This paper will be concerned with Bruce Springsteen and his relationship with the state of New Jersey. Bruce Springsteen was born in Freehold, New Jersey on September 23, 1949. Freehold is a working-class town which is located eighteen miles inland from Asbury Park, the "once fashionable but now dismal beach town that Springsteen immortalized in songs" (Ewen 378). It has been noted that: "Both of these Central Jersey towns . . . take pride in their past. Asbury Park was once a thriving resort with luxury hotels and a busy boardwalk. Freehold was the site of an important battle during the Revolutionary War; there's still a museum in town with artifacts from the battle" (Hilburn 14).
When Springsteen was growing up in Freehold, his family was far from wealthy. His father usually worked as a bus driver, but had difficulty holding down a steady job. His mother worked as a secretary in order to supplement the family's income. Springsteen grew up in the downtown section of Freehold. This part of the town has been described as "a section called 'Texas,' where a bunch of Appalachian hillbillies had set up in one of the country's less-noted internal migrations" (Lombardi 140). Thus, at an early age, Springsteen developed an attitude toward life which has been called "street smart" (140). This attitude later came to dominate his music and his entire career as a rock and roll artist.
As a child, Bruce Springsteen attended a parochial school called St. Rose of Lima, which was not far from his boyhood home in Freehold. In his adolescence, he attended Freehold Regional High School. During that time, Springsteen's life was changed forever when he saw Elvis Presley perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Because of his enthusiasm for Elvis Presley, Springsteen's mother bought him his first guitar, and thus set him on the road toward becoming a musician. While attending Freehold Regional High School, Springsteen joined his first band, ...