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Music: There's something about Jersey

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Paul Natkin
Bon Jovi

It's the butt of national jokes -- and also a hotbed of American music. What makes this state so special?
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Last update: March 13, 2008 - 5:47 PM

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You've heard the jokes on Letterman, "The Sopranos" and even pro
football broadcasts. Miles upon miles of industrial smokestacks, the
filthy turnpike through the wastelands, two NFL teams that won't even
take the name of the state in which they play.
New Jersey, it's said, is the Armpit of America. But when it comes
to music, Jersey is "the muscle of America," says Nick Jonas of the
teen pop/rock trio the Jonas Brothers.
Per capita, the fertile Garden State has probably turned out more
big-name music stars than any other state. The honor roll ranges from
Paul Robeson and Count Basie to Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen to
Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill to My Chemical Romance and the Jonas
Brothers. (See list.) Success has come in jazz, R&B, pop, rock,
punk, hip-hop and even country (Eddie Rabbitt grew up in East Orange).
Why has Jersey been a musical hotbed? We asked several music types
who grew up there, and each pointed to a variety of muscles being
flexed.
• Geography.The densely populated Garden State is
between two music centers -- New York City and Philadelphia. That gives
Jerseyites inspiration as well as an inferiority complex.
"We grew up very close to New York, only minutes away," said Bon
Jovi drummer Tico Torres. "There's always been a little saying in
Jersey: 'If you made it in New York, you made it worldwide.'"
• Ethnicity. Italians, blacks and Jews -- three ethnic groups
that dominated the music industry -- "all interact in Jersey," said
music historian and Jersey native Robert Santelli. "That's a very
potent combination in popular music."
Springsteen was one of the first to embrace all three groups in his band, said Santelli, author of "Greetings from E Street."
• Blue-collar values. Those pollution-spewing factories do have a positive impact by helping to instill a strong work ethic in Jerseyites.
"I think it's something about the rock 'n' roll scene about New
Jersey and the hard workers that live there," said Kevin Jonas, who
grew up with his brothers in Wyckoff, N.J., admiring the
accomplishments of Springsteen and Bon Jovi.
Singer/songwriter John Gorka, now a Minnesota resident, got his
start in bluegrass bands in his native Jersey. He definitely felt a
nurturing environment. "There's a work ethic there that keeps people
vital," he said.
• Pride of the underdog. Bon Jovi's Torres thinks there's
something about the Jersey state of mind that fuels musicians. "It's
more street and attitude," he says with the kind of panache and pride
that led Bon Jovi to call its fourth album "New Jersey."
It's an underdog mentality that comes from being the butt of jokes
and living in a culture-deprived state that, unlike New York and
Philly, had no pro sports until the 1970s.
"You never feel like you've got it made in Jersey," said Gorka, a
Newark native who often performs his self-deprecating ditty "I'm From
New Jersey." "I'll always be from there. With time, I've gotten more
proud of it."
For pop-folk singer Suzzy Roche, New Jersey made her feel like she
was born to run. "It was the kind of place I wanted to get out of,"
said Roche, who, along with her singing sisters Maggie and Terre, grew
up in the "no culture" town of Park Ridge and moved to New York as soon
as she could. "There's a sadness and longing, but a sense of humor
about being the underdog. For me, New York was a bridge to life."
• Local heroes to look up to. Sinatra was a national
treasure, though of course he had to leave Hoboken, N.J., to make it in
New York. The Isley Brothers, whose success started in the early 1960s,
lived in Teaneck, N.J. (they even named their record label T-Neck), but
the real turning point was Springsteen in the mid-1970s. "He said: I'm
from Jersey and I'm proud of it,'" Santelli says.


Roche agrees that the armpit inferiority complex started to
dissipate after Springsteen "put Jersey on the map," as she put it.
While she understands the influence of Tony Soprano (she went to the
same high school as actor James Gandolfini), Springsteen "is the king
of the state."
By staying in his home state, the Boss helped foster a rock scene on
the Jersey shore. "By the end of the '70s, it was great," Bon Jovi
keyboardist David Bryan said. "You could go to the clubs every night
and you could jam with other bands and learn your craft. Jersey was a
fruitful place to grow up."
That was a stark contrast to the Jersey of the 1950s and '60s,
according to Santelli. There were vibrant musical neighborhoods then
and street-corner pollination between ethnic groups, but it was hard to
make it in the recording business.
That's why Santelli looks so fondly at "Jersey Boys," the Broadway
hit about 1960s Jersey vocal sensations Frankie Valli and the Four
Seasons that opens Wednesday at the Orpheum Theatre. (Valli himself
will come to town with the Four Seasons on May 17 at Mystic Lake
Casino.)
Like Minnesotans going to see "A Prairie Home Companion," it's
"become a ritual and almost a rite of passage for New Jersey baby
boomers to take their kids to see 'Jersey Boys' in New York City to
explain what proving yourself was all about," said Santelli, who now
lives in Los Angeles (he's executive director of the soon-to-open
Grammy Museum there). "Everyone in my family has seen 'Jersey Boys' on
Broadway."
Jon Bream • 612-673-1719[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
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