Author Nick Corasaniti’s Oral History of the Stone Pony

New York Times reporter Nick Corasaniti has just released his new book I Don't Want To Go Home - the Oral History of the Stone Pony.

As the legendary New Jersey shore club celebrates its 50th anniversary, Nick has chronicled the story of a down-but-not-yet-out town on the Jersey Shore in Asbury Park.

After race riots left the once-proud community smoldering in 1970, Asbury Park was hitting rock bottom. Enter two local bouncers, Jack Roig and Butch Pielka, 4 years later who had dreamt of owning their own place and, somewhat on a whim bought the first bar they considered, in a city where no one wanted to be, without setting one foot in the place.

They named it the Stone Pony and turned it into a rock club that musicians like Southside Johnny Lyon and Bruce Springsteen would soon call home, and a dying town would call its beating heart.

I have had the incredible experience of playing at the Stone Pony numerous times, including backing up Patti Smyth on one occasion, and opening for the Smithereens with my band Dead Äire last November.

Playing that room, with all of that incredible history of the club, and the city of Asbury Park, is an amazing thrill.

I Don't Want To Go Home is loaded with first-person conversations from the musicians, Stone Pony personnel, and other assorted characters who tell the story of the Stone Pony as only the insiders can.

https://youtu.be/DPMqPiBbhFw

JIM MONAGHAN - What was the inspiration for you to do this book?

NICK CORASANITI - It's a bit of a long story. I started coming to Asbury Park in the pony in the late 90s because I was very into punk music. New Jersey had a vibrant punk scene. It was mostly in basements and churches and legion halls and things like that.

But the Warped Tour came to the Stone Pony. I came to the pony in '98 or '99, to the Warped Tour with my dad. I kept coming back for Skate and Surf, all these punk shows. Then my job took me to DC and elsewhere and it was in New York. I missed Asbury Park for a little over a decade.

When I came back in 2016, I was like, what happened? Everything's fixed - that rotting structures gone, like all this stuff.

I wanted to tell a story about the town's renaissance, but I didn't want to do it in that kind of rote way of being like, there's these new breweries and these new restaurants and hotel and all things that are wonderful and nice and important for a town to come back, but don't necessarily tell the essence.

The spirit, especially Asbury's a unique town. It's not just this town that a developer decided to bless. It's like this very interesting rock and roll music town and very important haven for the LGBT community.

I thought, what's the one thing that's still there?

It's the Pony. While those histories aren't mirrored, they're certainly intertwined.

That's what got me thinking about doing a book on the Pony, was that it could be a very interesting way to talk about music history, but also open the door to the history of Asbury Park, which is in part just the kind of stories of small-town America that have sometimes been left by the wayside and sometimes climb back and sometimes they don't.

JM - I think it's interesting that you found the Pony when you did because it's coming out of a dead period, if you will, where for all intents and purposes, we were kind of lucky that the Pony was still there.

NC - Everyone was shocked that it was around in the 90s and then it was bringing such interesting music. It wasn't the Pony of Jack and Butch, the original one of Springsteen and E Street and Lord Gunner and John Eddie.

It was alternative music's home. There's no longer a bar with a good stage. It was a venue that could get Green Day, Weezer, Hole, all these major bands, but that also changes the fabric of it.

It was kind of interesting, but at the same time, Jersey, at least especially from us in North Jersey, our only options to see the bigger punk bands like Less Than Jake or Blink 182 were the Stone Pony or New York City.

JM - You alluded a little earlier in the conversation to the history of Asbury Park, which is definitely had its ups and downs.

And in many ways, what happened in Asbury Park mirrored a lot of the bigger cities, late 60s, very early 70s with racial tension, riots. I mean, downtown was just a mess, Cookman Avenue. And you go there now and you're like, this is amazing, the resurgence in that section of town.

NC - It's incredible to see. I mean, I obviously wasn't around in the 70s, but I heard so many stories.

The book actually opens, the first chapter isn't inside the walls of the Pony. It's well before it started, right as the kind of riots over racial tension were flooding across the country and hit Asbury Park in 1970.

And I think hearing all that that did, they burned down, you know, Springwood Avenue on the west side of town, which caused a flight out of town.

And I think as Stevie (Van Zandt) said, it was left us rogues, rockers and renegades, but it truly was.

And, you know, that doesn't necessarily keep a vibrant mainstream going with, you know, a lot of upper middle class money, you know, patronizing shops and things like that.

So it was just a kind of long precipitous decline, but to see it now - it's like, you know, competition for stores and restaurants and, you know, one of my favorite guitar stores in the country in Russo's.

So it's just, it's incredible to see even what I saw in the 90s toward it is now.

JM - One of the recurring things in the book is music saving Asbury Park or Asbury Park saving music in one way shape or form. Where do you lie with that?

NC - Well, I think there's two stories here.

I think the actual real story, you know, couldn't be told in the Stone Pony is that the LGBT community saved Asbury Park. They were the kind of first to come in and in the 90s and really invest in it and help, you know, kind of draw more attention to it.

But I do think music was the kind of spirit of Asbury Park for so long and it was like an indelible spirit that cannot be broken.

JM - There are a number of tidbits in the book. I won't give all of them away, but one of my favorites, Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor with a fake ID.

And Erick, one of the bouncers. telling Jon Bon Jovi's mom, and Jon was still in high school, "Don't worry.
We're going to take care of him. He's safe here."

NC - Except they did lock him in the freezer when he was misbehaving.

JM - The book comes out on Tuesday and I know that there's a book release party on Saturday down at the Stone Pony. What can you tell us about that?

NC - So it's gonna be a blowout concert. We're gonna play until they say we can't play anymore. And what we're gonna try and do is that I think bring back that spirit of the Pony from, you know, the kind of 70s era when it was just a kind of place of spontaneity of local music and of, you know, major music mixing.

And you never knew what was gonna happen. And I think that's been the intoxicating draw of the Pony for these 50 years. It's certainly what keeps me coming back.

And it's not even that like, you know, the spark that maybe Bruce shows up.

It's also like maybe Brian Fallon shows up. Maybe like Gary Clark Jr invites Danny Clinch up and they're gonna do (Springsteen's) "Atlantic City." And like, I get to hear Gary Clark do like a bluesy his own version of, in my opinion, like one of the best malleable songs Bruce has ever written.

And so we're gonna have a house band just like you used to have back in the day. It's gonna be Mark Ribler and the Disciples of Soul from Steven Van Zandt.

And we're gonna have a special guest coming up. Everyone from Gaslight Anthem to Bouncing Souls to the Smithereens to Skid Row.

Some Asbury legends like Bobby Bandiera, Vini Lopez, they're gonna come up play a song maybe two, maybe we can't kick him off stage.

And we don't know what they're gonna play. And it's just gonna be a really fun night celebrating music, celebrating the everything that the Pony and Asbury Park is seen, you know, in a way that I think might surprise some people.

JM - We were talking before we came on the air and I mentioned to you that one of the things that I remember got out of the book as I'm reading it was I had this huge crush on one of the bartenders.

Judy was just adorable.

And you were talking about love lost and love found at the Stone Pony.

NC - Yeah, it's truly incredible. You know, the Pony is many things, but the one thing it's not is luxurious or romantic.

I think it's romantic in its own way of like the way that like desolation or, you know, kind of when things are stripped down, you can feel romantic. But so many people I interviewed from musicians to bartenders to politicians found love at the Pony.

You know, Bruce famously met Patty there. Max Weinberg met his wife Becky there. Nils Lofgren met his wife Amy there, Brian Fallon met his wife there, even Tim Donnelly, you know, who's a promoter and founder of Sea, Here, Now, he met his current partner at the Stone Pony so it's incredible to see the love that's been found there and then also the love that lasts from there.

JM - The book is called, I Don't Want To Go Home - the Oral History of the Stone Pony. It comes out on Tuesday, the book release party at the Stone Pony on Saturday night. You can get all the information about that at stoneponyonline.com.

Are there specific rocking tunes that remind you of 105.5 WDHA- The Rock Of New Jersey?

We hear that phrase from WDHA listeners ALL THE TIME! - "This song reminds me so much of WDHA"!

WDHA has always been a unique rock radio station. Not following the norm, creating our path, and always embracing the "Oh Wow" factor when it comes to rock. Songs didn't need to be the biggest hits to gain exposure on "The Rock Of New Jersey', but rather "rock" and make a connection with the listeners. Music is like time travel, it takes you back and we have almost 5 decades as a station that our listening family refers back to when picking out songs that bring back cool memories.

We do. Whenever we rock a specialty lunch hour, you always request songs that mean something to you. And some people say- "This song always reminds me of WDHA". I've been asking some of our listeners for tunes that remind them exclusively of WDHA and a few of the same names keep popping up. I compiled a list of 5 of the tunes that keep popping up in emails, phone calls, and social posts. PLUS a bonus song that listeners love when the weather gets warm.

At WDHA we understand how much music means to you. Because it means the same to us. Your thoughts, feelings, suggestions, and opinions are what have helped us serve our rock community for almost 50 years and for that, we salute YOU!

Check out the list below- and a few other WDHA/New Jersey-centric stories you may like!

We hear this all the time from diehard WDHA fans! "When I was growing uo - Donnie Iris - Ah Leah always reminded me of WDHA"!
Donnie Iris is a living legend with this infectious one hit wonder- that still holds up today!

One of the greatest criminally underrated bands of the 1990's (and beyond) The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies were a WDHA staple in the early 90's and the station kind of adopted the band and their fans! The played shows for us and made such a tremendous connection that "Shakin' The Blues" is still one of those songs that people NEED to hear!

Pat and the boys have always been the heart and soul of New Jersey and WILL ALWAYS be a big part of The Rock Of New Jersey.

Another band for the "most underrated' club, with some of the most beautiful, melancholy, power pop rock songs every written and performed.

The first time I ever heard them (as a listener) was on WDHA and they remain part of the station to this day.

One of the most underrated songs of the 1980's- "Lunatic Fringe" , is one of those songs people tell me "I loved when this came out, I used to hear it on DHA"! It's a timeless classic, one we still get requests for and one we still play.

A WDHA fan favorite (listeners love the hair band 80's!) - Autograph's 1984 fun time anthem reflects the 1980's in the best possible way and is still one of our most requested 1980's tunes. Perhaps because it's about radio? We love that!

As soon as we hit 70 degrees or higher- This one gets requested!