's "London Calling" along with Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and E Street Band member Steven van Zandt in tribute to the late Joe Strummer; Springsteen and the Clash had once been considered multiple-album-dueling rivals at the time of the double The River and the triple Sandinista!. In 2004, Springsteen announced that he and the E Street Band would participate in a politically motivated "Vote for Change" tour, in conjunction with John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., Jurassic 5 and other musicians. All concerts were to be held in swing states, to benefit MoveOn.org and encourage people to vote against George W. Bush. A finale was held in Washington, D.C., bringing many of the artists together. Several days later, Springsteen held one more such concert in New Jersey when polls showed that state surprisingly close. While in past years Springsteen had played benefits for causes he believed in – against nuclear energy, for Vietnam veterans, Amnesty International, and the Christic Institute – he had always refrained from explicitly endorsing candidates for political office (indeed he had rejected the efforts of Walter Mondale to construe an endorsement during the 1984 Reagan "Born in the U.S.A." flap). This new stance led to criticism and praise from the expected partisan sources. Springsteen's "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign; in the last days of the campaign, he performed acoustic versions of this and a few of his other songs at Kerry rallies. Whether Springsteen's stance causes a reduction in his fan base (now an older, more affluent demographic) remains to be seen as of 2005. Springsteen's most recent album, Devils & Dust, was released on April 26, 2005 and was recorded without the E Street Band. It is a low-key, mostly acoustic album, in the same vein as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad although with a little more instrumentation. Some of the material was written almost ten years earlier during or shortly after the Tom Joad tour, a couple of them being performed then but never released. [http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=505843]. The title track concerns an ordinary soldier's feelings and fears during the Iraq War. Starbucks rejected a co-branding deal for the album, not only due to some sexually explicit content, but also because of Springsteen's anti-corporate politics. Nonetheless, the album entered the album charts at number 1 in ten different countries (United States, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, and Ireland). Springsteen began a small-venue solo tour at the same time as the album's release. Most shows sold out in minutes, although attendance was sparse in a few regions. Unlike his mid-1990s solo tour, he performed on piano, electric piano, pump organ, autoharp, ukelele, banjo, electric guitar, and stomping board, as well as acoustic guitar and harmonica, adding variety to the solo sound. (Offstage synthesizer, guitar, and percussion are also used for some songs.) Unearthly renditions of "Reason to Believe", "The Promised Land", and Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" jolted audiences to attention, while rarities, frequent set-list changes, and a willingness to keep trying even through audible piano mistakes have kept his loyal audiences happy. In November 2005, New Jersey Senators Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine sponsored a US Senate resolution to honor Springsteen on the 30th anniversary of the release of his Born to Run album. In general, resolutions honoring native sons are passed with a simple voice vote. For unstated reasons, this resolution was killed in committee. [http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17812,00.html Eonline story, 11/2005]

E Street Band

The E Street Band is considered to have started in October 1972, even though it wasn't officially billed and known as such until September 1974. [http://www.brucespringsteen.it/e_street.htm] The E Street Band was inactive from the end of 1988 through early 1999, except for a brief reunion in 1995.

Current members


- Danny Federici - organ, glockenspiel, accordian, keyboards
- Garry Tallent - bass guitar
- Clarence "Big Man" Clemons - saxophone, percussion, occasional vocals, larger-than-life persona and Springsteen foil
- Max Weinberg - drums (joined September 1974)
- Roy Bittan - piano, synthesizer (joined September 1974)
- Steven van Zandt - guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (officially joined July 1975 after playing in previous bands; left in 1984 to go solo; rejoined 1995)
- Nils Lofgren - guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals (replaced Steven van Zandt in June 1984; remained in group after van Zandt returned)
- Patti Scialfa - backing and duet vocals, guitar (joined June 1984; became Springsteen's wife in 1991; they have a daughter and two sons)
- Soozie Tyrell - violin, backing vocals (joined 2002, occasional appearances before that)
- Springsteen himself does all lead vocals, most lead guitar parts (most noticeable in concert), harmonica, and occasional piano.

Former members


- Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez - drums (inception through February 1974, when asked to resign)
- David Sancious - keyboards (June 1973 to August 1974)
- Ernest "Boom" Carter - drums (February to August 1974)
- Suki Lahav - violin, backing vocals (September 1974 to March 1975)

Domain dispute

In February 2001, Springsteen lost a domain name dispute to Jeff Burgar, who had registered brucespringsteen.com. A WIPO panel ruled 2 to 1 in favor of Burgar. In November 2000 Springsteen filed legal action against Burgar which accused him of registering the domain in bad faith along with several other celebrity domains to funnel web users to his Celebrity 1000 portal site. Once the legal complaint was filed, Burgar pointed the domain to a Springsteen biography and message board. Burgar claims to be running a Springsteen fan club.

Samples


- Download sample of "Badlands" from Darkness on the Edge of Town
- Download sample of "Thunder Road" from Born To Run.
- Download sample of "Dancing in the Dark" from Born in the U.S.A.
- Download sample of "Open All Night" from Nebraska

Discography

For a detailed discography, see Bruce Springsteen discography.

Awards and recognition

Grammy Awards: :Springsteen has won 12 Grammy Awards, with the first coming for the year 1984 and the most recent for 2004. The most notable of these are:
- Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"
- Best Rock Vocal Performance, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"
- Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia" (which also won three other awards)
- Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad
- Best Rock Song, 2003, "The Rising" (which also won two other awards) Academy Awards:
- Academy Award for Best Song, 1993, "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia Emmy Awards:
- The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical awards in 2001. Other recognition:
- Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999
- Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999
- "Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature (something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey") [http://www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Bruce/index2.html]

References


- Alterman, Eric. It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive : The Promise of Bruce Springsteen. Little Brown, 1999. ISBN 0316038857.
- Coles, Robert. Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing. Random House, 2005.
- Cross, Charles R. Backstreets: Springsteen - the man and his music Harmony Books, New York 1989/1992. ISBN 051758929X. Contains 15+ interviews and a complete list of all Springsteen songs including unreleased compositions. Complete lising of all concerts 1965-1990 - most of them with tracklists. Hundreds of previously unreleased high quality color pictures.
- Cullen, Jim. Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. 1997; Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. New edition of 1997 study book places Springsteen's work in the broader context of American history and culture. ISBN 0819567612
- Eliot, Marc with Appel, Mike. Down Thunder Road. Simon & Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0671868985.
- Graff, Gary. The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink, 2005.
- Guterman, Jimmy. Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo, 2005.
- Hilburn, Robert. Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press, 1985. ISBN 0684184567.
- Marsh, Dave. Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts : The Definitive Biography, 1972-2003. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 041596928X. (Consolidation of two previous Marsh biographies, Born to Run (1981) and Glory Days (1987).)
- Wolff, Daniel. 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land. Bloomsbury, 2005.
- Smith, Andrew [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/02/09/bruce_springsteen_loses_cybersquatting_dispute/ Bruce Springsteen loses cybersquatting dispute], The Register, February 9, 2001.
- [http://candysroom.freeservers.com/ GROWIN' UP BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BIOGRAPHY PAGES 1949-2003]. Accessed on March 17, 2005.
- [http://www.tiscali.co.uk/music/biography/bruce_springsteen_biog.html Bruce Springsteen biography]. Accessed on March 17, 2005.

See also


- List of best selling music artists
- Italian American

External links


- [http://www.brucespringsteen.net/ Bruce Springsteen official website], including lyrics
- [http://music-city.org/discography.php?artist=Bruce+Springsteen Bruce Springsteen Complete discography] and data about his music
-