An interview with, and profile of Springsteen guitarist, solo artist, producer, activist, and Sopranos star Steven Van Zandt.
With The Sopranos in mind, I was thinking about the last Springsteen/E Street Band tour in '99-'00, and thinking to myself, "there is no way that guy in the scarves and bandanas playing a mean guitar and jumping around onstage with Bruce and the boys is "Silvio," the scowling, jowly mobster. But he is - must be a pretty damn good actor. I interviewed Steven Van Zandt in 1998:…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - godoggo
My aunt Charlotte was born near Pittsburgh and moved to LA as a teen. She speaks with a very heavy Southern accent. I had figured it was because she'd married a Creole, but my Dad claims she'd already spoken that way.
I know Zimmerman spoke of running away and being found very far from home numerous times in his recent bio. Did he say he rode the rails?
27 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
eric, some paid writer's possibly revisionist history of bruce's background proves nothing. Do you without question believe everything you read about celebrities' lives? For example, practically every celeb in Hollywood lies about their real age.
"Their surname is Dutch (not Jewish, as is commonly supposed),"
Holland has a sizeable Jewish population so it wouldn't be out of the question. It sounds like there is a conscious effort from Bruce's camp to avoid any association with a possible Jewish heritage. The last line in parens almost makes it sound like it's important to make the distinction.
When people have to go out of their way to deny such an association, it should raise a red flag.
I've told you what I've seen. I can't possibly go back to 1979 and retrieve the friend's book or magazine where these posters were reprinted. I'd sooner trust my own experience than what some PR flak writes about his/her client.
28 - Eric Olsen
if it were true it would be big news and all over the place - as I said, I would be happy to change my mind when presented with any evidence that Bruce, or his parents for that matter, changed the spelling of their name
29 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
godoggo post 26--
a western PA accent can sound VERY southern. I used to know people that went to Dickinson College near Chambersburg, and you'd swear the locals sounded like they were from the hills of Tennessee. As soon as you get up into the Appalachian hills of PA, MD, and of course, WV, it gets "real hillbilly."
30 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"if it were true it would be big news and all over the place"
why? that implies that some stigma is attached to possibly being Jewish after years of not being identified as such.
31 - Eric Olsen
It would be an issue precisely because the family name has always been reported as Springsteen and his background Catholic - it isn'tinherently an issue at all, but it would be one because of what he and his biographers have always said about his background.
There have been books and books and books written about Springsteen, and more profiles than can be counted, and I have NEVER seen anything other than what I said
32 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
Book after book was written on the Rolling Stones for many years before it was ever suggested that Jagger had homosexual affairs and Brian Jones was murdered.
The fact is, you can't trust celeb bios.
33 - Mark Saleski
who let the trolls out?!!!! who...who...WHO...WHO!!!!!
34 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"Did he say he rode the rails?"
Dylan was one of the biggest bullshitters about his life, especially during his early career. He too adopted a fake Okie accent to fool people into thinking he wasn't an ordinary middle class Jewish kid from Minnesota. The Anthony Scaduto bio on Dylan has a quote in there circa 1962/63 about his teenage year activities and running with hobos on trains. Really funny stuff, but in a way, rather sad that he felt ashamed about his upbringing. Why couldn't he have just said, "my father owned a hardware store and my life was rather uneventful until I discovered rock and roll" ?
35 - ClubhouseCancer
Wrong about the spelling change.
Here's a medical document of Bruce's birth -- not really a birth certificate. There are plenty of posters around from the 60s (try google image) that have it spelled steen, none that have it spelled stein
Could you explain why you'd be so vehement about this point? Could you cite an instance of any "conscious effort from Bruce's camp to avoid any association with a possible Jewish heritage?"
Also, Bruce doesn't live in Rumson.
36 - Eric Olsen
thanks CC, I was positive about this myself
37 - Eric Berlin
Excellent work, CC
38 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"Wrong about the spelling change."
Did you read what I wrote? I said I once saw a reprint of a old club flyer from a Jersey club that had it spelled BRUCE SPRINGSTEIN.I know what I read. I even remember talking about it with friends afterward. I'm not some drug casualty with a spent memory. I never forget anything.
I know the whole Long Branch/Sea Bright/Sandy Hook area like the back of my hand and over the bridge from Sea Bright is Rumson, don't tell me differently. This where he lived at least in the mid to late 80s. It was common knowledge in the area that he lived there. Do you think you're the only person that knows that area? I was surfing out at Ft. Hancock by the old concrete pillboxes back in the 60s when you had to be family of military personnel to go out there, before it became a state park.
Some of you are acting like a bunch of adolescent fanboys with your carefully crafted image of your beloved pop icon and you can't bear to contemplate even for a second that your image may be compromised on some level.
Since I'm not in love with Brrruuuuuuce as you are, I can see him for what he may likely truly be. I've always thought he was a phony, ever since I heard him speak in that ridiculous Okie drawl. Here's a news flash, he ALWAYS talks that way. I just watched that 1987 Chuck Berry documentary with Keith Richards recently and he's talking that way in there, too. I've heard enough of his live albums and his in-between song patter is in the same voice. He sounds as much like a guy from north Jersey as jackie chan. The story that I've been told by one of you fanboys about his imitating neighbor as a kid is just laughable.
And cut me a break on that birth certificate! Even blown up in photoshop you can't read that document from the doctor's chicken scratch! You can't tell if that's two e's or an ei for that matter. It's impossible to tell.
39 - Eric Berlin
You're like that last hold out juror in 12 Angry Men...
40 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
I never saw the advantage of "going along to get along"
41 - godoggo
This is a little bit embarrassing, but what the hell. When I was 17, a lot people thought I was from New York, because I'd spent so much time singing along to my Richard Hell and Lou Reed records, I'd started talking that way. It actually took a concious effort to get rid of the fake accent.
Anyways, I was just thinking that the reason a lot of singers affect various accents is because your pronunciation affects your vocal timbre. This becomes an issue when singers are influenced by artist from other cultures. And it can affect the way you talk if you spend a lot of time singing. I've noticed that a lot of opera singers talk kind of funny, over-emphasizing their vowels.
Of course, it's also not uncommon to affect an accent in order to project an image. Jagger's ersatz Cockney comes to mind.
Just some thoughts. I'm not a Springsteen fan anyway, as I said.
Know what I mean?
42 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
yes, but at least jagger was affecting an accent from just the other side of town not from the other side of the country. Jagger was also trying to adopt a lower class appeal to abet his rogue image. Cockney is about as low class as you can get in England besides being a Scot. Dylan was doing the same thing in America with his fake Okie drawl. Maybe Bruce just wanted to be like Dylan. Who knows? What's ironic is that Jakob Dylan wants to sound like Bruce.
43 - ClubhouseCancer
I'm not really much of a fan, actually, but being the age I am (late 30s) and from the place I am (Monmouth Cty, NJ), I'm pretty familiar with Bruce.
Lots of folks know the town Bruce lives in now. It's in the more farmy part, further from the shore. He did live in Rumson twenty years ago; you're right about that.
But, sorry, his name was just never spelled that way. This seems to upset you, but it's true. This "stein" stuff has gone around and around as a kind of urban legend.
44 - Eric Berlin
It's actually surprising, the strange accents that can pop out of the rural pockets of the Northeast.
45 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
CC: like I said, I know what I read. Although not upsetting, it's just funny that some fans here are reacting to the possbility that he might have a Jewish heritage as if he were gay or something. That's why I pursued it. I want to try and expose potentially latent prejudices in people and find out what they are truly made of. It's what I do.
46 - Eric Olsen
let's see if I understand this: Mark's recollection of a reprint of "an old club flyer" -- which could have simply been a misspelling on the club's part -- is all it takes to overwhelm ALL other evidence to the contrary, of which there is literally thousands and thousands of pages from any number of sources, NONE of which contrdict each other.
Yep, that's a brain I want on my side in a fight.
47 - Lisa McKay
What's even more mind-boggling is that he construes factual evidence to the contrary as proof of anti-Semitism.
48 - Eric Olsen
yes, that's an interesting angle as well:
"His name has always been Springsteen, and his family background is Catholic."
"Jew-hater."
49 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
Eric: you're just showing an unwillingness to acknowledge that the Springstein history mill may have been misleading is legions of adoring fans all these years, and you, the gullible supplicant, rails agains the heretical idea that I suggest.
Like I said, how many years of bios on the Rolling Stones were written since the 60s that didn't even hint at Jagger's bisexuality or the fact that Brian Jones was most likely murdered by an acquaintance under his employ?
How many years was it reported to FANS that Rock Hudson was heterosexual?
Are you getting the point yet, Eric?
Do you really think that the Great Mr. Springstein would permit his very important name to be misspelled on a club's poster and not have it corrected? The idea that he wouldn't is perposterous. He's been most likely fooling all of you suckers for years and you don't have the intelligence to see through his possible deception.
This is why I am not a fan of any entertainment celebrity. This is why I enjoy ridiculing people that are. To submit to a process of adoring complete strangers is like a form of voluntary slavery. You submit to a groupthink and act collectively to defend the sanctity of your beloved pop icon to the bitter end. The more you protest, the more I press on, all the while enjoying the sight of your preconceptions being threatened.
50 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"It's actually surprising, the strange accents that can pop out of the rural pockets of the Northeast."
Proof, Eric? Examples? Please, clarify for us.
51 - Eric Olsen
last coments on this:
you don't know much about th grassroots club biz if you think they never spell bands/artist's names incorrectly!! And you wer talking about the '60s right? Bruce was just another hacker.
The central point is no one would give a rat's foreskin if Springsteen was Jewish - he would have had no reason to hide it, to make up some elaborate story; and if he had, it would have been found out. THAT is the point.
52 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
Denial is not just a river in Africa, Eric.
53 - nugget
HAHAH! capital.
54 - godoggo
I got three Kinks in my back the last time I went to the Oasis.
55 - Eric Olsen
Tipping isn't just a provincial capital in China
56 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
At the fine school that I graduated from, we pronounced it (phonetically) TYE-PING, with a long "i" sound in the first syllable and equal emphasis on both syllables, not with the short "i" sound of "tipping" and the emphasis on the first syllable.
The more accurate way to construct that little witticism would have been "Typing is a provincial capital in China"
57 - godoggo
I don't know so much about the mainland, since I learned my Chinese (initially) in Taiwan (and for some reason I actually enjoy studying, and I live in a Chinese area, and sometimes teach beginning English, so it's very fluent 15 years down the line), so I googled Chinese provincial capitals and didn't find anything like "tipping," although there was apparently an emporer named "Tiping" (don't know the characters, so don't know the tones, and I haven't even gotten around to installing Chinese fonts on my latest sickly old computer), but anyway that would be pronounced maybe tea-ping or tipping, depending on the accent (there are 11 major Chinese languages and thousands of dialects, so there's a huge diversity in pronunciation).
And another joke dies.
58 - godoggo
Ooh, ooh!. I just found a book with all the provinces and captials with characters. Nothing like tipping. Ha, I say! Ha!
OK, I really have things I should be doing.
59 - DrPat
Ah, so it's tipping Chinese cows we're about now, it it? Watch out, Eric - you'll have PETA in here next.
That's "Pretentious Egos Typing Absurdities" in Mark's case...
60 - Eric Berlin
Proof, Eric? Examples? Please, clarify for us.
I'd need to pull some dude and get an audio clip: East Hampton, New York; Nashua, New Hampshire; Utica, New York; Orono, Maine...
And on and on.
61 - mark the sane and sensible
"That's "Pretentious Egos Typing Absurdities" in Mark's case..."
Wow, you editors have a rather smug view of YOUR own self-importance, don't you?
62 - Eric Olsen
Mark, you have failed to provide ANY evidence, convince anyone, or even shed the slightest shadow of doubt on Springsteen's name or background, and yet you continue to insist you are correct on the matter based upon nothing, apparently, beyond your own sense of infallibility.
Who is smug and self-important?
63 - DrPat
Wow, get a sense of humor, dude! Based on your Plethora of Endless Tautological Arguments, you're going to need one...
64 - Victor Plenty
"Springstein" looks more like a German name to me.
65 - bhw
Springsteen lives in Colts Neck, not Rumson. He lived in Rumson with his first wife in the 80s.
He still goes to Jersey Freeze to get a bite to eat from time to time. He gives back to the local community at large and in particular has been vocal in trying to help Asbury Park re-develop.
He's stayed just about as in-touch with "real" people as any multi-multi-millionaire celebrity can, especially in a region where everyone knows exactly who he is and where he lives.
Mark, you need to just let that sour grapes thing go. Breathe, baby, breeeeeeathe. We're all sorry that YOU didn't make it big like Bruce did. It's sad, but it's truly time to move on. Most of us will never be multi-millionaires, even if we have more talent and better looks than Bruce. Life's a bitch, ain't it?
66 - mark the sane and sensible
"matter based upon nothing,"
I see, so in your world of protecting the hallowed sanctity of a beloved pop icon, physical evidence in the form of a nightclub poster reprint in a Springstein fan mag means nothing. Nice going, Eric. You aren't on bruce's payroll, are you?
This is why hero worship is for kids.
67 - mark the sane and sensible
"He lived in Rumson with his first wife in the 80s."
well no shit, I think that's already been established.
the only way Asbury Park is going to revive is when it stops sliding into the third world. The only way bruce's millions can reverse that trend is if he pays white people to move back. Long Branch isn't much different in that respect. When Ft. Monmouth closes it's going to get worse around there. If it didn't have the track it would die. completely.
68 - Eric Berlin
I guess racism ain't just for kids either.
69 - mark the sane and sensible
"you're going to need one..."
I guess my sense of humor isn't as pedestrian as yours.
70 - Victor Plenty
Mark, right now you sound about as sane and sensible as the guy who puts all his energies into promoting the Time Cube hypothesis.
71 - mark the sane and sensible
Victor: that person is correct on one count ... a cube is an example of opposite perfection. But the rest is a humor piece. You can see that, right?
72 - Victor Plenty
Nice dodge, Mark. Fact remains, one remembered club poster is not exactly a good example of evidence that can be independently verified and corroborated.
73 - mark the sane and sensible
Eric:
I've been to all those locations in the NE and there was nothing unique about their accents compared to their surrounding region. They were, if anything, consistent. I also didn't recall anyone talking in a contrived Okie accent, either.
74 - mark the sane and sensible
Are you questioning my memory,
Victor?
75 - Eric Berlin
Mark -- Yes, you seem to be a master of acquiring "proof"...