Fireworks fill the sky behind a large flag hung from a Freehold Boro firetruck Wednesday evening, July 3, 2019, at the Freehold Raceway.
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 “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” included on the 1973 album “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle,” is the Springsteen classic that made fortune teller Madam Marie a legend and has become  an anthem for the seaside city. The strains of E Street Band member Danny Federici’s accordion on the song conjure up boardwalk sights, seagulls and the twinkle of nighttime fantasy.

Bruce Springsteen in the early '70s. (Photo: David Gahr)

The Boss wrote “Sandy” in Bradley Breach, said Brian Hiatt, author of “Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs”

“If you look at a song like (‘4th of July, Asbury Park Sandy’), it’s in the details,” said Hiatt, a Jersey Shore native, previously to the USA Today Network New Jersey. “The fact that Madam Marie’s in there, that’s what sparked the imagination of fans all over the world who might never go near Asbury Park, who might live in Spain, to find the beauty in the mundane, and to find the beauty in some place he called a dumpy little town. That’s how he describes Asbury Park early on. If you can find the beauty there, you can find the beauty anywhere.”

Asbury Park wasn’t a beauty in the ‘70s, but hey, it was all right. Hiatt pointed out that Asbury Park didn’t have the famous Fourth of July fireworks featured in “Sandy” in 1973, the year the song was written.

“I saw in the Asbury Park Press that in Asbury Park, which had had fireworks every year on the Fourth of July since World War II, there were no fireworks in 1973,” Hiatt said. “Springsteen was living in a garage apartment in Bradley Beach with his girlfriend and there were fireworks in Bradley Beach that year. So he didn’t see the fireworks in Asbury Park that year and one can assume that the fact he wasn’t able to do that, he was moving on with his life and starting to become successful and it must have triggered a wave of nostalgia. On July 21, 1973, 17 days later, he debuts a song called ‘Sandy’.”

Fireworks will take place the evening of Thursday July 4, 2019 on the beach in Asbury Park. Visit cityofasburypark.com for more info.

The song’s sentimental value has grown for Springsteen fans over the years. Federici asked to play it  during his last concert with the E Street Band March 20, 2008 in Indianapolis. As Asbury Park’s boardwalk has transformed over the last few years, “Sandy” reminds us of another time, perhaps simpler and less sophisticated, but certainly just as, if not more, enchanting and transformative.

The July 4th extended weekend at the Jersey Shore was capped off by fireworks in Seaside Heights.  THOMAS P. COSTELLO

There’s magic on a boardwalk, next to where the ocean meets the land.

Springsteen was asked about “Sandy” by filmmaker  Thom Zimny and Christopher Phillips of Backstreets when he made a surprise appearance  at the Bruce Springsteen Archives event Saturday, April 27, 2019 at the Paramount Theatre as part of the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival.

He did not comment extensively on it, except to say the song was indeed about leaving Asbury Park and starting a new chapter in his life. The irony is that the Boss is in Asbury Park more than ever these days.

But his short reply underscored an important element of “Sandy” — the yearning for independence. Happy Fourth of July.

Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. His multiple awards include recognition for stories on both Bruce Springsteen and Snooki.  Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com. Stay with app.com or consider a subscription today.

09-19-1978 The Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ

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