One Soul at a Time the Tradition of Rock-And-Roll in Small Communities of New Jersey
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Corso di Laurea magistrale (ordinamento ex D.M. 270/2004) in Scienze del Linguaggio Tesi di Laurea One Soul at a Time The tradition of rock-and-roll in small communities of New Jersey. Relatrice Ch.ma Prof.ssa Daniela Ciani Forza Correlatore Ch.mo Prof. Marco Fazzini Laureanda Luna Checchini Matricola 962348 Anno Accademico 2012 / 2013 Index Introduction.................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Creating, spreading and breaking traditions........................................3 1.Meanings of 'tradition'..................................................................................... 3 American Tradition(s)................................................................................3 New Jersey's Folklore................................................................................ 5 Changing traditions....................................................................................7 2.Spreading traditions....................................................................................... 10 Tradition and globalization...................................................................... 11 3.Tradition and music........................................................................................15 Tradition, innovation, rebellion and globalization in music....................17 Chapter 2: The Jersey Shore artists........................................................................22 1.Southside Johnny............................................................................................ 22 Personal and professional biography....................................................... 22 Music style and live performances...........................................................25 Discography............................................................................................. 25 2.Bruce Springsteen...........................................................................................27 Personal and professional biography....................................................... 27 Reasons behind the success......................................................................34 The E-Street Band....................................................................................35 American and local icon.......................................................................... 35 Discography............................................................................................. 36 3.Jon Bon Jovi................................................................................................... 38 Personal and professional biography....................................................... 38 The reasons behind the success................................................................46 The band...................................................................................................46 The live.................................................................................................... 47 Discography............................................................................................. 48 4.Inspirations and role models.......................................................................... 50 5.Themes............................................................................................................53 Work ethics – work as slavery................................................................. 53 Parenthood............................................................................................... 55 Run Away................................................................................................. 57 Evolution of Love.................................................................................... 60 Friendship and brotherhood..................................................................... 63 Good ol' times?........................................................................................ 66 6.Rockers and politics....................................................................................... 69 7.The impact on local communities...................................................................71 Tourism and cultural impact on New Jersey............................................71 Charity......................................................................................................73 Chapter 3: Impact of rock-and-roll on New Jersey............................................... 75 1.History and culture of New Jersey................................................................. 75 Brief history of New Jersey..................................................................... 75 Immigration and racial issues in Asbury Park.........................................76 New Jersey stereotypes............................................................................ 79 2.Jersey Shore artists and New Jersey.............................................................. 81 Survey...................................................................................................... 81 New Jersey in the songs........................................................................... 85 Legacy......................................................................................................88 Appendix 1: Survey results...................................................................................... 91 Questions 1-5........................................................................................... 91 Questions 6-7........................................................................................... 94 Questions 8-9........................................................................................... 97 Bibliography............................................................................................................ 102 Primary sources: selected discography...........................................................102 Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes...............................................102 Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band.............................................103 Jon Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora......................................... 104 Secondary sources........................................................................................... 104 Artists' biographies and interviews........................................................ 104 Background sources............................................................................... 106 Introduction Rock-and-roll has often been conceived as the representation of protest, revolution and drastic change versus tradition. The aim of my dissertation is to prove that there is in fact a tradition of rock-and-roll, as we shall see for example within the small communities of New Jersey. I spent one academic year in Hamilton, NY, where I worked at Colgate University. While in the United States, I had the chance to travel quite often to New York City and New Jersey, meeting locals and also collaborators of the artists that I dealt with in my dissertation. I also visited many of the places that I mentioned. At Colgate I was able to refer to many sources that I wouldn't have had access to, in Italy – e.g. texts about the history of New Jersey or the history of rock-and-roll itself. Some Colgate students discussed with me about tradition, rock-and-roll and New Jersey, giving me useful information that I integrated in my dissertation. The aim of the first chapter of my dissertation is to analyze the definition of 'tradition' to try and understand what can be defined as 'traditional' in regards to contemporary music, and how this definition may or may not apply to rock-and- roll. The chapter analyzed the concept of 'tradition' in different contexts in the United States, to focus eventually on the specific idea of 'tradition' in New Jersey and in music. I also took into consideration the evolution of the concept of tradition in today's globalized world. In the second chapter I focused on three artists in particular: Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. By studying their personal and artistic biographies, together with their lyrics and musical influences, I analyzed how their connection to the local communities impacted on their music and, vice versa, how their songs changed the perception of rock-and-roll in the local communities from the 1970s to this day. I also showed aspects of their songs and live performances that contribute to create what can be considered as a 'tradition of rock-and-roll' in New Jersey, and more specifically on the Jersey Shore. One more aspect that is thoroughly analyzed is the charity effort of these artists to rebuild communities in New Jersey and Philadelphia. 1 Finally, in the third chapter I focused on the context of New Jersey and the Jersey Shore. I described the history of New Jersey and Asbury Park in particular, in order to give a clearer picture of the context into which Southside, Springsteen and Bon Jovi were born and raised. For this section, it was very interesting and useful to be able to read the history of Asbury Park written by Wolff1. Furthermore, I discussed the results of a survey I conducted in 2012 among New Jersey residents and rock-and-roll fans from all over the world. Drawing on the answers to the survey, I focused on the aspects of the songs and of the performances which appear to be the most important to establish a tradition of rock-and-roll in New Jersey. I referred