Chicagoetry: Springsteen On Broadway (My Cousin Nora)

Springsteen on Broadway (My Cousin Nora)

Mom went to Red Bank Catholic High,
Long Branch, New Jersey.
In the 1940s.

Not sure where Dad went but

They grew up there in the 1930s.
Mom grew up at 197 Liberty Street,
Maybe four

Blocks from the Atlantic shore,
Springsteen's New Jersey.
Hear he's on Broadway.

I'll be darned.

After Pops got out of the Army
And then Rutgers he
Got recruited by Prudential Insurance,

Moved to Minneapolis. Transferred
to Chicago and
Ended up at Old Pru.

By '62, we lived in
Naperville, Illinois.

We'd go back to
The Central Jersey shore
Every summer for vacation

In Shrewsbury, just
West of Long Branch,
Near Freehold.

My older cousin Nora
Would be assigned to entertain me
In her powder blue Beetle

Which had an 8-track player.
We'd drive around and she'd
Try to get me into

This guy from the fucking neighborhood
Who made some 8-tracks.
This was "Wild/Innocent"

At the latest.
I didn't buy it.
I was like, "He's from HERE?! . . .

Do you have 'Hot Rocks?!;"
Then, back in Naperville,

When "Born to Run"
Came out, the Older Rock Opinion Leaders,
Who thought I was

Too obsessed with the Stones,
FORCED that LP on me.
I didn't buy it

(Forcing it made it worse).

Sounded over-produced, over-
Wrought, trying
Too hard,

Like Phil Spector, who
I didn't respect
At the time.

Not until Turtle showed up
At our house of Modaff Road
With a cassette of

"Darkness" did I get into it.

Later, I saw "Bruuss!" at the Rosemont for
"The River," then, classically,
At Soldier's Field for

"Born in the USA."

When I moved
To Bucktown in the late '80s,
I dug "Tunnel of Love."

He seemed really honest

In the pop-rock genre
About a bad marriage.
Now: he and I seem to agree

on "Born to Run."
I hear he's
On Broadway.

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J.J. Tindall is the Beachwood's poet-in-residence. He welcomes your comments. Chicagoetry is an exclusive Beachwood collection-in-progress.

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* Chicagoetry: The Book

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