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Little Steven thinks there may one last tour coming up, possibly next year.!!!

Little Steven Van Zandt talks TeachRock, Sopranos and the next Springsteen, E Street tour

 

Rock ’n’ roll is good for you.

And it can make you smarter. 

That’s the premise of Stevie Van Zandt’s TeachRock, a national initiative to bring music curriculum into middle and high schools across the country. Van Zandt is hosting teachers at the soundchecks of his upcoming Disciples of Soul concerts, starting with the Sunday, April 29 show at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, to talk about the benefits of TeachRock.

More: Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt join Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden

“If a kid is listening to Jay Z, you can trace it back to Public Enemy, to James Brown, and then talk about the history that was going on at the time when the music came out,” Van Zandt said. “‘I’m black and I’m proud.’ Well, what was that all about? There was this thing called Black Power that was necessary because we only got our civil rights legislation in 1964, voting rights in 1965. You get a chance to talk about those things in the context of music and what happens is remarkable.”

“Every kid is into music and every kid wants to learn about it.”

TeachRock is a hit in the classroom of Victor Bayers at Middletown High School South.

“It’s like a godsend to a teacher,” Bayers said. “Not only are they getting musical aspects to the lesson but a lot of the lessons include historical events and societal issues.”

 

TeachRock, part of Van Zandt’s Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, is endorsed by the National Council for Social Studies, the National Association for Music Education, and the National Council for Geographic Education. Partners include Scholastic Inc., PBS, Reelin’ in the Years, ABC News, Rock’s Backpages, New York University’s Steinhardt School, and the Grammy Museum.

Van Zandt founded the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, whose founding board members include Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese, Bono and Bruce Springsteen, to combat the high dropout rates across the country.

“Education happened, it wasn’t my purpose,” said Van Zandt, who is also on the Count Basie Theatre of Red Bank’s board of trustees with his wife, Maureen Van Zandt. “I do enjoy turning people onto things, that’s why I started the radio show  (‘Little Steven’s Underground Garage’), to make sure the younger  generation gets to hear the best music ever made because there’s no other place to hear it now.”

Like Springsteen sang on “No Surrender,” a track co-produced by Van Zandt, they learned more from a three-minute record than they ever learned in school.

Bruce Springsteen, Robbin Thompson and Steven Van Zandt.

Bruce Springsteen, Robbin Thompson and Steven Van Zandt. (Photo: Robbin Thompson/Facebook)

 

“We were obsessed with rock ’n’ roll,” said Van Zandt, of Middletown, about his teenage years with Springsteen, of Freehold. “It was our own fault but we wound up learning more from the records than the educational process because there was no other source of information back in those days. You didn’t have the internet, you didn’t have computers, you didn’t have all this information. You got turned on to poetry through Bob Dylan, which led you to Allen Ginsberg and from there you learned about Rimbaud.”

TeachRock seeks to tap into the magic of records to impart lessons.

“I’m just kind of advocating for my religion, and my religion happens to be rock ’n’ roll,” Van Zandt said. “I’m more like a missionary just going around spreading the good news about rock ’n’ roll. The education part is an outgrowth of that, I think.”

 

The  Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and the New Jersey School Boards Association are teaming up for a student film festival called the Sonic Highways Hometown Documentaries, in which students make films documenting their hometown’s rock ’n’ roll histories through research in libraries and archives and interviews with family members, local musicians, venue owners, historians and fans. Its inspiration is the HBO “Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways” series. 

The kids at Middletown South High School are busy at work. They’ve filmed Sonny Kenn, who used to play at the  township’s former Hullabaloo club, where Van Zandt and Springsteen also used to rock. 

As for future shows for Springsteen and the E Street Band, chances are they will happen sometime after the run of “Springsteen on Broadway,” Van Zandt said.

Springsteen on Broadway is booked at the Walter Kerr Theatre through the end of the year, “and then we’ll talk about what’s next,” Van Zandt said.  “I think we got one more tour in us at least, 2019, 2020. I think it will happen.”

What probably won’t happen is a Van Zandt appearance in the upcoming “Sopranos” prequel movie, tentatively titled “The Many Saints of Newark,” from New Line Cinema. “Sopranos” creator David Chase is at the helm.

“I don’t think so,” said Van Zandt, who famously played consigliere Silvio Dante on the now-classic HBO series. “I might show up in name only. People were congratulating me all week (when it was announced), ‘Oh, I can’t wait to see you again.’ It’s a  prequel, which means you’re like 20 years old. At the moment, there’s no plans to really be involved but I’m certainly looking forward to seeing it when it’s done.”

Van Zandt does eye a return to TV, with a “Lilyhammer” type of starrer, or a role “on somebody else’s show.”

“I’m listening to offers,” Van Zandt said.

And keeping busy. He and Maureen are producing “Eddie Brigati: After the Rascals” at the Cutting Room in New York City and he’ll go into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in Asbury Park on May 6.

As for the Disciples of Soul, with Jersey favorites Marc Ribler as music director and Eddie Manion horn director, a live album is coming up and a follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Soulfire” album is in the works.

Now, here’s a few for the teachers. Area Disciples of Souls shows include Wednesday, May 2  at the Playstation Theatre in New York City and Saturday, May 5 at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.

“We taking this band around and being a mobile museum,” Van Zandt said. “We’re kind of like an art project that travels around and we’re going to play for the entire history of rock ’n’ roll if you come to the show and you’re going to hear it in an a very authentic way. We’ve got the best musicians on Earth and we got 15 of them.”

Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com. Twitter: @chrisfhjordan

https://www.app.com/story/ente...reet-tour/545769002/

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The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

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