Walk tall, or don’t walk at all: Hugely ambitious Springsteen Center opens at Monmouth University

THOMAS E. FRANKLIN/NJ NEWS WIRE

Tom Cunningham, host of the “Sundays with Springsteen” show on 107.1 The Boss (WWZY-FM), looks at photos at The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

“There’s no more thrilling history lesson than that of American music,” says Bruce Springsteen, welcoming visitors to the $50 million, 30,000-square-foot Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which opens today.

He is speaking in a 25-minute film, “The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen’s American Music Journey,” that visitors are encouraged to watch before proceeding to the exhibits. It is directed by Springsteen’s longtime film collaborator Thom Zimny and, in it, The Boss talks about the many branches of American music — blues and gospel and R&B and so on — and how they affected his own art and career, with performance clips, of him and others, intertwined. It can’t be seen anywhere else.

Joining the theater, and a gift shop, on the Center’s lower floor are exhibits and listening stations devoted to a wide swath of American music, with items related to everyone from Johnny Cash to Lady Gaga. Footage from the star-studded American Music Honors shows the Center has presented in recent years at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre is played, on a loop. One exhibit shows the evolution of the guitar, over the years; another one, about protest music, was still being assembled during the June 9 press preview I attended, and could not be seen then.

THOMAS E. FRANKLIN/NJ NEWS WIRE

A promotional “Born to Run” jacket, at The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music.

The Center’s upper floor is all about Springsteen. Among its many offerings are videos in which Springsteen and E Street Band members talk about themselves, and each other; a room full of classic photos; and a studio in which you can mix Springsteen’s music yourself, or take virtual music lessons from The E Street Band’s Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan. There are wardrobe items, vintage posters, newspaper articles and magazine covers, and so on.

One of the scrapbooks assembled by Springsteen’s late mother is on display. “We’re in the process of digitizing all the scrapbooks, so that will be an offering in the archival menus,” said the center’s director of curatorial affairs, Melissa Kozlowski. “People will be able to digitally look through the scrapbooks.”

There is an exhibit devoted to Springsteen’s songwriting notebooks, and a room modeled on his home’s writing room, with shelves filled with his own books, photos and other items. Springsteen Center director Eileen Chapman said Springsteen told them they could take everything in the original room, except for two guitars that happened to be there.

Great care went into every aspect of the building. A boardwalk, inspired by Springsteen’s Jersey Shore roots, leads up to it. The weathering steel on the exterior facade is meant to evoke the influence of industrial New Jersey on Springsteen’s life and songwriting, and the unstained wood and black accents that dominate the design of the lower floor remind attendees of the look of Bruce Springsteen’s most famous guitar (seen on the cover of Born to Run and played frequently by him, through the years).

The Center is more than just a museum, of course. It also functions as an archive for materials related to Springsteen’s career, and will be used by writers and scholars looking for information.

And, to borrow a phrase Springsteen likes to use, here’s the important part: It is uniquely positioned to become a living, breathing monument for everything that Springsteen represents. It has already presented concerts and symposiums at Monmouth University’s 700-seat Pollak Theatre and 4,100-seat OceanFirst Bank Center, and will surely continue to do so. Two recent concerts celebrating American music at the OceanFirst Bank Center featured Springsteen as well as an amazing cast of friends, including Jon Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Jackson Browne, Public Enemy, Rosanne Cash and Gary Clark Jr.

THOMAS E. FRANKLIN/NJ NEWS WIRE

Guests walk to the second floor of The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music.

But now the Center has a 241-seat theater of its own, equipped with Dolby Atmos sound. (“There’s no other music museum, guaranteed, that is Dolby Atmos-certified,” said the Center’s executive director Bob Santelli.) The theater will show “The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen’s American Music Journey” twice an hour, during the daytime. But it will begin hosting live music in the fall, and can be used for talks and other kinds of events as well.

The museum will also partner with E Street Band member Stevie Van Zandt’s nonprofit TeachRock organization, to present programs at schools.

With its emphasis on one iconic artist — who is still alive, and actively supports it — and its ambitious strategy of not just stopping there, but exploring all of American music, there is no other place like The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music. In New Jersey or, really, anywhere else.

“There are three other centers in The United States that are similar to us,” said Santelli. “One is The Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas. The other two are in Tulsa, Oklahoma: The Woody Guthrie Center, and The Bob Dylan Center. There are approximately 50 other music museums in America, all related to genres: bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, Americana. And of course the big ones like The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, The Country Hall of Fame.

“We are different than all of them. And the reason why is because, I had done The Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa. So my idea was, ‘Well, let’s do a Bruce Springsteen Center here in New Jersey. Certainly, he’s a big enough artist, with a long enough legacy and career.’ When I went to Bruce, he said, ‘Bob, I’m honored, but the truth is, I’m just a link in a bigger chain, or an ongoing chapter in the American music story. And I think that’s what I’d prefer, rather than it just being focused on me.’ ”

For more on The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, visit springsteencenter.org.
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Other coverage:

Springsteen and Friends explore ‘Music America’ at Monmouth U. (REVIEW, PHOTOS, VIDEOS, SETLIST)

Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Public Enemy and more at ‘Music America,’ Night 2 (REVIEW, PHOTOS, VIDEOS, SETLIST)

NJ musicians celebrate American music — and Springsteen Center opening — at Monmouth University

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Here is a video and a photo gallery by Thomas E. Franklin of NJ News Wire.

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