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 comments76 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
Excuse me, Eric, is your name Victor now? Try staying on one user name, otherwise, I'll have to consider "Victor" your sockpuppet guise.
Try googling the names SPRINGSTEIN and the name SPRINGSTEEN separately.
Note how many references there are to the second surname that don't have an association with Bruce. I'll save you the trouble. Two or three refs out of OVER 2 MILLION hits for a Bruce "Springsteen." Apparently, some Jewish emigres to America in the 17th century did the same thing as Bruce's family, they anglicized their surname to avoid persecution. Note how common the first surname is in Europe. Over 60K references. Note how many Bruce SpringSTEIN references there are as well.
Gee, I guess they aren't the Stepford Fans like you that swallow any PR flak's spin put out there!
77 - Victor Plenty
While I'm flattered to be confused with Eric Berlin, it's quite likely he was responding to one of your other statements, Mark, and not answering the stupid question you posed to me.
But then, your assumption fits into your pattern of believing the least likely of all possible explanations for any given set of facts.
The single, isolated incident of seeing one misspelled nightclub poster couldn't possibly be a single, isolated incident. NO! It must be proof there's a vast conspiracy to conceal "The Truth(tm) about Bruce Springsteam."
78 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
I've also offered as evidence Bruce's other attempts at hiding his true roots by talking like some Tom Joad wannabe instead of a typical working class guy (that's his carefully crafted image, isn't it?) from north Jersey.
All you have are some fan bios of dubious credibility written by people who have no access to real records, which I've already proven in an earlier post can be unreliable. Most of the star bios out there are repudiated by their subjects after publication. These are celebs were talking about, their whole worlds are inventions of PR flaks.
Just admit your world would tumble like a house of cards if it were ever revealed that Bruce was really descended from Jews on his paternal side.
79 - Victor Plenty
At best it might be mildly interesting if Bruce turned out to really have Jewish ancestry.
I don't care all that much, having never bought any of his records nor done anything else particularly fan-like with regard to Bruce.
I'm just not going to accept the flimsy "evidence" you seem to think furnishes the unquestionable proof for your weird little conspiracy theory.
80 - Eric Berlin
At the risk of being confused with Victor (which would be likewise flattering) I agree entirely with Comment #79.
81 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"weird little conspiracy theory.'
yes, we certainly can't risk shattering the established myths about our beloved pop icons, can we?
We can only judge or question the motives and backgrounds of people like George Bush or Pat Robertson, right?
82 - Victor Plenty
If you have plausible evidence Bush is Jewish, by all means bring it up. Pat Robertson, secret Jew? Might be interesting.
I sure hope it's better than anything you've got on Bruce, though.
If not I'll be forced to call those stories weird little conspiracy theories too, even if they are directed against Bush or Robertson.
83 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
I see you missed the point of the comment, Victor, it was to illustrate the decidely one-sided political groupthink on this website and that the only people really getting ripped a new one by bloggers are conservatives.
84 - Victor Plenty
You missed the point of your own comment, Mark, which illustrated the fact that you have no substantial evidence whatsoever to support your claims, so now you're resorting to irrelevant diversions in an effort to distract the unwary reader from your pathetic failure to back up your bluster.
85 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"you have no substantial evidence whatsoever to support your claims,"
And neither do you, except for accounts written by others you can't verify.
I needn't mention the gullibility of people that believe everything they read or hear about someone they don't know personally.
86 - Victor Plenty
What belief did I state here? Where did I state it? In fact I never claimed to have any evidence to "prove" Bruce isn't Jewish. I never even claimed Bruce has always spelled his last name "Springsteen." In the absence of strong evidence I draw no conclusion either way.
If you demand others accept your conclusions, Mark, you place the burden of proof squarely on yourself. Don't try to dodge that burden by demanding everyone else come up with evidence to disprove your claims.
That's the way of the weasel.
87 - godoggo
"Results 1 - 10 of about 404,000 for SPRINGSTEEN -bruce"
I glanced at the first few pages; about 50% related to the singer.
I'm thinking something and giggling. None of you would think it's funny, so I won't type it, but...hee hee hee...
88 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"If you demand others accept your conclusions, Mark, you place the burden of proof squarely on yourself. Don't try to dodge that burden by demanding everyone else come up with evidence to disprove your claims."
I've seen a photo of a NJ club poster featuring a musician named "Bruce Springstein." I've scanned through 2+ million google hits for the surname "Springsteen" and all but two of them point to a guy named Bruce, a famous pop singer. One of the non-Bruce google hits for "Springsteen" was a story of a 17th century family that moved to NYC from Europe. If you know your history, European immigrants with Jewish names very often anglicized them to avoid persecution. There were no google hits for "Springsteen" related to anyone living in Europe presently. So the name is obviously an Americanized form of Springstein used to hide one's true racial origin.
I've scanned through 60+ thousand google hits for the surname "Springstein" and even a good many of them point to a guy named "Bruce" who is a famous pop singer.
Your pals, like Eric, on the other hand, have nothing more than some fan bios where the information can't be verified, but they believe anyway because books about celebs ALWAYS tell the truth, right?
89 - Victor Plenty
Clearly you have convinced yourself the Google search results mean something highly significant, Mark. However, those results could have so many other completely valid interpretations, they effectively prove very little.
It's quite possible Springsteen could be a very rare spelling of the pop star's last name. It could even have been unique to just his own family, and still date back generations, just like the 17th century family you found. That in itself would not be enough to prove anything about his ancestry. It certainly does not prove he changed his name.
Google searches tend to produce inconclusive results with any word or name that has variant spellings. The vast majority of the people spelling his name Springstein on the Web surely do so only because they are mistaken about the way he wants it spelled, not because they want to make any kind of political point about his background.
Most likely the club poster you saw was also simply a mistaken spelling.
Status of claim: inconclusive.
90 - LegendaryMonkey
Y'know, if I were to add a tagline to my name declaring that I were, say, Not-Crazy and Quite Reasonable, I likely wouldn't be camping commentary forums on a site for thinkpieces/reviews by bloggers stating my opinions as the way things should be.
I might instead realize that I have my opinions, other have theirs, and while we can all sit down and chuckle and discuss them (and maybe even argue!), I might not strut about acting as though I were the authority on everything.
But eh. I'm only a simple primate, so what do I know?
91 - D.C.
Is this site for the college geeks who dress in all black and vote green?
92 - LegendaryMonkey
If it is, I'd better exit... cat hair shows up something terrible on all black. I think I'd get kicked out.
93 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"I might not strut about acting as though I were the authority on everything."
You might say the same thing to your "esteemed" bloggers who routinely bash the President, this country, and its policies, especially David Mark and Adam Ash, for example.
94 - Eric Berlin
I'll say this once for all the sane and sensible ones out there:
No one cares if Bruce Springsteen / Stein / Shmekelgruber is Jewish or not.
No one cares! No one! Not one!
Now, can we move on?
95 - LegendaryMonkey
Mark S.S.-
I might indeed - and when I see posts in which they swing their e-peens about with such force as to sling mud in the faces of other posters, be certain that I will be the first to open my mouth and tell it like it is.
I don't care who you are, or what you support -- if you're acting like an asshole and I catch it, I'm likely to inform you, quite sweetly, that you're an asshole.
Cheers.
96 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"No one cares if Bruce Springsteen / Stein / Shmekelgruber is Jewish or not."
Methinks thou doth protest too much.
97 - Eric Berlin
Where's the hard edged "proof" for that assertion, Mark, since you seem to require a bloody shirt and collected shell casings for your inane and quixotic callings?
98 - godoggo
My sickly old computer crashed before I got a chance to post this last night (I am now looking to buy a SHINY BRAND NEW sickly old computer.
Anyway:
"Results 1 - 10 of about 12,400 Dutch pages for springsteen -bruce. (0.31 seconds)"
Learn to google advance search, dude.
99 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
sorry to burst your bubble there, but I had already informed the board that I found at least 1 non-bruce reference.
100 - godoggo
Yeah, but not, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands.
101 - godoggo
In, you know, "Dutch."
102 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
how is doing the sort with "Dutch" as a search parameter germane to this matter? It's not. How is the search result relevant?
Feeling really good to be joining the "Protect the Sanctity of St. Bruce" circle jerk, aren't you?
103 - Eric Berlin
Am I the only one laughing at how insane -- truly, clearly, undilutedly insane -- this conversation is?
104 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
Am I the only one laughing at how insane it is to defend celebrities from attack?
105 - Eric Berlin
No one is defending a celebrity from anything.
You're offering allegations for some kind of a bizarre coverup with NO PROOF other than a memory of an old poster.
And even if you had a tiny tad of real proof (which you really, really, really [really] don't)...
NO ONE WOULD CARE.
Thus, I quote and stand by myself in stating:
How many more times can we go around on this one? I'm guessing you have more stamina for this madness than I do, so I hearby sign off here.
106 - nugget
You're not alone. Celebrities get what they want.
They want peoples' misplaced affections and unwarranted adorations as a therapeutic reminder that their own parents sucked and millions of fans are a validation of their worth. Not only do celebrities need to restate in gaudy fashion their intrinsic value to the masses, but furthermore they demand the public know of their anomalous stature. Everyone wants to be Neo.
Celebrities manifest "the one" in themselves by plastering their personal symbolism (bios, their fake names, pictures) in magazines, ads, television shows, movies...you name it, as if the world MUST stop to recognize some fraudulant personal reckoning.
Sorry for the digression. To stay on topic, people who are fixated with celebrities add to the choas and buy in to the myths that the perpetrators contrive without hesitation.
To put it bluntly, if BRUCE had not marketed himself as a CELEBRITY, (not a musician or songwriter), he would be your average joe impressing the local high schoolers at Springstein's Music Inc.
107 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"NO ONE WOULD CARE."
You and the rest of the St. Bruce Defense Society thought enough to care, otherwise, you wouldn't have continued to respond, right?
or do you typically post responses to blogs where you don't care about the topic?
108 - Eric Berlin
I care about silly untruths floating out there unexamined on a website that I care about.
109 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"I care about silly untruths floating out there unexamined on a website that I care about."
I note, berlin, that you don't offer the same level of scrutiny toward the blogs that routinely bash our President and our nation's foreign policy which actually abound in what you term as "silly untruths."
110 - Eric Berlin
Likewise for you and your "rightist" friends, Mark.
And by the way, the illustrious libertarian and former Senate candidate Mr. Al Barger recently pointed me out as an example of a reasonable and eminently... sensible person of Democratic leanings.
What does that have to do with your out-and-out obsession with Bruce's religious heritage?
111 - godoggo
I never, never get caught in blog debates, because they're normally kind of unpleasant. But this one is fun. On account of it's insane.
Anyways, the point is that if you'd done the search and looked at the results, you'd see that there are lots of people with that name in the Netherlands, contrary to what you said somewhere up there.
In retrospect, a better search parameter might have been "site:.nl", which would have restricted it to sites in Holland, rather than Dutch language sites. Give it a whirl, if your so inclined.
I also ejoyed the "Scientology" debate. That was a good one.
112 - Victor Plenty
Oh, great! Now it'll be Bruce Scientolostein!
113 - godoggo
I will ignore that snotty remark, Victor.
Anyways, to clarify, copy and paste the following into google:
springsteen -bruce site:.nl
114 - Victor Plenty
It wasn't directed against you, godoggo. In fact I appreciate your sane and sensible empirical approach to this investigation, even though the topic itself is insane and insensible.
115 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
"What does that have to do with your out-and-out obsession with Bruce's religious heritage?"
As I've said before, like most celebrities, I think he's a fake, a phony, and a fraud, with his working man overtures and that stupid Tom Joad voice that doesn't sound like anything from New Jersey. I also thought how he treated his first wife was really awful, too, being married and then cheating on her with that big nosed skank in his band. What a creep.
116 - godoggo
And incidentally, "Victor Plenty," that's a fabricated name if I ever heard one. What's your story, Hmmmmmmm????????????
117 - Victor Plenty
I'm no celebrity. Nobody cares about my story.
118 - Eric Olsen
once again, I will try to cut through to the essence of the argument as presented by Mark: Bruce treated his first wife poorly, he sometimes sings with a country-music accent (or wait, do you think all country music singers are from the South?), therefore he must be Jewish?
119 - Eric Olsen
back to the original, for more interesting and germane topic, Little Steven spoke to the R&R program director's conference in July.
120 - Matt Wardlaw
Hey,
What a fierce debate we have going here.
You can find a great interview with Little Steven about the fight to save CBGB here:
http://www.wtue.com
121 - Eric Berlin
And now, for another episode of Much Ado About Nothing...
122 - Mark the Sane and Sensible
And now for another episode of The Emperor Wears No Clothes
123 - Jersey Native
Way back up near the top of the page, EO said that Steven grew up in South Jersey. Middletown AIN't South Jersey, sweets - Monmouth County is Central Jersey, at best.
Mark the Muddled and Pretentious claims that Bruce should sound like he's from north Jersey - Mark, [Deleted. Mark's long gone but we are still here, maintaining the no personal attacks policy... Comments Editor.], I've got news for you, people from Monnouth Co don't sound like people from "North Jersey" (tho' they do tend to be fans of those lame-assed Jets, unlike real South Jerseyans who are Eagles fans) --- but then again, my mother [God rest her soul], who was from Jersey City, didn't sound like she was from North Jersey, either. My father, a native of Red Bank, also does not sound like he is from North Jersey. I - a native of Gloucester County [actual south Jersey) - also do not sound like I am from north Jersey. You, Mark the Paranoid and Deranged, DO sound like a COMPLETE and UTTER [Deleted by Comments Editor]
Further, Mark, you poor excuse for an intellect, you are WRONG and EVERYONE ELSE HERE is RIGHT. You claim "memory" of a picture from a THIRD PARTY SOURCE that make a reference to without providing the actual documentation and them have the unmitigated gall to to demand concrete evidence to refute your unsubstanitated claim! ROFLMMFAO!!!
Case dismissed, with prejudice, for failure to state a claim upon wich relief can be granted
124 - Eric Olsen
a bit ex post facto, Jersey Native, but I appreciate the facts and the point of view. We had to part ways with Mark as he became increasingly abusive and psychotic. This thread was tame by comparison
125 - dan smolla
The following story is circulating on the Internet. No sources are given except for www.contactmusic.com
Does anyone know if these quotes are true?? --
American rocker/actor/DJ STEVE VAN ZANDT blames legend BOB DYLAN for ruining rock music.
The 55-year-old E STREET BAND guitarist, whose radio show LITTLE STEVENS UNDERGROUND GARAGE plays rock 'n' roll to over 2 million people in the US, insists that Dylan's politically and socially charged music killed the fun rock of previous years.
He says, "Yes, I do actually (blame Bob Dylan). And I tell him any chance I can.
"Look, the truth is that of course I can see the value of the Bob Dylan thing, but we try to stay on balance on the fun part.
"I want to play music from a time when rock 'n' roll was fun and we danced to it."
06/12/2005 09:29 I found the story here