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December 4, 2023 As recently reported by Chris Jordan in The Asbury Park Press, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa have donated $100,000 to the Asbury Park African-American Music Project (AP-AMP.) The money is earmarked for AP-AMP's ongoing renovation of The Turf Club, which is Asbury Park's sole surviving music-venue structure from the city's once-thriving African-American commercial and cultural district, along Springwood Avenue on the west side of Asbury Park. Before long-standing racism exploded into the west side's civil unrest of 1970 and the brutal governmental response to it, Springwood Avenue housed dozens of African-American-owned music venues and other businesses. For decades before 1970, music legends such as Count Basie and Billie Holiday could be seen performing on Springwood Avenue in such venues. At The Turf Club itself, music-lovers could catch nationally popular acts like The Ohio Players, as well as locally-based up-and-coming musicians like a young, pre-E-Street Band Clarence Clemons. AP-AMP's renovation of The Turf Club, which it now owns and has begun using as a space for cultural events and gatherings, is part of the organization's broader mission, as per its website: Share the music, cultural heritage and stories of Springwood Avenue through oral histories, research, writing, and programs Develop accessible resources that reflect Asbury Park’s African-American music heritage for the City of Asbury Park and others to use as a basis for interpretive heritage projects Address a lack of representation in traditional historic resources and give voice to the stories of Asbury Park’s African American community Engage all who live in and visit Asbury Park in the active exploration, interpretation, understanding, and preservation of Asbury Park's African-American cultural heritage AP-AMP Board member Jen Souder told Jordan that the donation from Scialfa and Springsteen will be combined with grant money to expand the ongoing physical renovations to The Turf Club. Souder also spoke directly with Springsteen about the donation. “We're really grateful that he thought of us, and he said music from the West Side is important to him,” Souder told Jordan. “He's excited that we're doing this." Click here to read "Bruce Springsteen donates $100,000 to restoration of historic Turf Club in Asbury Park" by Chris Jordan of The Asbury Park Press. And click here if you'd like to get involved in supporting the ongoing work of the Asbury Park African-American Music Project (AP-AMP.) Options include volunteering your time, donating some money, buying some cool stuff from their online shop, and/or spreading the word on social-media. Finally, anyone interested in Asbury Park's musical, cultural, and social history needs to check out AP-AMP's impressive and growing Digital Museum section of its website. For the past five years, AP-AMP has been conducting a major, ongoing historical research effort, filming interviews with locals musicians and community members who were part of the music scene on Springwood Avenue. The project also involves recreating historic maps of Springwood Avenue and collecting photographs. In addition to what can be seen currently online via the Digital Museum, a partnership with The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University has been established to house all of AP-AMP's research.

December 3, 2023

Our full report, featuring pro-shot photos AND a complete pro-shot video of the award presentation, is below. December 2, 2023 Just before the intermission break of her 2023 Love for the Holidays Christmas show at The Town Hall in New York City last Thursday night, the great Darlene Love finally was able to reveal the special surprise that she'd known about for just over a week beforehand. She confessed to her audience that secret-keeping wasn't one of her greatest skills. "My husband says, 'You are not no refrigerator; you can't keep nothin'," Love told the crowd jokingly. Nevertheless, she successfully kept her lips mostly sealed for this one, teasing it just a tad on her Facebook page by writing, "I’m so so excited to announce that Sony/Columbia Records/Legacy will be presenting me w/ a platinum record for 'Christmas Baby, Please Come Home'! I’ve never received anything like this so I’m truly honored and to top it off it’ll be given to me by a VERY special VIP guest at my show at The Town Hall in NYC on Nov 30th. Who do you think it is? It’s a MEGA MEGA star and NO it’s not Cher!! lol" [Love appears on Cher's recently released Christmas album, and they performed together at this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting event.] Since there was Sony/Columbia/Legacy involvement, an educated guess for the "VERY special VIP...MEGA MEGA star" would've been Bruce Springsteen. On the other hand, another equally good guess would've been Sony/Columbia star Mariah Carey, possibly as one more gesture of goodwill after last year's "Queen of Christmas" foofaraw. It wasn't Mariah, though, who strode onstage from the wings after the surprise was revealed. It was Bruce, carrying a framed platinum-record award for presentation to Darlene. Officially, the award is to commemorate sales of "more than 1,000,000 copies of the Philles Records album A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector." Nevertheless, it is Darlene Love's singing on "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" that is inarguably the single greatest musical highlight on an excellent album that's full of such music. "She’s my forever crush," noted Springsteen with a chuckle as he began his presentation. "Now, Darlene," he continued, "was born in Los Angeles. She began singing in the local church choir, and of course that led to ‘He’s A Rebel,’ ‘He’s Sure The Boy I Love,’ ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’…credited to The Crystals, but it was Darlene’s voice filled with teenage longing that made those songs hits. Then in 1963 she recorded the classic ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home,)’ the absolute greatest Christmas rock ‘n roll song of all time! She is that song, and Darlene has been a part of our holidays for sixty years. So I am here tonight to present Darlene with this platinum award for ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.)’ Congratulations, Darlene! We love you! Whoo! Overdue! Well deserved!” Directly below, you can watch complete pro-shot video of Springsteen's award presentation, as well as Darlene Love's remarks after receiving her award: The award presentation came after a first-half set that included Love's performance of "Night Closing In," one of two Springsteen songs that were contributed to Love's great 2015 album Introducing Darlene Love, arranged and produced by Steven Van Zandt. Van Zandt also was in attendance with his wife Maureen, and throughout the evening Love made several veiled references to Stevie's strong, longtime support of her career, presumably not identifying him overtly so that he could remain in the audience and enjoy the show in relative peace and anonymity. Stevie was mentioned directly by name, however, during Love's introduction to her performance of the great Christmas song that he wrote for her to perform with members of the E Street Band on the Home Alone 2 soundtrack: "All Alone On Christmas." Springsteen and the Van Zandts also visited Love backstage, with Bruce and Stevie even participating in Love's pre-show prayer circle with her band, as seen in these photos posted on Darlene Love's Facebook page: After intermission, Love treated her audience to a humorous story about her backstage interaction with Springsteen: “I said to him, ‘When you gonna take me on the road with you?’ But I also said, ‘I ain’t goin’ on tour for four years, and I ain’t doin’ no three-hour shows, either.’” She may not do a three-hour show, but whether it's Christmastime or any other time of the year, Darlene Love still delivers one amazing experience. Backed by a great band and backing vocalists (one of whom, Milton Vann, delivered a standing-ovation-level solo version of "O Holy Night" during Thursday's show,) she consistently performs a mix of rock, soul, pop, and gospel material with a voice that surpasses most other singers on the planet, no matter the genre. And she's 82 years old! Take that, "classic rockers!" Seriously, I've had the good fortune to see Darlene perform live about a half-dozen times during the past ten years. Every show has been great, of course, but her singing last Thursday night actually topped all of the previous times that I've seen her live. How is that possible?! It feels like a Christmas miracle, but really it's all about a great singer who consistently has done all of the hard work in honing her craft, and also protected her talent by taking extremely good care of her voice through the years. No wonder artists like Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Van Zandt, who are equally interested in remaining great for the long haul, love her so and draw so much inspiration from her. If you want to treat yourself and/or your loved ones to something extra-special this holiday season, catch one of Darlene Love's remaining Love for the Holidays shows. Here are the dates and locations: Dec. 3, 2023 - Fairfield, CT - Sacred Heart University Community Theatre TICKETS Dec. 7, 2023 - Port Washington, NY - Jeanne Rimsky Theater TICKETS Dec. 9, 2023 - Woodstock, NY - Bearsville Theater TICKETS Dec. 14, 2023 - Glenside PA - Keswick Theatre TICKETS Dec. 15, 2023 - Red Bank NJ - Count Basie Center for the Arts TICKETS Dec. 17, 2023 - Tarrytown, NY - Tarrytown Music Hall TICKETS Dec. 22, 2023 - Newton, NJ - The Newton Theatre TICKETS ...and to keep updated on all future concerts and other projects, click here to visit Darlene Love's official website. Congratulations and Merry Christmas, Darlene! You are forever The Queen of Christmas on E Street, and long may you reign.

November 30, 2023 Happy birthday and many, many more to the great keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist David Sancious, the E Street Band's original pianist, stellar organist on tracks like "Kitty's Back," and masterful strings arranger for "New York City Serenade," to which of course he also contributed that classic improvised opening on the piano. And as we're reminded by the photo posted here, he even played a major role in the somewhat mythical (of course) origin of the E Street Band's very name, while living at 1105 E Street in Belmar, NJ. Just recently, at last month's 50th Anniversary Of The Release Of The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle symposium hosted by The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University, Springsteen said of Sancious, who turns 70 today,"Davey has never played anything bad. I don't know if he's capable of doing that, so it was always easy to give him free rein." For our birthday salute, we had planned to share a particularly timely pro-shot video of Sancious' most recent onstage appearance with Springsteen from just about a year ago, in that great live Tonight Show performance of "Don't Play That Song," accompanied by The Roots. "Take it, Davey!," exulted Bruce shortly after conducting his mini-post-mortem of the just-finished annual Thanksgiving feasting. Unfortunately, the Tonight Show's YouTube channel recently pulled the "Don't Play That Song" clip, presumably because of a one-year posting limit. In any case, we have here instead another pro-shot video of Sancious in action, embedded below. This one's just as good, if not better, because it shows off not just Sancious' multi-instrumentalist chops on guitar, but also his lead-vocal skills, covering the country-blues standard "Sitting On The Top Of The World" with The David Sancious & Jim Weider Blues Project at the 2010 Delaware River Bluesfest in Stockton, NJ.: Happy 70th birthday, "Davey from E Street!" May you be sitting on top of the world, today and every day.

...and directly from Jim to our readers, a very special Darkness@45 Cyber-Monday-and-beyond discount offer on limited-edition prints purchases! (Read below for the details.) November 27, 2023 Many fans already are familiar with the stellar work of photographer James Shive, and with his amazing archive, which includes beautiful and historic photos of Bruce Springsteen and other legendary rockers. Jim's photography was featured regularly at Backstreets Magazine and at the Backstreets.com website. More than 500 of Jim's photographs of Springsteen and other artists have been acquired by The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives. His images have appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, CREEM, Circus, Relix, on VH1, and on the cover of the fan-favorite book The Light in Darkness. Jim's also been a featured guest on SiriusXM's E Street Radio, and in 2011, he launched his own website, where thousands of his photographs can be viewed and purchased as high-quality prints. Letters To You recently connected with Jim Shive. We thought it would be cool for our readers to get to know a bit more about the man behind the camera. Jim not only was kind enough to talk with us, but with this 45th-anniversary year of the Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour quickly drawing to its close, and the holiday gift-giving season upon us once more, Jim has created a very special offer for any of our readers who may be looking for something special for the Springsteen fan(s) in your life, and/or even for yourself! Jim started photographing Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in concert in 1974, about a year after he first became interested in photography while still a high-school student. "I guess, growing up in Jersey," Jim told us, "Bruce and the Asbury Park scene became something near and dear to me. My wife Mary Ann and I spent a lot of time in Asbury Park at The Stone Pony, The Fast Lane, and all the other clubs. We met and got to know a lot of the up-and-coming bands from that time. I also photographed several of them, and was fortunate to catch Bruce and various members of the E Street Band in action at some of those smaller clubs over the years." Meanwhile, Jim's budding interest in photography, especially in rock-concert photography, had mushroomed into a very successful and exciting career. And it all began in 1973, before he even had his own camera and equipment. "Receiving my first camera in 1974," he told us, "I photographed a few other shows prior to that with borrowed cameras before I had my own. The very first show was James Taylor. I also shot Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which has been one of my top-sellers over the years in limited edition prints. I eventually expanded into other acts because I always seem to have tickets in the first couple of rows, and went to a lot of concerts. Once I had a small archive of images that were of quality similar to what I saw in magazines, I knew that there would be opportunities for me to get published. It was actually my wife - my girlfriend at the time - who suggested that I reach out to [long-standing NJ-based music publication] The Aquarian with my images. And within two weeks I had a cover. I started receiving lists and requests from publications, and started making contact with editors and publicists and record companies to get better access, a photo pass, or sometimes they would just give you a ticket in the front row." As the years went by, Jim and Mary Ann's young son Ian occasionally would join them at some of the concerts that Jim photographed. "I remember him being maybe five or six years old and sitting in the front by the aisle," Jim recalled recently. These days, Ian Shive is an award-winning nature photographer and film/television producer. "As crazy as it sounds," noted Jim, "he didn't see Bruce Springsteen in concert until The River Tour 2016." Not surprisingly, Springsteen's 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and the tour that accompanied it, still holds a very special place in Jim's heart all these years later, as it does for so many other Springsteen fans. "So many of the songs on this album have become the foundation of a lot of the live shows over the years. Many of them also stand out as moments that were very explosive and energetic on stage and help make for some great photographs." To help close out the 45th-anniversary celebration-year of Bruce Springsteen's classic album and tour in style, Jim has a very special offer for Letters To You readers who are interested in purchasing one or more prints from his "The Darkness Editions" collection at The Shive Archive website. Using the coupon code LETTERS when you check out, you'll receive a 15% discount on each and every Giclee Limited Edition print that you order! We also are honored to have Jim do one of his custom "takeovers" of our social-media sites, just like he used to do back in the heyday of the Backstreets website. Throughout the 2023 holiday gift-giving season, keep an eye out for various spotlights on Jim's beautiful photography from the '78 Darkness Tour, and a reminder on how you can purchase limited-edition prints during the gift-giving season with our special Letters To You discount code. Stay tuned to our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds.

November 24, 2023

November 23, 2023 Happy Thanksgiving 2023 to all of our readers and supporters who celebrate the holiday. We here at Letters To You couldn't be more grateful to each and every one of you who helped to make this year's launch of our website so successful. You did not have to love us like you did, but you did, but you did, but you did... AND WE THANK YOU! Speaking of which, click the image below for some appropriate soulful sounds (from December 7, 2003) to accompany your holiday feast later today. Enjoy! And please click here (and/or the image below) for more information on how you can support WhyHunger's 2023 Hungerthon. Bruce Springsteen has long supported WhyHunger's efforts to end hunger on our planet, and this year's Hungerthon - an annual Thanksgiving tradition - offers some exclusive Darkness@45/Springsteen items for its supporters. Please give whatever you can to support WhyHunger, with the hope that on one future Thanksgiving Day, no further Hungerthons will be necessary.

November 22, 2023 Yes, of course we just posted an extensive follow-up feature on TeachRock, the groundbreaking educational program founded by Steven Van Zandt, and it already included some great photos from his visit last month to a Brooklyn classroom using TeachRock resources. But with today officially marking Stevie's 73rd birthday, we just had to share (above) this one additional, beautiful shot from that visit. It perfectly captures his spirit of continually connecting and educating, refusing to ever allow the music and culture he loves to die. Happy Birthday - and many, many more - to "the Minister of faith and friendship, keeper of all that is righteous on E Street," the "RocknRoll Rebel," and the "Voice of America." And whether you missed it or didn't, today's an especially good day to watch (or re-watch) last Sunday's 60 Minutes overview of the Birthday Boy's amazing, inspiring life and career:

November 20, 2023 This past September, in our "back-to-school" feature on TeachRock - Steven Van Zandt's "greatest legacy," as per Bruce Springsteen - we noted that the organization recently launched an ongoing partnership with The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, and that we would be reporting more details on that exciting development in about a month. Due mainly to a slightly delayed official announcement of the Archives/Center's plans for a new state-of-the-art building, our report has taken a bit longer than expected to arrive, but it remains very good news that's well worth the extra wait to read at last. As the Archives/Center's Executive Director Robert Santelli stated at last month's official new-building announcement event, TeachRock and The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music are "first cousins," with much in common in terms of a shared vision and mission. We recently followed up with TeachRock's Executive Director, Bill Carbone, to dive more deeply into the details of the TeachRock-Springsteen Archives/Center partnership, as well as some other welcome news on the TeachRock front. "The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music...," said Carbone, "takes the ‘Center for American Music' part of their name seriously. They want the Archives/Center to be a place where you see America through popular music culture. The way they’ll be making connections between music and culture in their building is the same way TeachRock is doing it in schools. As their official education partner, we look forward to helping them build a pathway between the stories they're telling and the concepts teachers must address in classrooms.” "What TeachRock brings to the table at the Archives/Center," continued Carbone, "are the resources that make a field trip align with state and national education standards. That field trip becomes an extension of students’ history courses and a powerful way to bring what they might read in a textbook to life.” Along with the details of the TeachRock-Springsteen Archives/Center partnership, Bill Carbone also had some additional exciting TeachRock news to share. "TeachRock was awarded the Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative grant from the Library of Congress. It makes us a part of the Library of Congress' Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, and it supports our Rock and Soul of America U.S. History project. We will be able to expand our current history offerings to become a full-credit, year-long U.S. History high-school course that runs from Reconstruction to near-present, and uses music as the primary source throughout. We'll be using Library of Congress media resources as we expand the course. They're looking for ways to get their amazing collection of American music into teachers' hands and into classrooms, and we're making this history course which will help to provide that.” TeachRock also recently expanded its partnership with New York Edge, formerly known as the Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF), a non-profit organization that is the largest provider of afterschool programs in all five boroughs of New York City and the metropolitan region. It has more than 40,000 students from over 300 programs in grades K-12, providing under-resourced students with year-round programs to give them the extra support needed for success. New York Edge now incorporates TeachRock's comprehensive Harmony Student Wellness social-emotional learning program into its daily activities at all its onsite locations. You can click here to read our September 2023 TeachRock report, which included a more detailed discussion of the Harmony Student Wellness program with both Bill Carbone and TeachRock's Partner School Liaison Gina Machado. Hey, fellow Stevie/E Street fans, are you looking to help support TeachRock's various ongoing efforts to change schools for the better, and have a lotta fun doing it, as well? If you can be in the New York City area on December 6, TeachRock's annual "Stand With Teachers" fundraising event is definitely shaping up to be an exciting evening. The event will be emceed by Jake Clemons, with music provided by Anthony Almonte, Curtis King Jr., and Ozzie Melendez, and a TeachRock Visionary Award presentation to photographer Danny Clinch. Click here to download and read a PDF with all of the details on how you and/or your group can attend and/or support TeachRock's Stand With Teachers 2023 fundraiser. And whether you can or can't attend the December 6 fundraiser, you always can just click here to donate some money directly to TeachRock, especially on GivingTuesday, which will fall this year on November 28.

October 22, 2023 Last week, it was hailed repeatedly (and correctly) as a badly needed shot of hope and positivity during yet another period when more concerns over deadly violence and war were foremost in so many minds, locally and around the planet. One by one, elected officials took to the podium to tout the positive impact that this project will have on the region. And even Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Ms. Darlene Love, the true Queen of Christmas herself, was on hand to herald like an angel the big announcement related to a longtime friend and strong supporter of hers. Just in case you missed it, last Wednesday The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BASCAM) at Monmouth University officially announced its plans to construct a new 30,000-square-foot building to house the Archives, the Center for American Music, related exhibition galleries, and a 230-seat, state-of-the-art theater, to be located on Monmouth University's campus, with an anticipated Spring 2026 ribbon-cutting ceremony. The announcement finally made official and public what the university's president, Dr. Patrick F. Leahy, jokingly referred to as "the worst-kept secret in New Jersey." And as expected, Bruce Springsteen himself also was on hand to confirm and celebrate the big news. Letters To You was there, as well, and we've prepared for you an appropriately extra-large feature for such a major announcement, including some more great shots by our contributing "JerseyStyle Photographer" Mark Krajnak. Below you can read all of the details on this exciting project shared last Wednesday by BASCAM's Executive Director Robert Santelli, accompanied by images shown during his slide-presentation and printed in the event's press-kit. We also have transcribed Bruce Springsteen's public remarks and the closing remarks of BASCAM's Director Eileen Chapman. And before we get to all of that, we've dug even deeper into some of the important but lesser-known history that led to last Wednesday's announcement. Coincidentally, the big announcement occurred exactly six years after the now-defunct Friends of The Bruce Springsteen Special Collection donated its entire collection, numbering almost 35,000 items, to the then-newly-formed Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music. These donated items currently remain the bulk of the Archives' current holdings of approximately 37,000 items. Click the link below to download and read a PDF of the archived October 18, 2017 Monmouth University press release announcing this major donation: Also check out this archival 2005 NYTimes.com video showing members of The Friends of The Bruce Springsteen Special Collection in action at the Collection's original home, Asbury Park Public Library: Now let's shift from a detailed look at the past behind The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music to October 18, 2023's full-scale preview of its exciting future... Remarks by Robert Santelli, Executive Director, The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music: This is a monumental occasion for someone who not only graduated from here and also was a member of the faculty here, but also someone who basically lived most of his life on the Jersey Shore. And to see this dream come true with my colleagues, to sit here and look at all of you today and realize a dream is about to come true... I'm very touched by it. Thanks to all of you for being here today; it's great. In 1969, I was a skinny seventeen-year-old freshman, and we had Freshman Orientation. And right here in the back [on the lawn behind Monmouth University's Great Hall,] a band called Steel Mill was our Freshman Orientation entertainment. We actually have a photograph in the Archives of a very similarly skinny Bruce Springsteen leading Steel Mill, a band prior to the creation of the E Street Band. I went on to join The Outlook [Monmouth University's student-run newspaper] staff, became Entertainment Editor, and write about a lot of the music we had here back in the late sixties and early seventies. Bruce and the band played here numerous times, and I got the opportunity to establish a relationship. And as I became a music journalist, having access over the years whenever I wanted to do a story or an interview - Bruce giving access and the members of the E Street Band doing the same - it allowed me to understand the importance of Bruce and the band and their relationship not just to the Jersey Shore, but to all of New Jersey. And when the opportunity came to bring the Archives... and there is an Archives now. We live on this campus right now. We're overstuffed in a small house here with some 37,000 pieces already. The thought was that when it came time to establish some sort of game-plan that would allow Bruce's archives to stay in New Jersey - after all, there isn't another artist that I could think of that is so synonymous with this state like Bruce - the thought was it had to be here, because as we spoke earlier, Bruce and I recalled that many of Bruce's earliest fans came from [what was then called] Monmouth College, and from West Long Branch. And his having written not just a song, but the entire album Born to Run, just down the street made it an ideal place to do this. We started out with a dream, and there are two people in particular on my team that I need to bring attention to, because without them, this definitely would not have happened, and quite honestly, I would not have embarked on it without both of them being part of the original team. One of whom you've already met, and that's Eileen Chapman. Eileen and I go back - hard to believe, and I hope it's okay to say this - fifty years or so, in our friendship. Our relationship started with The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation and Festival, and we've done so many things together over the years. And then the second person is someone that I went to high-school with, and consider my best friend... my sister, actually, who in three days will retire from this endeavor, but I wanted to make sure we announced this [before her retirement] because she had such a big part in getting to this day... Syd Whalley. What I want to do for you is to give you a sense of what this building is going to look like and what's going to be in it, but in addition to that, also talk about the mission... why we're doing this. We had mentioned [earlier] that there's a Woody Guthrie Center and archives in Tulsa, as there is a Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, as well. There's a Buddy Holly Center - a small one, but it's really the first one - in Lubbock, Texas. So those are the three main, if you will, artist-related centers or institutions that exist in America. What we wanted to do here with the Bruce Springsteen Archives was far more ambitious. I think when Jon [Landau] and I first asked Bruce about this, and I got a chance to tell him what I thought was my vision and the vision that I represent for Monmouth, we said to him, "This is what we have in mind, and this is what we'd like to do." I think Bruce thought for a minute, and basically he said something that we have never forgotten, and it's simply, "Y'know, this is all well and good... wanting to keep me in New Jersey and keep the archives here. But really, I'm just an ongoing chapter of American music. I'm just a piece of the larger, bigger story that continues to impact who we are as Americans and how the world looks at us." And so the idea of creating something larger than just The Bruce Springsteen Archives came to be, and we became The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music. And it was a great idea, because the idea is something that doesn't happen anywhere else in America. We'll be the first place to tell the major story from an educational and academic point of view. This building will house all of these entities under one umbrella, and it will allow teachers, scholars, journalists, students, and certainly fans from all over the world to come here and dig deep, not just into the legacy of Springsteen, but into our incredible, great story of American music that continues to unfold today, and will continue to unfold. Traveling all over the world, I have the opportunity to lecture in places where... I can go to Chile, or I can go to Argentina, and I'll hear American music. Or Europe, or China, or Japan. Our American music tradition is so strong, so powerful, and so meaningful, to not just us Americans, but also people from around the globe. All you have to do is go see Bruce in concert over in Europe, as I was able to do do this past summer, and feel the love and respect, not just of Bruce and the E Street Band, but of what we've accomplished musically as Americans. So the hope is that this building allows all of that to live, and breathe, and nourish particularly future generations of Americans. Young kids who come to this particular facility will learn about the story of American music and how it's impacted racism in this country... how it's attacked racism in this country, how it's developed through technology, how we are able to talk about the reflection of our current fundamental values as Americans. All of this is embedded in our music. It's embedded in Bruce's, as well, which is why he's the ultimate, if you will, narrator of this great story in our building. So that's the game plan. That's the premise by which we started out this project. What I'm gonna do is give you a little bit of a slideshow and show you what it's gonna look like, and I'll explain briefly what is inside, so you get a true understanding of the importance of this institution. The building, by the way, was designed and created by COOKFOX Architects, an acclaimed architectural firm from New York City. Rick Cook is here today - he's our principal architect - as are members of his team. We worked together to put together a building that was reflective of Bruce's roots, Bruce's music, and also the state of New Jersey. So it's a building that basically when you walk into it, you'll walk on... let's just call it a wooden boardwalk. Of course, why not, right? But you'll pass a date that's really, really important... September 9, 1956. This is the date that Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show that Bruce watched, as did many, many other baby-boomers. It was a defining moment in our growth as an American music. And so when you walk past that, now you are entering into what we think is hallowed space when it comes to the American music story. As you walk into the space, there are two levels. It's a 30,000-square-foot building, as President Leahy said. It's not meant to be overly bombastic or overly rich or elegant in its architectural values. Rick and his team did a wonderful job listening to Springsteen's music and other aspects of American music, and creating an exterior design that reflects it. You'll see here a side-view and notice there is a huge window area that will allow natural space to come in, and basically be a wonderful viewing point for people who are sitting in our theater, which I'll explain [in more detail] in just a second. The grounds will allow students to hang out there, play their music, and it's very, very close to where [Monmouth University Chair of the Music & Theater Arts Department] Joe Rapolla and the Music Industry program create their music for Blue Hawk Records. We hope that it also will be a place where, if you will, pilgrims to our museum and to our campus will be able to hang out and absorb the weather like today's on the Jersey Shore. When you walk in, on the first floor, there will be a long foyer that separates the two main aspects of the institution. On one side is a 230-seat state-of-the-art theater where we will have film series, workshops, lectures, special guests, and intimate performances in the evening. But during the day, there will be shown an approximately fifteen- to seventeen-minutes-long film designed by Thom Zimny, which will tell the story of American music and, put in its proper context, the story of Bruce Springsteen. So as you walk in, that's gonna be the first thing that you see. You'll experience that, and then walk over to the other side of the first floor of the building. There you will have a major exhibition on American music. This exhibition will be highly interactive. We will work with our partners at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Smithsonian, the Grammy Museum, and a number of other major music-museum institutions that already exist, and we will create the story of American music in a way that is appropriate and relevant to young people, particularly high-school kids. So it's our thought that on a day like this, or even a cold, wintry day in January, that parking-lot that sits adjacent to the building will be filled with school-buses. This will become a major educational resource for high-school and middle-school teachers across the state... actually in the tri-state area. So the kinds of exhibits that will be in this main gallery will play directly to that, so that teachers will be allowed to bring American music into their classrooms, much like [the approach of] another partner of ours, Steve Van Zandt and his TeachRock program, which are first cousins of The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music. Together we will create lesson-plans and opportunities for teachers and students to learn about this great tradition. We'll then go upstairs, and we'll go into the areas where we have the true archives and more exhibition space. The exhibition space upstairs will concentrate on Bruce's story, and it will allow us to dig deep into his creative process. That's the most important thing. There are many biographies about Bruce; his story is certainly well known. But what we want to do as a source of inspiration, for young people in particular, is to examine the creative process. So you'll find exhibits up there on Bruce as a songwriter. We're going to see him as a person who has drawn from a well of American music greats before him, from Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and so many others, and examine how that particular set of influences creates his unique sound and body of work. We'll also recreate... and I think this is really a wonderful thing... Bruce didn't go to college. He never graduated from Monmouth, although he wishes he did, I'm sure. But he's self-educated, and I think a lot had to do with Jon Landau throwin' books his way, saying, "Read this, read this..." The opportunity to recreate Bruce's writing-room, and all of the books that he read as he began this ongoing, life-long self-education process, will be there. So people will be able to see the books that he read, and then also as you walk in you'll be able to hear a personal tour of that room, why he read the books he read, and what they meant to him. So it'll be a great opportunity for teachers of literature, for instance, or sociology, or American Studies... to point out these very, very important books that helped create this great American voice. On the other side of the building we will also have an E Street Band gallery, in which we will tell the story of the E Street Band, many of whom grew up in New Jersey and have a deeply profound connection to the Jersey Shore and Monmouth, as well. So we'll tell their story, and how they helped Bruce create that sound that we all know and love. There will be a photo-gallery up there, which will show some of the great photographs in Bruce's career, and [other] American music greats, as well. That will be a rotating exhibit, but it will be something that brings the visual aspects of the story to life. And when you're finished with all of that, then you'll walk over to the Archives. And in the Archives, which is where "the stuff" is held, so to speak... There are many archives around America, and many of them are located in libraries on very prestigious campuses that are hushed and hallowed, and when you walk in, you need to be very quiet because people are reading or studying. This will not be that; it will be loud. There will be opportunities for people to engage in the music in a way that probably no other archives allows. You'll be able to go in there, put on a pair of headphones, and listen to interviews and oral histories, perhaps concert performances... things that will allow what you have just seen in the exhibits to come alive in even greater detail. You'll be able to look at posters all the way back to the days of The Castiles, Bruce's first band, on all the way through [to the present.] We're in the process of engaging in a very serious attempt to get as many oral histories of American music greats as possible, and we are doing that so that when students or scholars come in and do research, not only will they be able to listen to the Jersey Shore sound, whether it be Southside Johnny or Bruce or Max Weinberg or whomever, but also those who are still alive and still able to tell their story. We are in the process of capturing those, as well. So when you're finished with that, you're talking about a two- or three-hours experience. Then hopefully you'll grab some lunch and head for The Stone Pony, or over to Freehold, where we will be hopefully talking about someday soon a sister-project there that will complete the process and complete the story as we know it. That in essence is what we're talking about, if all goes well. And it doesn't always, but we're keeping our fingers crossed. We'd like to open these doors sometime in the spring of 2026, and that is our goal. It's an admirable goal... We still have a little bit more to raise money-wise, but as soon as that's done, the shovel goes into the ground and we're ready to go. We're very excited, but I just want you to know that we're not sitting around just raising money or just thinking how great this building's gonna be. We're already very, very active as an institution. For instance, next weekend, here at Monmouth we will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Bruce's second album, The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle with a symposium that's bringing people from as far away, believe it or not, as Israel to come and examine this particular great album. It will be done in a way that looks at it in a serious, not so much academic way, but let's call it an educational way. So those of you who were unfortunate and didn't get tickets because it literally sold out in ten minutes... 700 tickets... we'll archive all of this. So you'll be able to come to the [new] Archives [building] once it's open, and be able to watch this. We did one earlier this year, in January, for the debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Same thing; 700 people showed up, so there's a lot of interest in what we're doing already. We have exhibitions on the road right now, two or three of them, that are in Boston and California. We'll be premiering a major new exhibition, believe it or not, in February, and it opens at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, and will go to the Bush Library and Clinton Library. The Presidential Libraries are interested in our American music story and the way we tell it, so it's very exciting. We're not standing still until 2026. We are on our way. Finally I'll say that next spring we will be announcing a teacher advisory board, where teachers from all over the state will be able to engage with us, to help us make certain that the exhibits that we build and the archives that we create are relevant to young people, so that they get the most out of it as possible. I would just like to say to Pat {Leahy] in particular, and to Jon, and to Bruce... It's been an honor for me to lead this project and to be a part of it, both personally and professionally. I was born in Jersey City and moved down to the Jersey Shore, living in Point Pleasant Beach. I went to school here, of course, and was an early music critic at The Asbury Park Press. My roots run very, very deep here. And I have to say, as I said before, as a young journalist starting out, having access to Bruce and the band in the early days when I was struggling just to make a name and get in the magazines... where Jon already was but he never hired me, but that's alright... Anyway, for us to bring it full circle is important to me both personally and professionally. So I want to thank Pat and Monmouth University for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this, and I look forward to seeing all of you at groundbreaking. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to invite Bruce Springsteen up to say a few words... Remarks by Bruce Springsteen: Thank you. The first thing I want to say is how happy I am that my archives are going to have a home right here in New Jersey. That means a lot to me, and for that I've got to thank Pat Leahy, Bob Santelli, Mr. Jon Landau, our Director Eileen Chapman, and our donors, of course, because without them there's no building. Many of them are here today. Thank you for your generosity and support. And it looks like here with us... Ms. Darlene Love, who's sittin' right there in the first row. Now, having a building with your name on it is a tricky thing, because I'm still alive, and in forty years of analysis, the only thing I know is that I'm subject to any kind of behavior. I mean, I could get arrested for shooting tequilas in a public park. That's something that could happen. All I can say is that I will try to do my best to do nothing for the rest of my life to embarrass a building. Just in case, I might suggest to the architect... the letters should be removable. But believe it or not, there are people who come from around the world, for their vacations or their pilgrimages, to spend their hard-earned dollars in Asbury Park or Freehold, in search of from whence I have hailed, and now they will actually have some place to go other than my house. So I'm glad about that. I'm glad about getting all of the junk out of my house, because it was getting cluttered in there, so now I've got some place to put that stuff. But seriously, I'm moved by all of your efforts and commitment. At nineteen, as Bob was saying, I played on these very steps out here, and so to stand here today is quite humbling, knowing that I'm going to be a presence on this campus, which I really look forward to being. It's deeply satisfying. I look forward to working with everyone to make the building and its endeavor a great success. Thank you. Closing remarks by Eileen Chapman, Director, The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music: How cool was that?! Thank you to all of today's speakers for supporting this project so enthusiastically. Your leadership, persistence, and vision have helped us to get to this point. And a special thanks to Bruce Springsteen, whose influence on American music is deserving of such lasting recognition and celebration... and to Darlene Love, who thought she was gonna sneak in unnoticed. Please visit our website and social-media platforms over the coming months as we update our progress. This concludes our program today. Thank you for joining us for today's announcement, and for your support of this extraordinary project... We look forward to seeing you at the grand opening. Special thanks to Carl Beams, Eileen Chapman, Bob Crane, Melanie Paggioli, and David Wilson

November 13, 2023 This month's edition of E Street Radio's Legendary E Street Band focuses on the band-leader's Hall-of-Fame-level songwriting prowess. The show's host (and Letters To You contributor) Greg Drew spends almost an hour-and-a-half discussing and playing only recordings of songs written by Bruce Springsteen, surveying multiple decades of Springsteen having continued to create combinations of music and words that connect deeply with multiple generations of listeners. And that's just Part One! In this episode, Greg explores Bruce's songwriting only from the early seventies through the early nineties. Next month's episode will continue the exploration through to the present. The episode debuted this morning, with re-airings scheduled throughout this week as follows: Tuesday, November 14 at 4pm ET Wednesday, November 15 at 8am ET Thursday, November 16 at 6pm ET Friday, November 17 at 9am ET Saturday, November 18 at 5pm ET SiriusXM subscribers soon will be able to listen to this episode on-demand/online, as well, via the SiriusXM app.

November 11, 2023 The irony of flying to Vietnam on Veterans Day in 1970 and flying home and becoming a veteran on Veterans Day 1971 never ceases to bewilder me. How does one advance from soldier to veteran without knowing what it all means and what responsibilities it carries? I think my World-War-II-veteran dad struggled with the same questions, but he never talked about it. Sure, until he passed away in 2009, Jack Bradley and I would wish one another a happy Veterans Day every November 11. But without ever taking the conversation any further… Still, the fact that we were both veterans linked us in ways only other combatants could know. And while we never talked to the other in detail about what we did and what we saw, our silence told the honest stories: the truth about fear and courage, the reality of pain and loss, the experience of coming home but - even though we both came back “whole” - never completely making it… I’m still searching, which is maybe why on every November 11, I repeat my own Veterans Day rituals: ...re-reading the one letter I received from my dad when I was in Vietnam... ...and listening to Bruce Springsteen. My wife usually reads me my dad’s letter because I get too emotional reading it myself. My mom was the one who usually wrote me letters while I was stationed in Vietnam, but this one time my dad sensed I was anxious about my relationship with the girl I’d left behind and about what I was witnessing in Vietnam, so he took pen to paper. A herculean undertaking for a guy with just a GED. But his words soothed me, comforted me, and helped me to keep on keepin’ on. A modest letter from a father to his son, but one I will always treasure. Likewise with Bruce’s songs. Or are they poems? For me, they’re more like letters, letters from him to men and women like me who our country forgot about. One year it may be “Born in the U.S.A.” Another, “Shut Out The Light.” “Tucson Train” will sometimes take center stage, as will “Gypsy Biker” and “Brothers Under The Bridge.” But more often than not, I come back to Bruce’s song “The Wall,” which for me is his letter to Walter Cichon and Bart Haynes, beloved friends and fellow New Jersey musicians, both of whom died in Vietnam and whose names are engraved like “skin on black stone” on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D. C. During a concert in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 19, 2014, Bruce gave what I believe is his purest, most honest and visceral rendition of “The Wall.” He called it “a short prayer for my country,” and later he officially released this live version in online-video form. Again, it’s a letter to America, asking us to not do this again, to heed the advice of our veterans themselves who say “never again.” "But of course,” as Bruce reminds us, “it happens again and again…” Give it a look and a listen, and let your heart sink and ache for all that loss... And when you’re done listening, listen again. And then remember names like Cichon and Haynes and the 58,310 other U.S. citizens who died in that war. And the names of all of those Vietnamese people who died in our name. “Apology and forgiveness got no place here at all, here at the wall,” Bruce repeats at the close. And then a trumpet echoes, much like a bugle playing taps, followed by a chorus of voices singing... no, wailing, in pain and loss. Sometimes I hear my dad’s voice in that chorus. He fancied himself a crooner like Frank Sinatra or Johnny Hartman and even sang with a USO Band for a while. He’s in there, as are Walter and Bart. And Bruce and me. I’ll read my dad’s letter again today and listen to “The Wall.” And thanks to my father and Bruce, I’ll make plans to keep pushin' 'til it's understood. Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley is the author of Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America, co-author with Craig Werner of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, which was named best music book of 2015 by Rolling Stone magazine, and author of DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle, now also available as an audiobook.