The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle at 50

Bruce Springsteen with Robert Santelli, October 28, 2023

On Saturday, The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music held an all day symposium to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Springsteen's 2nd album, "The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle," at the Pollak Theater on the campus of Monmouth College. Previously this year, the Center held a successful event to commemorate Springsteen's first Columbia record, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J."

Released in November, 1973, "The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle" moved sharply away from the "singer-songwriter" approach that had been championed by John Hammond at Columbia, and to showcase Springsteen as a rock and soul songwriter, instrumentalist and band leader. The album was not a commercial success at the time, but it remains at or near the top of many fans' favorites.

The main body of the program consisted of nine panel sessions, progressing from putting the album in historical context, to the E Street Band's situation at the time, and then on to the recording of the album and writing the songs. For this last, the schedule noted discussions with "………………..", as if we might not know who "……………….." was. The one topic notably missing from the itinerary was the marketing of the album, for, as Mike Appel said, there was no marketing of the album.

As author Louis Masur pointed out in the day's first session, the 1973's pop song in the United States was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn. This drew laughs from the audience, but my 11-year old self loved and bought that 45! The point was clear enough: rock and soul music inspired by Stax or Curtis Mayfield seemed on the way out. Critics often gave rave reviews, but Anthony DeCurtis helpfully noted, "critics don't sell records."

Springsteen and the band struggled to get by in that time period: Bruce and drummer Vini Lopez shacked for a time on daybeds in the restrooms of a surfboard factory; Bruce later wrote much of the album while living above a garage in Bradley Beach. Stories of band antics just getting to shows or playing them on were legion and sometimes from multiple points of view: For example, Steve Appel and Davey Sancious both spoke of the grand piano that the band borrowed from a conservatory student for the legendary Harvard Square show the became the genesis for Jon Landau's "rock and roll future" review in The Real Paper; many witness talked about the band's appearance at Sing Sing prison, including a prisoner who came on stage with his own saxophone to jam with Clarence Clemons; there were multiple stories of their mode of transportation in a beat-up station wagon that once lost a wheel mid-trip; stories of the band pitching a tent outside the recording 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt so they'd have a place to rest.

Suki Lahav appeared in a video segment from Jerusalem. Most of us had never seen Suki, save from rare photographs when she played violin for the E Street Band. Her direct relevance to the album was due to her vocals on "Sandy"; her reference to how unusual it was for her, a kibbutznik girl, to have had this experience, seemed especially poignant in light of recent events. Suki's husband Louis Lahav was the sound engineer for the album, and he came from Israel to appear at the symposium. Lahav was justifiably proud of his participation in the album, and for being the sound engineer the following year for Bruce's signature song, "Born to Run."

Bruce Springsteen captures the moment for Patti.
With Garry Tallen, Davey Sancious, Vini Lopez, and Tom Cunningham

Virtually all living participants in the album made appearances at the symposium. We missed Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons, of course, but all 4 living members of the E Street Band from that period participated, as well as members who had more limited roles (e.g., Albee Tellone and Richard Blackwell), Bruce's then-manager Mike Appel and Mike's younger brother, road manager Steve Appel. Some of these people left Bruce on less than great terms: Vini Lopez was fired supposedly after punching out Steve Appel, but on Saturday they both showed up -- not on the same panel, but both there. I appreciated the sense of camaraderie and some form of love among those who lived through those episodes. They'd had a shared mission to expand beyond Asbury Park, and expressed it in their own way: In one session, Vini said, "Get out of Asbury Park, go to Schenectady!"; in another Davey Sancious said, "we knew we were the best band in our area," to which Garry immediately responded, "one block!" I loved the collegial atmosphere of the entire event, which included being able to have casual conversations with principles -- during one break I chatted with Mike Appel, who told me the stories had to be true because they couldn't make that shit up -- or finally got to meet people I've known only on line for many years.

At 4pm, we received formal confirmation that "……………….." had arrived. Bruce Springsteen  spoke first one-on-one with Robert Santelli and then in a panel with the other surviving E Street Band members, moderated by Tom Cunningham. To me, beyond the humorous barbs such as Bruce saying that going to Asbury Park from Freehold was akin to going to Barbados, the most telling moment for me was Bruce's response to being asked if the weak album sales shook his confidence in what he was doing: Not at all, Bruce replied. Bruce was expansive and gracious throughout his comments, especially to Louis Lahav and Vini Lopez. He repeatedly used "eclectic" to describe the record.

After the panel sessions concluded, all 7 songs were performed by various ensembles. All of them were good, but by far the highlight was "New York Serenade," with Davey Sancious at the grand piano. Earlier in the day, Davey said that what he played was what inspired him in the moment and that he was grateful to Bruce for giving him that level of freedom. I learned that the opening chords to the song weren't autoharp or similar, but rather a particular pano technique that Davey learned from studying pianist Keith Jarrett. On Saturday, Sancious played an extended introduction that mesmerized everyone in the hall. How special was it to see Sancious play that song? To see Richard Blackwell on conga?

Bruce did not perform on any of the songs, presumably on doctor's orders while recovering from Peptic Ulcer Disease; he saved his brief performance of the weekend for Sunday night at the New Jersey Hall of Fame induction for Patti Scialfa, wherein he got on stage to sing backup with... Tony Orlando.

"Born to Run" turns 50 in 2025.  I can't wait for the event.