With the impending release of the major motion picture, “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” about Bruce Springsteen and his 1982 album, “Nebraska,” the time is right for a deep dive on all things related to The Boss.
By way of federal highways, Nebraska is roughly 1,500 miles from Asbury Park, a trip that, by car, would take just less than 24 hours if driven in one clip.
But, in reality, Nebraska, and “Nebraska,” are much more closely aligned with New Jersey than what appears at first glance. The distance between Asbury Park, Nebraska and “Nebraska” grows shorter by the day this week.
Asbury Park is a seaside community on the Jersey Shore that will forever be linked to Springsteen, the E Street Band and the legacy of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees who changed the course of modern music in uparalleled ways that defy description. Springsteen, for the record, grew up in Freehold, NJ, about a half hour inland from Asbury. But that’s a story for another day.
In celebration of the release on Friday this week, Oct. 24, of “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” starring Jeremy Allen White from Hulu’s “The Bear,” we’re very glad to share this photo gallery showcasing sides of Asbury Park to which you may not be hip. If you’ve never been, check it out soon. Asbury Park resonates on a very physical level, thanks to the salt and the sea. Asbury also celebrates the human spirit and the artistry within each human that binds us all. And as a community that experienced downturns of colossal proportions and is now in the midst of a renaissance thanks to the arts, Asbury illustrates the American spirit and how this old wobbly-wagon wheel of a nation just keeps rollin’, rollin’, rollin’.
As The Boss himself said during his Sept. 2024 performance on the Asbury Park beach, with the E Street Band at photographer Danny Clinch’s The Sea.Hear.Now Surf, Music and Art Festival:
“There I was—driving down Kingsley,” Springsteen said during “Growing up,” not long after the show started. “Streets were empty. Buildings all shut down. Nobody on Cookman Avenue. Nobody on Main Street. Nobody on Ocean Avenue. Nobody anywhere. And then I fell into a dreeeeeeeaaaaaamy sleep. And when I woke up I said, ‘Where did all these ******* people come from?’ I can tell you one thing,! It’s’ good to see you here. Let’s hear three cheers for Asbury Park…!”
Photos by John W. Barry
About Author
