Bruce Springsteen at Kutztown University

By Ollie Stroup

Springsteen was born and raised in Freehold, New Jersey. In addition, this is where he decided to start his career, so many of his early shows were held along the Jersey Shore and in New York City. As his reputation slowly got bigger, he expanded and started playing shows in Pennsylvania. His concerts in Pennsylvania could be as early as October of 1972 at West Chester University where he performed at a homecoming show (The Morning Call 2013). 

Bob Spitz was a big reason why Springsteen started playing in Pennsylvania, specifically the Lehigh Valley, which would prove to be a place that he kept coming back to. Spitz was a member of Springsteen’s management team until 1978, and was a Reading native. He graduated from Reading High School in 1967, and then Albright College in 1971. David Johnson, who was Kutztown University’s assistant director for university relations, and then formerly worked at Albright College, said that Spitz “was a commencement speaker in his college years and spoke of trying to find venues for Springsteen” to make an effort of spreading his name. 

Springsteen is the lead singer of the E Street Band. The original ensemble consisted of: Garry Tallent on bass, Clarence Clemons on saxophone, Danny Fedrici on keyboards and accordion, Vini Lopez (also known as “Mad Dog”) on percussion, David Sancious on keyboards, and Springsteen himself on vocals. The name E Street comes from the street Sancious grew up on, where the group would sometimes practice in his mother’s garage (My BossTime, n.d.). 

Peter Ames Carlin, with the help of Springsteen himself, wrote Bruce, the biography about Bruce Springsteen’s life. This book alone impacted almost every other source with its quotes and established a timeline that previously no one else had done. Not only has he written biographies for Springsteen, but also some other notable people in the music world, such as Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, and more. In order to find primary sources for his book, he interviewed Springsteen’s family, management, and fellow band members. His interview with Clarence Clemons, who was a saxophonist for Springsteen, was probably Clemons’ last interview before he died in 2011 (The Morning Call 2013). In an email interview with The Morning Call, Carlin writes, “the story of the Kutztown incident involving Born to Run is key to illustrating Springsteen’s life and career … You’re always looking for the big themes in an artist’s life, but those usually emerge through the quotidian details or ordinary life, he said.”  After writing Bruce, Carlin would go on to write another book about Springsteen, and then his most popular book to date, Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince. 

The First Kutztown Appearance 

March 29, 1973 was Springsteen’s first appearance in the Lehigh Valley, where he played at Kutztown University. The show was sold out for headliner Stevie Wonder, with two thousand five hundred seats in Keystone Hall for Black Cultures Weekend. Springsteen, along with the E Street Band, played as an opener for Wonder (Brucebase Wiki 1996). 

Spitz said, “it was an unfortunate pairing,” and “we did the Stevie Wonder date as a favor to our agent, Sam McKeith, at the William Morris Agency, who was also Stevie’s agent [and friend] … but the two acts were largely incompatible. And, as always, Bruce was dissatisfied with being an opening act because audiences tend to walk around and talk during the opening acts and he felt as if he wasn’t connecting with the kids.” 

It is worth mentioning that during this time, Springsteen was touring for his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, where he grew up. Throughout the set, people in the crowd became disheveled, waiting to see Wonder, not a no-name from New Jersey. This resulted in the crowd reacting  with multiple boo’s and “we want Stevie” (Uhrich 2016). Uhrich writes, “After the set, the band stormed off stage slamming equipment and cursing Kutztown, vowing never to return.” 

The Making of Born to Run 

Following this event, before his “Born to Run” album, Springsteen’s first two albums were critically acclaimed, but still didn’t sell very well. Carlin’s book says that Springsteen believed his future depended on this album being a breakthrough. 

Jon Landau, who Springsteen originally befriended, and later named as his producer and manager. He is credited with the famous quote, “I have seen the future of Rock and Roll. His name is Bruce Springsteen (The Morning Call 2013).” To be fair, looking back, he was not far off. 

Even the title of Springsteen’s third album was a work in progress. With a conversation between Eric Meola, a trusted observer, and Landau, “’What are we going to call it?’ And I say, ‘What do you mean, what are we gonna call it? Born to Run! … ‘Born to Run’ is what put all of this in motion. And it is born to run. And you, baby, are born to run. That’s what it is: it’s talking about you, too. You’re not Jungleland. You’re not Thunder Road. You’re born to run, Bruce. Out of this neighborhood, to bigger and better things. The American Dream.’ And that was it.

“When I saw the cover that first time it just, boom, punched me right in the nose. What could be greater than that black and white picture … and he’s leaning on Clarence, his big giant on stage personality … it’s just perfect (Backstreets 2015).” 

Sessions to start the album started in January of 1974, and by the summer time, they had only finished the title track. The president of Columbia Records, Bruce Lundvill, told Springsteen and Appel that they had made a record. Landau says, “you might think that sweeping praise from the top executive in his record company would have eased the make-or-break burden that Bruce lugged with him … you would be wrong. Because whenever he listened to the first two albums, all Bruce could hear were the things he wished he’d done differently.”  

The record took so long because sessions were constantly stalled with Springsteen obsessing over every detail. Recording sessions would start and then need to be stopped because Springsteen would fixate on every syllable in a lyric, need to change studios, etc. (Carlin 2012). 

Finishing the record ended up taking a year and a half, where they even canceled a show at Moravian College so they could continue to work on it. After they finished recording the music, the editing was just as, if not more, detail oriented. Carlin’s book says Springsteen obsessed over the songs and the team stayed up for three days to finish the album by its due date. But they had done it, the album had finished editing and went into production on July 20’th with just a few hours to spare before the first show of the tour. After three days of all work and no sleep, the band drove to their first concert of the tour, Providence, Rhode Island (Carlin 2012).

The Incident

Now to the most important part, the 25’th and 26’th of July 1975. The fourth show of his tour to promote his new album, Born to Run, was at Kutztown University, but this time he was the headliner. Appel recalls the event happening after soundcheck the afternoon of the 25’th before the concert, but it is unclear exactly when it took place. 

Springsteen’s manager met him and his bandmates at their hotel after the show’s first night with a new test copy of the album that was just completed. They listened to the music on a portable record player that he kept with him (Fea 2013). Appel gathered the band into one of their hotel rooms with the following: Springsteen himself; Appel’s brother, Stephen, who was the road manager at the time; Steven Van Zandt, Springsteen’s long time friend and guitarist who had just joined his E Street band; and the rest of the band. 

As the last song finished, the band applauded and externally showed their excitement, however, Carlin’s book says that Springsteen quietly and angrily said, “I dunno. I’d do things differently,” and then he “jumped to his feet, snatched the acetate from the turntable, and stalked out to the hotel courtyard, where he flung it into the swimming pool,” while saying that it was a waste of time and a disgrace to rock’n’roll (Mercury 2013). Springsteen believed that this album that he spent a year and a half recording would be his big break, but he hated the music so much that he took the disk, walked out into the courtyard and threw the disk in the hotel pool (Moss 2015). 

Jon Landau, Springsteen’s producer who was not on the tour, called with Springsteen and told him that they would not be able to do everything he wanted in this one album. He said to save some things for the next album, because there would be a next album. However, even after this conversation, Springsteen stood firm. Appel eventually decided that they should scrap the whole thing. He said he would tell Columbia Records’ president in the morning, release “Born to Run” as a single, and re-record the rest of the songs (Carlin 2012). 

Harish Tailor, former owner of the Campus Inn that has unfortunately closed (Pozarik 2017), was unable to be located for further information. He recalls “something about that recording he didn’t like, so he got all upset about it and he threw the record right from his room like a frisbee, right into our Campus Inn swimming pool (Stone Pony Messages 2017).” 

After this, Springsteen, his girlfriend, his bandmates, and his management team all got into Appel’s car and drove back to New York to scrap the album. Appel said, “it was just one of those moments … his fear of letting go got the best of him. It was the background for the greatest album of all time. It was a momentous moment, and it happened right there.” About half way into the drive, Springsteen started to laugh, first only a little and then quite a bit. Once they got to New York Springsteen decided, “let’s just ride.” Stephen Appel says in Carlin’s book, “Suddenly he was in a great place. Both Mike and Jon had said exactly the right things to him. I never saw Bruce happier than on that car ride.”

After the incident, Springsteen was convinced to release the record. His first few shows of the tour, he only played a few songs from the new album until it would be released a month later. This album would go on to sell millions of copies, get number 3 on Billboard’s top 200, and become arguably one of the best albums in music history (Davis 2020). 

Conflicting Stories 

Appel says he remembers things slightly differently. He said Springsteen did hate the recording and when he started to insult his band-mates, they left the room. He also said that they did listen to a recording of the album and Sprinsteen did throw it into the pool, however it was on a tape, not an acetate. However, according to Appel, they never took his car back to New York. After telling the ever critical musician that if he wanted to scrap the whole thing, then Springsteen would need to tell Columbia Records himself and make multiple new songs as good as his top hits, causing him to backoff. Appel says, “But it was so frightening what I actually said, that he threw in the towel. That’s how ‘Born to Run’ actually was finished (Morning Call 2013).”

Slightly different, Bill Uhrich says that Springsteen only wanted to head back to New York, but never actually committed. He says that Springsteen calmed down later that afternoon and accepted the album for what it was, releasing it a month later (Uhrich 2016). 

Carlin’s book also has another story. Jimmy Lovine, Springsteen’s record producer, was the one to bring the finished album on tour, and “to hear it, the two of us had to go to a downtown stereo store and beg them to let us use one of their record players.” As Springsteen nervously listened to the record, Lovine gave Springsteen a look that said, “please just say yes and let’s be done,” Springsteen believed that he knew his team would be frustrated with him, but “all I could hear was what I perceived as the record’s flaws.” 

Personal Experiences 

These pictures were taken during the Born to Run tour at Kutztown State College’s Keystone Hall on July 26, 1975. This first picture was originally sent to Crawdaddy, where it was featured in their cover story for October of 1978 by Peter Knobler, and then featured again on their Letters page. Paul Johnson, the photographer, tells the story as, “In 1978, I was outside the Capital Centre (Largo, MD, 11/2/78). I just had this photo of Bruce published in Crawdaddy — first in a Darkness article, then on the Letters page next issue. There was no credit in the original article because I was too green to put info on the back of the photo; I just sent a letter with it. After sending a contact sheet they reprinted it on the letters page with the credit.

“After the concert I went to my car to get the mag with the Letters page for an autograph. When I got back, Bruce was mobbed, but a buddy was up close. Bruce yelled for the mag. He handed it to Bruce, told him a friend had shot the photo. Bruce asked if I was there, and he signed the page. He reached over the crowd to hand me the mag back, and as I reached out he grabbed my hand, shook it and said how much he liked the photo. I was so concerned that someone would grab or tear the mag, I just said something like, ‘Yeah, yeah, thanks.’ Think George Costanza not accepting the invite upstairs because ‘coffee keeps me up’ — my one really personal moment, and I blew it!”

Interviews

Before I start, I want to share a little bit about my journey through writing this. I started by immediately going to the library after this paper had been assigned. I worked with a research librarian, Karen Wanamaker, where we were able to find an article by the New York Times, Bill Uhrich, and the biography. From there we did some more digging and eventually found a Youtube video that Joe Kivak had taken a recording of during the July concerts. 

After about an hour, Professor Wanamaker had to leave, so I went to the second floor to explore the archives. After an hour of sifting through every resource available, I had a lightbulb moment. What would have evidence about something exciting that happened during the school year? A yearbook! So I decided to start with the 1973 yearbook, but found nothing. While I was disappointed, this made sense because Springsteen had not become a big name yet. I then looked in the 1975 yearbook, and again found nothing. I realized that the concert happened in July, but the academic year only goes until May, so by the time the 1975 yearbook came out, the concert had not happened yet! I excitedly flipped through the 1976 yearbook, and there were two pages completely dedicated to his performance! 

From there I did even more research: Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, newspapers, etc. until I finally felt like I had run out of sources. Of my sources, Youtube ended up being the most important because it had Joe Kivak’s recording. While it was interesting to hear the band playing in the 70’s, what really piqued my interest was the three people who commented on the video saying they had attended the concerts. From there, I was able to do even more digging and eventually found them on Facebook, where they were able to excitedly tell me about their experiences and provide pictures of merchandise from the night. 

By getting in contact with Cliff Gonshery, A Cherry Hill West alumni that attended the concert with his friends, he was able to tell me all about his experience and how he remains an active fan to this day. 

“There were Two Concerts that weekend. A car load of Cherry Hill West Students drove up in my 1972 Plymouth Scamp. In the front seat was Micky Crizanowski, Robin Sofier – back seat was Michael Caulley, Bobby Santoro and Rich Santhin. We were Bruce Springsteen fans – before anyone else was!!! We had Springsteen parties, where we just played his two Albums over and over again. Cherry Hill (South Jersey) and Philly were Huge fans of Bruce before New York even knew his Name!!!

“His big break in our Area was the fall of 73 … he played a place in Cherry Hill called ‘Uncle Al’s Elton Lounge’ – it was an Iconic place – the line of cars were backed up down Kings Highway – pouring Rain … you couldn’t get in … we were under age and hung outside the door to hear … we ate at Donuts Galore – we heard Bruce and the Legendary E Street Band ate donuts there too. 

‘So … my 1st concert I saw him live was Kutztown. These were ICONIC Shows – because they were the Practice, warm up Shows for the BTR tour … which was to begin the following month. I remember, getting to the GYM …we arrived late … no seats anywhere … so we sat in the aisle on the bleachers … 5 minutes later – these Huge Bouncers came over and said we need an aisle – so we all slide our butts down and squeezed everyone in the row … A huge groan came out from the crowd. The concert was Incredible, Mesmerizing and so Memorable … one of the Greatest Concerts of my life – and I have now seen him over 70 times – recently in Barcelona (both shows). We gathered in the parking lot after … We ran into many friends from Cherry Hill in the Parking lot – I remember the late Charley Olivia had a Kutztown ‘TSHIRT’ on from the concert – but, they sold out – he had purchased the night before as he went to both Shows … We drove back to South Jersey – got home at 3am in the morning … I Loved Kutztown College … forever. A Special place in my memories and Heart!” 

After speaking with Gonsherry, I figured it was worth a shot to try to get in contact with Joe Kivak, who I was able to speak to over Facebook Messenger. Kivak was able to provide me with the setlist, as pictured in the above paragraphs, and some memories about what he remembered thinking during the concert. 

“I don’t remember too much of the show as I was sitting a little far back. But I do remember being a little disappointed because the violin player, Suki Lahav, was no longer with the band. And also he had a new guitar player, Steve Van Zandt. I liked it better when Bruce was doing all the guitar work. Other than that I don’t remember much about the show. I did tape it and that might be the only tape that was made that night. and it did not come out too well because I was far back. I’m sorry I don’t have much more, I’ve seen Bruce about 120 times and starting in 1974. and I taped every show I went to. not as a bootlegger but to document the shows. Here is the set list of the 2 shows, I did not attend the first show and it looks like the tape was not complete.”

To end, even though Bruce Springsteen started playing music with his band in Fleetwood, New Jersey, it was his connection to the Lehigh Valley, specifically Kutztown University, that started his career. He must return not only because he has an extensive history with the town, but because the new generation needs to see his music live and get the experience past alumni have. While Springsteen was most popular in the 70’s and 80’s, his music is still very prominent in today’s generation, as trends have geared towards the 80’s with popularity throughout social media, fashion trends, and especially music. Returning to Kutztown University would benefit him, as well because he could resolve the occurrence of the incident once and for all, and everything surrounding it once and for all.