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Published 7:23 p.m. ET April 14, 2018 | Updated 8:06 p.m. ET April 14, 2018

They went back to the beginning on Saturday, April 14, at "Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town: An International Symposium" at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

Vini “Maddog” Lopez, the original drummer for the E Street Band, told of a question he had for a young Bruce Springsteen  in 1968.

“I asked Bruce if he had written any songs, he said 'I have written a couple,'” said Lopez during the Lighter Side of Darkness panel inside Wilson Hall Auditorium. “We went over to see Tinker and that was the start of that whole deal. Thank you, Tinker.”

The deal being the E Street Band and rock ‘n’ roll stardom. Carl “Tinker” West, an early Springsteen manager, was in the audience. 

“I thought the band was really good, the material Bruce wrote was all off-the-wall stuff, and we were drawing thousands of people,” West said. “We were playing in the parks because the agents wouldn’t book us — it wasn’t Top 40. But we didn’t care. No one cared. We just did stuff. It got big.”

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium,Buy Photo

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium, "Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town." Aaron Ferguson speaks during his session, "Springsteen and Other Musical Genres." April 14, 2018 (Photo: James J. Connolly)

 

To the point where Springsteen is starring on Broadway and more than 400 people from around the world are attending the Monmouth University symposium, including Erin Kalbarczyk from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Panelists included Jean Mikle and Alex Biese from the Asbury Park Press. 

“Each session, people are willing to say I don’t know about that or what do you have to say about this, and there will be a discussion,“ Kalbarczyk said. “This is a great place to talk about that guy and that band because out in the real world, people say 'are you still talking about that?'”

Panels ranged from Springsteen in film to Springsteen and gender. An unscientific survey of symposium attendees would suggest that the Boss has a growing number of young female fans. 

“With Bruce on Broadway, it’s opened him up to a whole new world of interested fans,” said Eileen Chapman, director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, located on the campus of the university. “It’s a different audience and in a lot of respects it’s a younger audience. The students here at Monmouth have really jumped on the Springsteen bandwagon.”

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium,Buy Photo

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium, "Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town." Aaron Ferguson speaks during his session, "Springsteen and Other Musical Genres." April 14, 2018 (Photo: James J. Connolly)

 

Caroline Madden, 26 of Toms River, is set to release a book on Springsteen’s music in films and TV called, “Bruce Springsteen as Soundtrack: Film, Television and the Music of the Boss”  in 2018 from McFarland & Co. She participated  in two panels at the symposium.

“Despite the primary male point of view in a lot of his songs, the themes and emotions he touches on are universal and human — everyone can identify with them,” Madden said. “I also think that women specifically appreciate Bruce’s sensitivity, and willingness to expose his frailties. He doesn’t conform to what society thinks men should be, as in stoic or unfeeling.”

 
Monmouth University hosts an international symposium,
 

This is the fourth Springsteen symposium at the university. Previous ones took place in 2005, 2009 and 2012. This one is the first under the auspices of the official Springsteen Archives.   

Springsteen biographer Peter Ames Carlin; photographer Frank Stefanko, whose work is featured on the album covers of “Darkness” and “The River” and the “Born to Run” autobiography; Dick Wingate, the former Columbia Records exec who oversaw the marketing of “Darkness;” and Thom Zimny, a Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning director who has shot multiple Springsteen projects since 2001, are the main speakers at the symposium.

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium,Buy Photo

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium, "Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town." April 14, 2018 (Photo: James J. Connolly)

 

Zimny will be speaking 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, April 15, the concluding day. The symposium began Thursday, April 12, and  included a show Friday at the Wonder Bar featuring Pat Roddy and Lopez.

At least one lost treasure was unearthed at the symposium. Original “Darkness on the Edge of Town” negatives taken by Stefanko were returned to him by Wingate after four decades removed.   

Stefanko was studying them in the lobby of the university’s Pozycki Hall on Saturday.

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium,Buy Photo

Monmouth University hosts an international symposium, "Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town." (Photo: James J. Connolly)

 

“He knew I was going to be here today and he found 15 to 20 original ‘Darkness’ negatives and he brought them down and finally returned them to me,” said Stefanko, who shot the “Darkness” album cover in his Haddonfield home in 1978. “I can’t wait to go through them.”

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


BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

WHAT: Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town: An International Symposium

WHEN: Through Sunday, April 15

WHERE: Monmouth University, West Long Branch.

TICKETS: Non-presenters are welcome to attend the sessions for a $20 daily fee. 

INFO: www.monmouth.edu/brucesymposium

https://www.app.com/story/ente...niversity/514956002/

____________________________________

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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