Tramps like us, baby, we were born to celebrate BORN TO RUN @50!
- Letters To You
- Sep 21
- 22 min read
Updated: Sep 23
September 21, 2025
Here at last is our extensive wrap-up coverage of the full week of The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's special events celebrating and commemorating Born to Run @50 on the campus of Monmouth University, along the Jersey Shore (including a rain-soaked side-journey to The Stone Pony for some "Jukebox" music.) Lisa Iannucci and Shawn Poole reporting, accompanied by plenty of Mark Krajnak's beautiful photos for the Archives...
SIDE 1, by Lisa Iannucci
Wednesday, September 3 - Born to Run tribute concert at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre, featuring Jersey Shore musicians
The concert included performances of all eight songs on the album, and each artist also performed an additional song of their choosing. Most opted to present their own material, and most were backed by - of course - a bar band, in this case, the stalwart Pat Roddy Band, who were more than up to the task, having hosted the Fourth Annual Brucefest just down the road in Lake Como a few weeks prior (during which they had performed the record in its entirety as the centerpiece of an epic two-hour set.) Participants in the concert included former E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez and percussionist Richard Blackwell (both of whom had performed with Springsteen on the albums preceding Born to Run,) along with country/pop due Williams Honor, singer-songwriters Jake Thistle and James Maddock, and self-described folk troubadour Pat Guadagno, whose support on acoustic guitar throughout gave the quieter material some depth and complexity.The material was not performed sequentially, and each artist was given some room to interpret the songs as they saw fit. Amongst the highlights:
“She’s the One” performed by Reagan Richards and Gordon Brown of Williams Honor backed by the Pat Roddy Band. Richards is fully capable of belting out a lead vocal, but this performance brought an intense yet understated sensuality that only a female vocalist could muster, and it was quite effective.
A bare-bones, forceful Vini Lopez performance of “Meeting Across the River,” with Pat Guadagno on acoustic guitar, followed by Lopez’ heartfelt and poignant cover of Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart.” (As many fans of Jersey Shore music know already, Lopez has continued to perform in the area over the years, leading various assemblages of local musicians. The latest iteration is an outfit he’s calling The Wonderful Winos.) The Zevon tune was introduced as a tribute to deceased friends and fellow E Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici. As some fans are no doubt aware, Bruce himself had honored his old friend Warren by contributing background vocals and guitar on a couple of tracks for Zevon’s final release, The Wind, back in 2003. “Keep Me in Your Heart” is the closing track on the album.
A driving “Jungleland” performed by Roddy and band, who gave the war horse a fiery intensity, with Roddy on lead vocals and guitar. At the Jersey Shore, it’s practically a requirement that cover bands have a sax player, and Roddy’s band has a good one in multi-instrumentalist Dan Hutchinson, who plays everything from all the saxophones to clarinet, flute, trumpet, keys, harmonica, guitar, and mandolin. Given the bar band treatment, the song felt every bit as vital as it had in 1975.
“Rosalita,” which brought everyone to the stage to close out the night in truly shambolic E Street fashion. Garry Tallent, who had taken in the proceedings from a couple rows back, joined them to receive some well-deserved applause.
The evening ended with a brief statement from Archives Executive Director Robert Santelli, who explained that Born to Run is now on the LIbrary of Congress National Recording Registry. The registry, which preserves recorded audio material of artistic and cultural significance to America, was created by an act of Congress in 2000. The album was nominated for the honor by Santelli, who sits on the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), which advises the Library of Congress on the collection and preservation of these recorded materials. The National Recording Registry is meant to showcase “the range and diversity of American recorded sound heritage in order to increase preservation awareness.”
Thursday, September 4 - opening reception for the Born to Run at 50: Photographs by Eric Meola exhibit at the Rechnitz Hall DiMattio Gallery on Monmouth University’s campus
The exhibit's official opening was hosted by Archives Curator Melissa Ziobro, who set the stage by providing some historical context for the album’s 1975 release and subsequent impact. Ziobro then introduced photographer Eric Meola, who provided some little-known background on the legendary Born to Run photo sessions. The soft-spoken photographer told the story of how he had been selected for the sessions, which had taken place after a run of shows that, per Meola, had left Bruce and Clarence a bit worse for the wear. (Bruce was yawning between photos.)
Meola said he didn’t want to speak for too long, but he did hint at a wealth of stories not only about the photo sessions, but about the E Street Band shows he’d attended prior to and during the album’s conception and recording, and the relationship that had developed between him and Bruce over that period of time. Meola briefly related the story of how he’d originally caught the band’s 1973 show at Max’s Kansas City in Manhattan, and had instantly been hooked. Most photographers are not also memoirists, but one can hope that Meola just might be.
The exhibit includes the best of the photos from Meola’s 2006 publication Born to Run: The Unseen Photos, and it’s fascinating to see them blown up to mega-size; gallery visitors are able to see the depth, shading and granular detail within each image that only black-and-white photography at its best can provide. The actual wear and tear evident on Bruce’s Jack Purcell sneakers, prominent in a number of the images, is concrete, physical proof of the shoestring budget E Streeters had to survive on in those formative years. The sneakers were part of Bruce’s stage and street attire in those days, but ironically they don't actually appear in the iconic album cover photograph, although they were later included in some promotional posters.
Make time for a visit to the gallery if you can; admission is free, and the exhibit runs through December 18.
SIDE 2, by Shawn Poole
Friday, September 5 - An Evening with Thom Zimny at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre
Not surprisingly, Thom Zimny delivered the goods yet again. To mark the Springsteen Archives' celebration of the 50th anniversary of Born to Run, Zimny has created a unique and very special film entitled Jungleland '75, masterfully editing Barry Rebo's fly-on-the-wall footage of Springsteen and the '74-'75 version of the E Street Band (before Stevie Van Zandt officially joined for The Born to Run Tour,) hard at work shaping and recording the song at Blauvelt, NY's long-gone 914 Sound Recording Studios, prior to Jon Landau's wise - if not low-budget-friendly - advice to move the Born to Run sessions to New York City's also-long-gone Record Plant studio. Here's hoping that eventually all fans will be able to see the important history documented in Zimny's latest work, but of course experiencing its official premiere was something very special indeed.
The film opens with a brief snippet of Jon Landau speaking to Rebo and his camera while sitting behind a mixing console at The Record Plant - not during the recording of Born to Run, but instead during the Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions. We quickly see why Zimny chose to open his film with this snippet of footage, for in it Landau is discussing with Rebo the difficulties of capturing moments of musical creation on film. Landau, who is just as knowledgeable about films as he is about music, argues to Rebo and his camera that Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 short film Sympathy for the Devil (aka 1 + 1) actually failed to capture the true moments of creation for The Rolling Stones' classic song. Fade to black, and then Zimny begins utilizing the "time machine" (a term that Zimny frequently uses to describe Springsteen's film/video vault) of Rebo's 914 Studios footage to succeed with "Jungleland" where Landau feels Godard failed with "Sympathy..."
Incidentally, I reached out to Barry Rebo shortly after seeing Jungleland '75 to ask him why there's 914 Studios footage of the Born to Run sessions and Record Plant footage of the Darkness... sessions, but there's no Record Plant footage of the Born to Run sessions. Rebo explained to me that right around the time that the Born to Run sessions moved to The Record Plant, he got his first big professional break by landing a gig with Time-Life Television, and thus no longer had the time needed in each day for documenting the Record Plant Born to Run sessions.
Nevertheless, the 914 Studios footage, and Zimny's editing of it, convey so well the stress and strain involved in creating "Jungleland," especially under less than ideal recording conditions. There also are lighter moments to be found here, where Bruce, the band (including the rarely filmed violinist Suki Lahav,) Mike Appel, recording engineer Louis Lahav, and the crew find some time to share a meal, some laughs, and some small talk together. You truly feel as if you've gotten to be a special guest in the studio with Springsteen and his comrades while one of his greatest songs is taking shape. Then fade to black again, and suddenly when we fade back in, we're onstage at The Bottom Line in August of '75. Not only has "Jungleland" finally been perfected in the studio for the album version that the world will soon get to hear at last, but Bruce and his band are now able to deliver a killer live version of it in concert, as well.
Transitioning Wizard of Oz-style from Barry Rebo's black-and-white studio footage to his color (but still single-camera) footage of "Jungleland" performed at The Bottom Line is yet another of Thom Zimny's editing masterstrokes. And what a performance that Rebo managed to capture! It ends stunningly with Springsteen dropping to his knees, dramatically conveying Magic Rat's death to a stunned audience's rapt attention. Whatever the various technical limitations with which Rebo had to cope at the time, he still managed to capture one of the finest live versions of "Jungleland" ever performed, and his footage provides the perfect ending to Jungleland '75.
After the film, Zimny came onstage to a well-deserved standing ovation, and sat down for a post-screening discussion with Springsteen archivist Erik Flannigan. Before that conversation began, however, Max Weinberg - who had been sitting with Garry Tallent in Row E, of course - was brought up to join them.
As usual, Max had some great stories and insights to share, humorously recalling that his main goal back in '74/'75 was to not get fired. Fortunately, Max still has a steady gig, five decades on and counting. To celebrate that fact, and to close out the evening, we got yet another special cinematic treat from Thom Zimny: a modern-day live version of "Born to Run," consisting mainly of a single-camera shot of Max intensely drumming and (as always) focused on Bruce onstage, but interspersed beautifully and movingly with various clips of Max musically interacting onstage, in rehearsal, and in the studio with Bruce through the decades.
Again, here's hoping that the Springsteen Archives and/or "Bruce, Inc." eventually will find a way to share both Jungleland '75 and the short "Born to Run"/Max Weinberg tribute film with all fans who want to see them. They each offer another fantastic "time machine" experience, courtesy of Barry Rebo, Thom Zimny, and, of course, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.
Saturday, September 6 - The Born to Run 50th Anniversary Symposium at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre
This day, of course, was "The Main Event" for the Archives' weeklong celebration of Born to Run @50. It not only featured the extensive participation of Bruce Springsteen himself, but also reunited him with every living E Street Band member, as well as all key members of Born to Run's production team, involved in the making of Springsteen's breakthrough album. They didn't just sit around talkin' about it, either. Bruce, with all living E Streeters - past and present members included - who played on the album, closed out the day with live performances of "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run," accompanied by Eddie "Kingfish" Manion ably filling in on sax for the late, great "Big Man," Clarence Clemons.
Before that happened, however, there were plenty of other great moments preceding it. I'm sure you've read about at least some of them elsewhere already, and I also am presuming (as well as hoping fervently) that since everything was filmed professionally by the Archives, eventually a way will be found to share all of the day's highlights, if not footage of the entire day from start to finish, with all interested fans. Bearing all of that in mind, I'll just share here some of my personal favorite highlights from a day filled with them...
It certainly was an appropriate idea to open the day with longtime 105.7 The Hawk Bruce Brunch host Tom Cunningham sitting down with Ernest "Boom" Carter, David Sancious, and Garry Tallent to discuss the relatively brief 1974 E Street Band formation that included Carter (the version of the band that recorded Born to Run's title track at 914 Studios and first performed the song live.) Cunningham was well-prepared, asked great questions, and, although he often had to pull some teeth for recollections and reflections, still managed to nab a few important historical notes from the trio about the formation's impact on the band's sound (especially its rhythm section) and, of course, the significance of a mid-1970s rock band having an equal number of white and Black members, even if only for a brief time.
Another beloved radio figure, Rich Russo, moderated the session entitled "At the Crossroads: Bruce Springsteen & Columbia Records," with panelists Mike Appel (Springsteen's former manager, of course,) and Columbia Records publicity veterans Peter Philbin, Michael Pillot, and Paul Rappaport. It offered many insights into the record-company politics of the mid-1970s and how the young disciple-like Columbia supporters of Springsteen's music and performers were pitted against other Columbia staffers and execs who... er, were not big fans, to put it mildly. I'm very glad that Appel's perspectives, which often can be self-aggrandizing to say the least, were balanced by the other three panelists' perspectives. It's a shame that Appel got to talk over Rappaport's attempt to share some of his knowledge about those famous dual 1975 Time and Newsweek covers, but we at Letters To You are planning to do something about that ourselves sometime relatively soon. Stay tuned...
What a treat this was! Kudos to whomever decided to have Pam Springsteen, who could speak from both the perspective of a great photographer in her own right as well as that of Bruce Springsteen's sister, interview Eric Meola about his brilliantly beautiful Born to Run album-cover photography. Springsteen asked Meola some great, smart questions, and Meola offered detailed, moving, and insightful answers in response. It was especially important, if not exactly surprising, to learn just how involved that Bruce himself was in selecting the "props" for the shoot, and that he specifically wanted Clarence - and only Clarence - to be photographed with him. Eric also spoke about how he purposefully shot all of his photos very quickly that day, in order to keep the momentum going, continue capturing action, etc., and Pam explained knowledgeably to all of us non-photographers in the audience just how difficult it was for Meola to achieve his gorgeous, striking black-and-white images. The late, great John Berg, who designed Born to Run's gatefold LP cover, also got his due recognition. This session definitely is one that should be made available for all fans to view in its entirety at some point.
After lunch came "The Historical Significance of Born to Run," with a panel moderated by the Archives' curator (and Monmouth University Director/Adjunct Professor of Public History) Melissa Ziobro, and consisting of music writer/critic Anthony DeCurtis, Sony/Springsteen archivist Erik Flannigan, music writer/critic Alan Light, and longtime Columbia/Legacy executive Greg Linn.
I think it's best to begin addressing the major problem with this panel by quoting this trio of sentences from Dave Marsh's book Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, which includes the still-authoritative-more-than-forty-five-years-after-its-publication account of the making of Born to Run (Peter Ames Carlin's Tonight in Jungleland notwithstanding,) as well as the album's enduring significance: "In a medium that has been noted for its unyielding dominance by males, and for its callous attitude toward women, 'Backstreets' is a landmark. Terry is neither Bob Dylan’s goddess/angel 'Isis,' nor the 'Stupid Girl' of Mick Jagger’s and Neil Young’s fantasies. If she seems a dream, that’s only because she is an equal - something people rarely are in life." Yes, I understand how Terry also could be a man just as easily as Terry could be a woman, but that's beside the point here. If and when Terry is a woman, she's an equal. And I'll add that the same could be said of Mary in "Thunder Road," the unnamed women of "Night" and "She's the One," Wendy in "Born to Run," Cherry in "Meeting Across the River," or the barefoot girl of "Jungleland." How Born to Run treats its female characters is one of the essential elements of its greatness.
So why were there no women on this panel? Sure, like the Eric Meola session, it was moderated (and well-moderated, at that) by a woman, but was it that difficult to find one or more female music writers, critics, and/or educators to comment on the historical significance of Born to Run? Hell, I personally know of a few who already were sitting right there in the audience that day, including one who is the former Vice-President of Education and Public Programming at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And yes, I know that Suki Lahav, the lone woman who could've spoken with first-hand knowledge and authority about the Born to Run recording sessions, hasn't felt safe enough to travel from and back to Israel for any personal appearances at any of the Archives' events over recent years. While that's unfortunate as well as understandable, that sad fact also made this one of the Archives' few Born to Run 50th-anniversary symposium panels that could've featured at least one knowledgeable woman on the panel. Nevertheless, this still was yet another all-male panel, and it's hard to imagine any good reason why. Not surprisingly, the result was a discussion that offered very little in the way of unique, interesting, or challenging insights.
A woman was a panelist for the next session, entitled "Behind The Scenes: The Born to Run Tour," the only session of the day to feature a female panelist. Barbara Pyle, who photographed the band extensively during the Born to Run period and later published many of her photos in Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 1975, joined the tour's Front of House (FOH) sound engineer Chas Gerber, Mike Appel, and his brother Stephen Appel, the tour's road manager. Unfortunately, this session devolved rather quickly into pretty much a trainwreck. While Pyle managed to deliver a few funny one-liners about everyone's general working conditions and emotional states during the period in question, overall there just wasn't much of interest or insight to be found here. Bruce Springsteen's initial onstage appearance at the symposium immediately followed this panel. "Whoa!," he said with a laugh to Bob Santelli before they began discussing the writing of "Born to Run," "I saw that last panel... I'm glad I missed the others before it!" 'Nuff said.
Not surprisingly, once Bruce began his participation in several sequential discussion sessions, the quality of discussion was raised considerably. In the first session, it also helped greatly that it was Santelli, who's conducted very good interviews with Springsteen in the past, sitting and talking one-to-one with Bruce about the writing and recording of "Born to Run," his first Top-40 hit single as well as the title track of his first Top-10 album, which began in late 1973 and took more than half a year to complete.
Some key highlights of this discussion for me... Although he's acknowledged it previously, personally I can never hear Bruce talk enough about how the opening of "Born to Run" was lifted from Little Eva's "The Locomotion." The fact that it took him to mention it, however, and that once more the powerful influence of all those great 1960s female (and mostly Black) singers' recordings on both "Born to Run" the single and Born to Run the album barely got mentioned, let alone explored in depth, by anyone else onstage during this day-long 50th-anniversary focus on Born to Run, speaks volumes. Which of course brings us back directly to that women-panelists question raised above.
It also was great to hear Springsteen fully confirm that long-suspected link between the naming of the character Wendy in "Born to Run" and the Peter Pan poster that used to hang on the wall of his bedroom in West Long Branch, NJ. Special shout-out of congratulations to Monmouth University graduate student Carlee Migliorisi, whose recent research inspired Santelli to ask Springsteen about it onstage.
Finally, I'll always treasure getting to hear Springsteen's hilarious impersonation of Mike Appel, upon discovering that his client actually knew how to lead a band. Please don't let that presumably recorded moment sit in the vault for too long, Springsteen Archives!
Next up was author Peter Ames Carlin discussing the writing of the entire Born to Run album with both Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau, who of course played a key role in helping Springsteen edit and sharpen some of his lyrical and musical ideas. Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Carlin's Tonight in Jungleland book at all. I think if you're going to write a book-length exploration of the making of Born to Run, yet barely address, say, the girl-groups sound's influence (and never write the words "Little Eva" at all,) making brief references to Phil Spector's records on just five non-sequential pages or so of a book that's over two hundred pages long, your book has at least one major problem. And placing far more emphasis on a sentiment like "Appel was a good man whose dedication to and sacrifice for his client's music matched Bruce's own level of commitment" extremely oversimplifies a much more complex relationship in which Mike Appel consciously and repeatedly chose to deny complete control of "his client's music" to that very same client, forcing said client to engage in an infamous, existential legal battle with his own manager over not just money, but artistic control. Bruce's liberating legal victories in that period were nowhere near as tinged with tragedy as Tonight in Jungleland portrays them. Yet again, I find myself asking myself where Dave Marsh's Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story is when you need it.
That noted, Carlin managed to draw some interesting, insightful, and sometimes downright moving comments from both Springsteen and Landau about their longtime friendship that also quickly became a professional relationship, as well as its enduring importance to each of them. And all of that's nice, of course, but now this whole Born-to-Run-begins-with-a-nativity-and-ends-with-a-crucifixion thing (first proffered by Jon Landau in Carlin's book and dredged up yet again during this session; I use the term "thing" because it certainly doesn't qualify as a theory, and it's barely an observation...) Can we just let that go already?! Yes, it's well-known that Bruce Springsteen was raised as a Roman Catholic and that religion's imagery and culture had some impact on his art, but by no means does Born to Run offer any kind of significant analogy to the story of Christ. And if it ever was intended to do so, which has yet to be proven in any substantial way, it certainly has nothing of note to do with why this album remains important and beloved for so many folks five decades on. While Bruce himself has tersely acknowledged the idea of a New Testament analogy as being at least somewhat valid, both in Carlin's book and during this session, he certainly hasn't come across as being very comfortable doing so.
Of course we all knew what the next session would be simply by its title, "Roundtable Discussion: The Making of Born to Run," but I strongly doubt that anyone in the general audience expected everyone who ended up onstage for this one: Mike Appel, Roy Bittan, Jimmy Iovine, Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg! Moderator Bob Santelli got everyone involved and talking in yet another session that absolutely begs to be shared with Springsteen fans and scholars, in its entirety.
Just a few personal highlights for me, for now, again with the hope that everyone reading this eventually will get to see and hear it all for yourselves: Jimmy Iovine's hilarious physical demonstration of how he learned to grab some badly needed sleep during overlong sessions while continuing to bob his head as if he were still awake and listening, followed by Jon Landau's confession that he sometimes asked Iovine to pretend he was falling asleep to help convince Bruce that it was time to call it a night. And, oh yeah, Stevie Van Zandt's equally hilarious guitar-accompanied demonstration - "just one more time, for the Archives" - of how he singlehandedly saved "Born to Run" from being released with an off-key guitar part. Great stuff, for sure.
The final panel-discussion of the day, "Meanwhile, Down at the Jersey Shore," certainly had a tough act to follow, but it was more than up to the task. Erik Flannigan returned to the stage to moderate a very interesting discussion between Eddie Manion, Bob Santelli, and Stevie Van Zandt, all veterans of the Jersey Shore music scene that had been developing prior to and then flourished in the wake of Born to Run. Of course much of the discussion centered around Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Van Zandt's deservedly recognized leadership of that band, and its central role in delivering Jersey Shore rock and soul at its finest. The presence of Southside Johnny himself - currently enjoying a well-deserved retirement from touring - was missed, but even in his absence Manion, Santelli, and Van Zandt certainly provided the history in which they and Southside played such important roles.
Manion told a particularly offbeat personal story of having joined the U.S. Navy, and being stationed away from his New Jersey home. One fine Autumn 1975 day at mealtime, he happened to spot those dual Time and Newsweek magazines with Bruce Springsteen on the covers. Shocked and amazed, he decided then and there that it was time to get back home ASAP, and rejoin the burgeoning Jersey Shore music scene.
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With the day's onstage conversations over, it was now time to get to the music... And what music indeed! "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run," performed back-to-back by Bruce Springsteen (playing the same legendary guitar featured on the cover of Born to Run, natch,) and a very unique, possibly once-in-a-lifetime version of the legendary... E... Street... Band! Max Weinberg AND Ernest "Boom" Carter on drums... Roy Bittan AND David Sancious on keys... with a special shout-out to Eddie "Kingfish" Manion for ably taking on the always-difficult task of filling in for the immortal Clarence "Big Man" Clemons.
There was so much emotion and history powerfully packed into this two-song sequence. Not many more words are needed from me about it right now, I think, so until the video/audio gets released somehow for all of us to enjoy/re-enjoy (I hope,) Mark Krajnak's beautiful photos below will more than suffice:
Of course there were more than a few tears shed by the time that those performances, and the symposium as a whole, came to a close. Little did most of us know before we started heading outside The Pollak Theatre that the sky itself also had begun crying sheets of heavy rain, accompanied by plenty of thunder and lightning. The post-symposium concert in nearby Asbury Park, NJ by Max Weinberg's Jukebox, originally scheduled for The Stone Pony but then rescheduled to take place outside at The Stone Pony Summer Stage due to demand, now would have to be moved back inside The Pony. Special well-deserved shout-outs to Max and his band, which included special guest Garry Tallent, for playing not one, not two, but THREE shows that night in an effort to accommodate all ticket-holders who still wanted to attend.
Sunday, September 7 - The Born to Run @50 Academic Conference at Monmouth University’s Pozycki Hall and Bey Hall
One of the best things about this conference was that it was very much where women's voices and perspectives about Born to Run finally got to shine. Many women from multiple generations served as presenters, panelists, and/or moderators. Click here to view and/or download a complete listing of the conference's sessions, presenters, panelists, and moderators.
It was especially great to see so many Letters To You contributors, friends, and supporters involved with this conference. Familiar faces who spoke and/or moderated included Donna Luff and Lorraine Mangione on Born to Run's "igniting and enduring appeal for women fans," Caroline Madden on how the multiple meanings of "Backstreets" have evolved and shifted for Springsteen and his audience through the decades, and Lauren Onkey on how Born to Run "reframes rock history." And our pal Jesse Jackson, creator/host of the Set Lusting Bruce podcast, was a co-panelist in the "Springsteen Podcasters' Roundtable," along with my former Backstreets colleague Flynn McLean of the None But The Brave podcast.
It was equally great to meet some new friends and colleagues, as well, such as Jersey-based high-school social-studies teacher Daniel Willever. Dan delivered an excellent presentation entitled "'In good faith:' Bruce Springsteen's Labor Politics in Practice," which included some material that we shared with him from our Labor Day 2024 feature.
The day ended with well-received performances of songs from Born to Run by students in Monmouth University's Music & Theatre Arts Department. Under the leadership of Department Chairman Joe Rapolla, the university's student-run record label, Blue Hawk Records, recently released Runaway American Dream: Innovative Interpretations of Springsteen 50 Years Later, featuring many of the students pictured below.
I can't think of a more fitting way to close out a very special week and weekend of Born to Run @50 events than helping to place those epically romantic, evocative, and hope-filled songs, dreams, struggles, and visions of Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough album within the grasp of yet another generation of listeners. Long may you run, Born to Run.
