The forgotten 1960s band Bruce Springsteen called the first great Jersey rockers
While Bruce Springsteen has retained his relevance in the world for much longer than many of his contemporaries, he’s also done a much better job remaining in touch with his roots than a lot of people who have reached his level of notoriety.
Frequently hailed in his early career as being a working-class hero and an advocate for the marginalised communities of America, the New Jersey native has gone on to outgrow his original class status by a considerable amount, now landing himself a place as one of the highest-earning musicians in the world with a net worth of over a billion dollars.
Despite all of this, he continues to be a prominent voice for those from a similar background to him, not allowing his extreme wealth to divert his attention away from the core issues that have always been the most prominent focus of his work and ethical standpoints. In this regard, Springsteen certainly hasn’t forgotten where he came from, and as a result, he’ll likely never be forgotten by the people he’s spoken up for throughout his career.
However, one other respect in which he has also never strayed far from his origins is in terms of his influences, with him still continuing to make overt nods to those from his area, whom he grew up admiring. While Springsteen himself is largely credited with popularising the Jersey Shore Sound, a brand of rock and roll with strong connections to blues and soul, the style had been brewing for some time before his breakthrough in the early 1970s.
While the music of his home dramatically influenced his early work, most would use their growing platform and increased levels of freedom to explore new ideas, but in Springsteen’s case, he’s often found himself revisiting older influences in more recent times.
One prime example of this can be heard on his 2014 album, High Hopes, where he not only recorded a number of covers of songs that had influenced him in some regard, but also revisited ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’, an earlier song of his that had originally featured on his 1995 album of the same name, and some other older unreleased material. However, perhaps more significantly still, was the closing track from the album, ‘The Wall’, which was directly inspired by an icon from his Jersey home, and was intended to be a tribute to this unsung figure.
“‘The Wall’ is something I’d played on stage a few times and remains very close to my heart,” Springsteen explained in a post on his official website in anticipation of the album’s release, “The title and idea were Joe Grushecky’s, then the song appeared after Patti [Smith], and I made a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.”
Springsteen then continued, explaining its lyrical origins, evoking someone he had idolised. “It was inspired by my memories of Walter Cichon,” he added, “Walter was one of the great early Jersey Shore rockers, who, along with his brother Ray (one of my early guitar mentors), led The Motifs. The Motifs were a local rock band who were always a head above everybody else.”
While the names of Walter and Ray Cichon and their band, The Motifs, are largely forgotten about by the masses, the fact that they still stand out so much to Springsteen only goes to show just how impactful they were to the Jersey Shore Sound and how much he owes his career to figures like them who shaped his own artistic direction.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter
All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.