July 31-August 6, 2003

naked city

Shore Footing

Summer reading: Goldstein and Mikleâs book supplements their Jersey rock tour.

A walking tour pays respect to Jersey rock greats.

by Alex Richmond

Quick: What do Memphis, Liverpool and Asbury Park have in common? You know this. Right, they’re all hometowns of rock ’n’ roll legends and deeply steeped in music history. New Jersey may have the edge, in that many of its hometown heroes are still producing hits. That, and there are reported on-the-street Bruce Springsteen sightings on average once every three weeks.

When's the last time anyone really saw Elvis?

Did you ever think that Asbury Park, a dilapidated city that can't even support a Starbucks, could be a tourist attraction? It has been, since 1999, when two friends developed the Rock & Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore, which devotes about 90 percent of its stops to Springsteen lore and the other 10 percent to folks like Jon Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny Lyon.

Stan Goldstein and Jean Mikle, two New Jersey natives and music fans, saw the hidden value of their home state after taking a Beatles-themed walking tour of London in May 1999.

Goldstein says, "We took a lot of walking tours, but the Beatles walking tour was really interesting. We saw Paul McCartney's office, Abbey Road. We always had kicked the idea of a Bruce Springsteen tour around -- there's a lot of interesting Bruce stuff at the shore. So, we decided to try it."

Digging deep into their knowledge of local rock history, Mikle and Goldstein selected 30 locations in Asbury Park and 20 in Freehold (the birthplace of the Boss). At the first tour, with limited promotion, 60 people showed up. Goldstein says, "I thought, ŒWow, there's an interest, I think we can do this.'" Now, Europeans rent buses to come to New Jersey and take the rock tour.

The rock tour has had as many as 300 people and as few as one person in attendance. Goldstein and Mikle offer private tours for charity auctions, where they've netted bids up to $380 (the regular cost is $10 a head). Goldstein recalls a private tour Mikle did that lasted six hours. "They take pictures, go to Freehold it takes a while, especially in the Stone Pony. There's a lot to look at there."

According to the duo's research, Springsteen has been on the Stone Pony's stage over 70 times in his career, more times than he's played at Madison Square Garden.

A local DJ told Mikle and Goldstein about one of the tour's greatest treasures. "We learned that in the '70s they put in a new sidewalk outside the Stone Pony," Goldstein says. "One night bands put their name in the wet cement. There's Cahoots, The Shakes. In one part it says, ŒHey Brucie, Sugar MS.' Steve Van Zandt used to be known as Sugar Miami Steve. Bruce must not have been there that night to sign his own name, and Little Steve probably wanted to give him a mention."

Beside the Stone Pony was a coffeehouse called The Upstage, where local musicians used to play until 5 a.m., and where Springsteen first made a rep for himself. Goldstein says that The Upstage was where the Boss met most of the E Street Band, except for the big man. "Clarence he met at another bar. The building [that housed The Upstage] is still there, but now it's a shoe store, you can't go up there."

Goldstein and Mikle always donate a portion of their tour profits to charity, usually something for kids in New Jersey. "City Council recommends charities to us a few times a year, we just take their advice and write a check," Goldstein says. The rock tour is just a side business for the duo, who have full-time jobs as journalists. Goldstein is a sports copy editor at the Newark Star-Ledger; Mikle, a reporter for the Asbury Park Press on the Tom's River beat. To accompany the tour, the two self-published a book. Friends in the newspaper biz helped with the design and editing.

"We put out our book in July 2002, right when Bruce was doing The Rising stuff. We printed 1,000 copies. We sold right out. We reprinted, and we're almost out of the second print run," says Goldstein. "We hope a bigger publisher [will] pick it up. We really don't market it as much as we'd like to." Goldstein and Mikle plan to expand the page count from 64 to 96 for the third edition.

What's also telling is what's omitted from the book. The pair chose not to publish Springsteen's two N.J. home addresses. "We don't want to encourage stalkers or people driving by for a look. He deserves his privacy. We respect the man."

That respect is not just for his music. "The man" does a lot for his hometown, including donating fire trucks and investing in real estate. "Bruce is the biggest cheerleader for Asbury Park," Goldstein says. "He insisted The Today Show film in Asbury Park for 10 days -- what other artist would do that? The Springsteen song "My City of Ruins" is about Asbury Park. He really cares."

Apparently, so do his fans. "We've had people run on the beach and take the sand home with them," says Goldstein. "Bruce writes the songs and talks about it here, and still does onstage. With New Jersey, we still have rock stories to tell, because he's still around. It's a living history, unlike Liverpool, where everything happened over 30 years ago."

And as for that other N.J. rock staple featured on the tour, he attracts a different, mostly female fan base, Goldstein says with a laugh. "Bon Jovi fans are a whole other creature."

The next Rock & Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore is Aug. 10. For more information or to get a copy of the book, go to www.njrockmap.com.