#vini lopez

Janis Joplin meeting a young Bruce Springsteen

Based on an excerpt from Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin and a few online articles!

Steven Van Zandt, also known as Little Steven, is a member of two of the most powerful NJ families: the longtime guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and as Silvio on The Sopranos. As if that weren’t enough, he hosts the syndicated radio show Underground Garage where he sings the praises of garage rock and hosted the Underground Garage Festival in 2004 in NYC (I attended it!), has a record label Wicked Cool Records (The Empty Hearts’ The Second Album was released on the label last year), founded the music education foundation Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, and he is an activist for several causes. He has also released several solo albums with Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul (read my concert review of their 2017 show in Boston here).

For someone so strongly affiliated with New Jersey (what’s more NJ than Springsteen and Sopranos?), it might surprise some to learn that he was actually born right here in Boston. Until the age of 6, his family actually lived in Watertown, MA, just a few blocks from where I live now. Sadly, Watertown does not come up in his new memoir Unrequited Infatuations, recently released by Hachette Books. 

book cover

Here are just some of the things I learned in reading this book:

1) As a teen in Middletown, NJ, SVZ frequently went to Jack’s Music Shoppe, a record store in Red Bank, NJ. I’ve actually been to that record store and Kevin Smith fans will recall it being a location that Holden and Hooper X have a conversation while browsing in Chasing Amy!

2) Lots of Beatle references! Its no surprise that as a musician who was a teen when The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, SVZ is a big Beatle fan, but I literally lost count of the vast references he made to their music, their trajectory and their albums! He said about Lennon’s death in 1980 it “hit me so hard that I expected we’d cancel. But Bruce gave me a wonderful speech about how people needed us more than ever in moments like this”. SVZ recruited Ringo and his son Zak for “Sun City”. Both Yoko and son Sean joined him for an anti-apartheid concert in NYC in 1986. And there’s several references to the Fab Four’s albums and songs throughout.

Bruce Springsteen and SVZ

3) SVZ and Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez were bandmates for a while! E Street Band’s original drummer Lopez was the drummer from 1972-74 and played on the first two albums. SVZ didn’t join until 1975. But pre-E Street, Springsteen’s band Steel Mill featured Lopez on drums and SVZ on bass. There’s more than a few stories about Lopez.

A few years back, I was working on a music-based TV project I was developing and for the demo reel I was putting together, I contacted Lopez, and interviewed him. He was so cool and I’ve remained in contact with him since. In 2014, the E Street Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including both Lopez and SVZ.

4) SVZ almost quit E Street in 1979, but then the Boss asked him to produce The River with him.

5) When talking about the art of covering a popular song, he called Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” the “most dramatic cover of all time”.

6) SVZ decided to use music to protest apartheid in South Africa in the mid-80s by putting together the all-star protest song “Sun City” by Artists United Against Apartheid. I’ve written about this song many times and how I bought the single at age 9 even though I didn’t understand a lot of the political content. The music video was directed by Jonathan Demme, who would go on to direct SVZ and E Street Band’s video for “Murder Inc.” and “American Skin (41 Shots)”. SVZ wrote about how Demme became a lifelong friend and how they only had him for one day while he was shooting Something Wild, so they needed to shoot the video guerrilla-style. Hart Perry filmed the London portion of the video, while Demme did the NYC portion. He flat out says that if anyone knew “Sun City” it was because of the video on MTV and BET. I, myself, remember seeing it on V66. 

SVZ and Jonathan Demme on the set of the “Sun City” music video

Working with Demme on “Sun City” lead to the soundtrack for Something Wild, which SVZ and Arthur Baker wrote “You Don’t Have to Cry” for Jimmy Cliff.

7) SVZ briefly talked about his work with Lone Justice on their second album. Not sure why he was so humble that he didn’t address co-writing their best song on their debut album, “Sweet Sweet Baby (I’m Falling)”.

Peter Wolf with SVZ and the Disciples of Soul at Orpheum Theatre 9/29/17

8) Peter Wolf convinced him to do The Sopranos. After David Chase offered him a part on his new TV series despite the fact that SVZ hadn’t acted before, SVZ met with his good friend Peter Wolf, who convinced him to take the part: “If its a success, great. If not, no one will remember it.“ When I saw SVZ in concert in 2017, Wolf came out as the special guest for the finale. 

SVZ as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos

Also - David Chase wanted SVZ to play Tony initially. But that was a bit too much of a gamble for HBO to take on someone who never acted before. Chase wanted SVZ on the series and thus the character of Silvio was developed. SVZ had come up with his backstory and Chase incorporated him into the series.

The Song of the Day is: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” (1973) #SongoftheDay #music #parenting #BruceSpringsteen #July4th @springsteen #NewJersey #rock #journal #HearTodayGrownTomorrow Support the Blog - Click Below

🎇🇺🇸Independence Day!🇺🇸🎇 The Song of the Day is: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” From the album The Wild, The Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle (1973) Sandy, that waitress I was seeing lost her desire for meI spoke with her last night, she said she won’t set herself on fire for me anymoreShe worked that joint under the boardwalk, she was always the…