Hello Friends. My name is Albee Tellone and I was a "folksinger" playing at the Green Memaid the night of the riots. I lived down by the Palace Amusements and could walk to the Upstage. I always got there early around 8pm and Steve Van Zant was there with John Lyon. They were jamming with me in the Green Mermaid when Tom Potter came in to tell us there was a riot going on across the tracks which ran parallel to Main St. The Upstage was one block away from Main St. - so we were very close. That answered our question as to why there were no customers in the club. The place was empty ! Tom got out some shotguns and armed the bouncers Big Danny Gallagher and Eddie Luraschi (John Luraschi's big brother) who were positioned on the roof. The entrance was still open when Steve and I walked down to the corner of Cookman Ave. and Main St. to watch a furniture store go up in flames. None of the rioters came past Main St. and the Thom McAn shoe store did not get a broken window. We didn't even close the door. One of Tom's friends named "Dick" was on the roof playing the bagpipes of all things ! It was very surreal.

I never like the excuse that the riots ruined Asbury Park. Greed and political corruption did that. The Stone Pony really got going in the 1970s when the drinking age was lowered to 18. Asbury and all of the shore towns that had nightclubs prospered during those years. After they raised the age back to 21 in the 1980s it started to sag.

Wow. This brings back memories. I graduated from Asbury Park High School in 1971, one year behind Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa, who lived in Deal. Wasn't much into the music scene myself and had no awareness of the Upstage; lived a few blocks from the Stone Pony. Remember the riots happening the summer before my senior year. Living in the "nice" part of Asbury Park, between Deal and Sunset Lakes, I recall the police, and National Guard parking their vehicles on the streets near where I lived. When school started that Fall we had no idea what to expect. There was no attempt to have classes at first; no impulse to sweep it all under the carpet. Everyone was allowed to attend an informal meeting in the auditorium, and in those days, long before we had a counselling industry, we somehow managed to talk things through enough to go on with school in short order. That school year, as I remember it, was uneventful for the most part. Not much got rebuilt in the areas affected by the riots. But the boardwalk didn't fall apart all at once, nor did the city and its summer trade. It's a ghost of itself now though, to be sure. I was hoping to see mention of my old friend, Billy Rush, who was in Patti's class and played guitar with Southside Johnny, a few years later, after he dropped out of college. I don't think he ever went to the Upstage but I can't think why not: Maybe he did and never remarked on it. Maybe I was in there once myself and can't remember it.

I was so intriqued by the title and then the focus of the article that I read it a couple of times. I remember walking to the Upstage Club on Saturday afternoons with a friend of mine who played guitar. I don't think I ever heard a recognizable song just loud vicious jamming. My buddie loved it but I always left with a headache. In the summer of '71 I worked with Garry Tallent's brother in a Chicken Holiday that was frequented by a grubby "wife-beater" wearing Bruce Springsteen, who would order chicken and make up jingles on the phone at the same time. The manager of the place was convinced he was going to be great and I thought he was just another loser from Asbury Park. I must say I haven't met anybody much smarter than that Chicken Holiday manager.

There was really only one riot in Asbury Park, but thanks to the hyperbolic coverage by the NYC TV news that was enough to kill Asbury quickly. Political corruption has kept it from any recovery since. One of the saddest experiences I had was riding my bike through Asbury Park on a July Saturday afternoon in 1980 and encoutering almost no traffic at all. This was after spending my late teens in the same place teeming with people and fun.

Michael I kinda liked Rebecca's ending. I visited Asbury Park in the mid 80's as part of a immature Springstein tour that my then husband and I just had to make. The carousel building was still standing and the entire place was very sad and it depressed me terribly. Sometimes the only preservation can be that which we hold in our hearts and not in real estate.

No, it doesn't really matter if the remains of Asbury Park disappear... as long as Rebecca has her article, and Carrie has her book publishing deal of that fabulous photograph collection... well, then, the kids are all right!

Rebecca Traister is one of those writers that... like someone with whom I have a meaningful relationship... I alternately love and hate...

When she is good, she's really good... but when she's bad, I really just want to say "no more... it's over."

And that's how it was with this article, which was so good right up until that very end. Where she ruined it. It just made me want to roll over and wonder why I even bother sometimes.