Overview

A captivating oral history of the iconic music venue the Stone Pony and of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Asbury Park, New Jersey--featuring interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Southside Johnny, members of the E Street Band and Asbury Jukes, the Ramones, the Jonas Brothers, Jack Antonoff, and other legendary musicians. In 1970, Asbury Park, New Jersey, was ripped apart by race riots that left the once-proud beach town an hour away from Manhattan smoldering, suffering and left for dead. Four years later, a few miles down the coast in Seaside Heights, two bouncers, Jack Roig and Butch Pielka, tired of the daily grind, dreamt of owning their own place. Under-prepared and minimally funded, the two bought the first bar they considered, in a city where no one wanted to be, without setting one foot in the place. They named it the Stone Pony, and turned it into a rock club that Bruce Springsteen would soon call home and a dying town would call its beating heart. But the bar had to fight to survive. Despite its success in launching and attracting rockers like Stevie Van Zandt, ""Southside"" Johnny Lyon, and Springsteen, the Stone Pony--like everything in Asbury Park for the past half century--could only weather the drags of a depressed city for so long. How did the Stone Pony beat the odds to survive? How did it become an international rock pilgrimage site, not just for fans of Springsteen, but for punk rockers, jam bands, pop, indie, alternative and many other musicians as well? And how did it continue to inspire and influence a hall-of-fame list of New Jersey and national rock stars? The story of the Stone Pony--thrillingly charted in this detailed oral history--is the chronicle of a proud and unique cultural mecca blooming in a down-but-not-yet-out tough town. As Nick Corasaniti reveals, the stories of Asbury Park and the Stone Pony are that of modern America itself--a place of battered hopes, big dreams, and dogged resilience.

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Nick Corasaniti is a domestic correspondent covering national politics for the New York Times. He has covered four presidential cycles, along with countless congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral races in more than a fifteen years at the Times. He was once the Times's Jersey correspondent, tracking the politics, policy, people, trains, beaches and eccentricities that give the Garden State its charm. He is a born and raised, and exceptionally proud, New Jerseyan, who splits his time between Asbury Park and Brooklyn. Jim Meskimen is an audiobook narrator and a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows. Nicol Zanzarella is an award-winning audiobook narrator, with titles spanning multiple genres in both fiction and nonfiction. She came to audiobook narration after (literally) growing up within the walls of a local radio station that her father ran, and brings with her a background in both classical and contemporary theater, as well as film. She also has numerous television and radio commercials to her credit. Originally from Yonkers, New York, she currently lives in California, where, when not in the booth, you can usually find her drinking coffee, cooking her grandmother's Italian recipes, or in the local boxing gym. Thank you for listening!

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