Celebrate A Special Bruce Springsteen Anniversary At Monmouth University In October

Bob Santelli is the Executive Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, located on the campus of Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

On Saturday, October 28, 2023 they will commemorate the release of Springsteen’s landmark second album a half century ago. Named The 50th Anniversary: The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, this will be a day-long event that will include panel discussions, interviews, musical performances of the songs on the album performed by area musicians, and more.

Expected to be among the guests participating in the symposium will be original E Street Band members, music industry legends, and special guests.

Bob and Jim Monaghan are long-time friends who caught up with each other this morning on "All Mixed Up."

AMONG THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW
JIM MONAGHAN - You've got something coming up in a few weeks. The symposium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. Tell our audience about that.
BOB SANTELLI - Well, the Springsteen archives, we're in the 50th anniversary business because earlier this year...we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Bruce's Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey. We had 700 people show up for that Greetings symposium. And it went so well, we look very much forward to doing Wild, Innocent E Street Shuffle. And it takes place on October 28th at Monmouth University, which is where the Bruce Springsteen Archives is located.

JM - You were an early fan of Bruce Springsteen's. What was it, Bob, that captivated you the most about him?
BS - I remember going to a coffee house in Redbank and I thought I knew a whole lot about music because I was able to go over the Village at the time and I was pretty hip with the music I was listening to. I didn't think anybody down the shore listened to Tim Buckley. And I walk into this coffee house. I just joined a band down the shore as a guitar player, musician, and lo and behold, there's this guy with long hair playing Tim Buckley. I couldn't believe it. And it was Bruce. I'd seen Steel Mill, the Bruce Springsteen Band. I've seen virtually all of his major bands. And right from the very beginning, you didn't have to be a genius to know he had the "it" factor. And boy, could he play, sing and write. And if anyone was ever going to make it from Jersey, from a rock and roll standpoint, it was going to be Bruce.

JM - One of the things that's come out in this tour that he's been on, is the finality of things. And he talks a lot about George Theiss and a lot of Letter to You - that album seemed like a goodbye in many sense. Not to his audience, but to different phases of his life, different people in his life. And Bob, I went back to a lot of his earlier songs, and I couldn't get over the number of songs that talked about getting older. Songs that he was writing in his mid-twenties. What kid at 24 talks about getting older?
BS - Yeah. At 24, you think you live forever, right? I think that comes probably from a working class background when, you know, things are finite. It's not just peaches and cream. You got to earn what you get. And I think in particular with George Theiss, George was a good friend of mine, and we were very lucky at the Springsteen Archives to do a significant oral history with George just a few months before he passed. And, when Bruce thinks about finality, you have to consider, as he says, his first band, he's the only survivor. His second band, Earth and Child, his second and third bands, only survivor. So it's not just the Castiles with George. It's the first three bands. Thank kind of makes you think twice when you look in the mirror, I think you're very blessed. You feel that you're alive and well and that you are the last man standing. I think Bruce has a responsibility I think he believes this as well, to carry on the tradition that some of the players that he basically broke in with.

JM - The symposium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle coming to Monmouth University on October 28th. There's some other things you kind of alluded to this a few minutes ago. What can you tell us?
BS - Yeah, we're going to be doing a number of programs both in New Jersey and beyond, actually, that broad now palette, meaning there'll be some things, certainly on Bruce, but more things on American music. We did a few things this year on the 50th anniversary of hip hop. I can tell you that next year, as you know, is the 60th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America. We're going to be doing something with the Beatles. It's also the year of the British Invasion, right? We're going to be doing something on the British Invasion. So my hope is that I do two essential things with these programs. Number one is reconnect with fans and give them new context, new energy, new reasons to think about what had happened in the past or go back to the records that they once loved with a renewed sense of interest. And number two, equally important, maybe even a little bit more. I'm on a college campus, and there's a mission that I adhere myself to, to make sure that younger kids today, kids whose parents, even grandparents, turned them on to the Beatles or to Bruce, that they get the information they need to appreciate. They don't have to become fans. I'm not forcing that by any means. But they appreciate this great American music tradition that we have and understand Bruce's role in it.

JM - Well, looking forward to what you do on 1964 because a lot of those three-minute records that he learned more from than sitting in a classroom were the records from the Beatles and that '64 British Invasion.

Get more details on the Symposium on the Springsteen Archives website.

There are a handful of popular artists who have sold out arenas and stadiums year after year. It's a somewhat elite group. Even more elite are the ones who inspire fans to hit the road with them, and go to show after show. This phenomenon most likely started with the Grateful Dead in the '70s, when fans would pack their bags and follow the group from concert to concert. The band would change their setlist night after night. This changed the definition of what a concert could be. Instead of playing the same songs in the same order, in city after city, they gave a different experience each night.

Of course, it's much easier to rehearse a set and do it over and over. Many huge artists do that with each tour. AC/DC, for example, remains one of the most popular live acts in the world. But their setlist is generally locked in for an entire tour, and it barely changes from the beginning of the tour to the end. There are definitely benefits to that: fans know what they're paying for.

On the other hand, artists who change their setlist every night may not get to all of the hits, and fans may not even know (or like) all of their songs. But it makes each concert a different experience, and there's an excitement to that. The bands may also benefit from this: in the case of acts who sell live recordings of their shows (such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam, who we discuss below), this gives fans a reason to buy multiple recordings. It also helps them to stay in the news cycle. If a band plays a brand new song for the first time, or an old song that they haven't played in years, it can draw attention that they wouldn't otherwise receive by playing the same songs each night.

A lot of these artists sell custom merch at every show. In other words, they might sell t-shirts and posters specific to the concert you're attending alongside the more generic tour gear. You can only get that merch by attending the show... and by getting to the merch stand before the limited edition stuff sells out.  Other than that: it's fun to see the country while seeing your favorite artist multiple times.

To look deeper into this subject, we've identified six artists with whom it is common practice for fans to attend multiple shows. It's a passion for the artist that drives this behavior, but it's also the desire to take in each unique experience.

Here, we've listed some of the artists that make it worth fans' efforts to follow around on tour.

Bruce Springsteen is even the boss of this category. With hundreds of songs in his catalog, Springsteen is also known to add in requests each night. These are spur of the moment additions based off signs fans bring. In this 2013 performance, he takes a request from the audience to cover Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell." He teaches the band the song in less than three minutes -- in front of a sold-out stadium crowd -- and then launches into the song for the first time.

These Seattle legends have followed the new setlist every night model since 1991. In 32 years of touring, Pearl Jam has never played the same setlist twice in a row. With 11 studio records and a compilation of B-Sides, there's so many possibilities for what they might play, and you might not always get all of the radio hits, but it will always be unique. They too, have traditionally partnered with an artist to design a silkscreen poster that is custom to each show.

Currently on The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift plays mostly the same set each night. Until she gets to spots 37 and 38 in the setlist. That is reserved for "surprise songs." You never know what you are going to get. It could be Swift solo on a piano playing a stripped-down version of fan-favorite, or it can be a live debut. What you do know, is that it will be something that has not been played on the tour yet. Swift's 2023 tour plan was set to play in a particular city, Friday through Sunday night. This layout made travel plans attractive, if you could afford it. With the right money and either connections or luck with Ticketmaster, you could see three different shows over a weekend.

Eric Church has gone above and beyond to make sure he writes a different setlist each night. Church's tours are always highly anticipated; this summer, not only is he changing the setlists, but he is spotlighting a collection of different peers as the opening act. In fact, 18 different names are slotted to support Church's 2023 The Outsiders Revival Tour.

What Dave Matthews also mixes his songs up each night, the band is also known to break into epic jams. This can result in 10-minute extended versions of classic DMB songs. For over 25 years, Dave Matthews Band shows have paired perfectly with outdoor summer concerts. From tailgating to epic-length concerts, each night offers a guaranteed good time.

The ultimate jam band audience, Phishheads are known to travel in packs. There are often pre-show meetups or camp outs built around Phish tours. Phish has always done a phenomenal job of designing their tours to hit areas that have a lot to offer. Phish also subscribes to the custom setlist each night model.