Let me start out by stating that I love New Jersey. But you know who loves New Jersey more than me? Bruce Springsteen. So here we go.

Criteria: Reference must be to a specific place in New Jersey and/or include the word “Jersey.” References to specific highways in NJ are accepted, but general terms like “highway” or “turnpike” are not.¹

1. Lost in the Flood (Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, 1973)
   • Reference: “That pure American brother, dull-eyed and empty-faced/races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight”
   • New Jersey-ness: The Jersey reference here is nice, but perfunctory. There’s not much else in the song to indicate that it takes place in New Jersey as opposed to literally anywhere else where you can race a Chevy stock super eight on a Sunday.
     
     
2. Johnny 99 (Nebraska, 1982)
   • Reference: “Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late last month/Ralph went out lookin’ for a job but he couldn’t find none”
   • New Jersey-ness: The song name-checks Mahwah, but honestly this tale of a laid-off factory worker gone bad could have happened in any Rust Belt town in any U.S. state in 1982.
     
     
3. The E Street Shuffle (The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, 1973)
   • Reference: “Sparks light on E Street when the boy-prophets walk it handsome and hot”
   • New Jersey-ness: This song, like the band, is named after E Street in Belmar, NJ. But really, it could be about any group of hep cats either dancing or getting hooked up in a scuffle anywhere in 1970s America. Some of them are even “Dressed in snakeskin suits, packed with Detroit muscle.” Which, Detroit isn’t even in New Jersey.
     
     
4. Jungleland (Born to Run, 1975)
   • Reference: “The Magic Rat drove his slick machine over the Jersey state line.”
   • New Jersey-ness: “We’ll meet ‘neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light” is pretty New Jersey. But half the song takes place in NYC so here it is down here at #7.
     
     
5. Wrecking Ball (Wrecking Ball, 2016)
   • Reference: “I was raised out of steel here in the swamps of Jersey/Some misty years ago” and also “Now my home was here in the Meadowlands/Where mosquitoes grow big as airplanes”
   • New Jersey-ness: Bruce’s ode to Giants Stadium, which closed in 2010. As a local boy, Bruce played a record number of concerts at the venue, including the final shows before it was torn down. While this is all very New Jersey in theory, the team that played there was not, you know, the New Jersey Giants. So the song ends up in the middle of the pack.
     
     
6. Atlantic City (Nebraska, 1982)
   • Reference: “Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty, and meet me tonight in Atlantic City”
   • New Jersey-ness: A song about the shady early days of the Atlantic City gambling scene is pretty New Jersey. But any and all relevant Chicken Men were blown up in Philly, which, famously, is in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey. So it gets docked a few levels.
     
     
7. Open All Night (Nebraska, 1982)
   • Reference: “Early, North Jersey industrial skyline/I’m a all-set Cobra Jet/creepin’ through the nighttime/Gotta find a gas station/gotta find a payphone/This turnpike sure is spooky at night when you’re all alone/Gotta hit the gas, baby, I’m runnin’ late/This New Jersey in the mornin’ like a lunar landscape.”
   • New Jersey: They say there is nothing more New Jersey than driving on a highway to get somewhere else.
     
     
8. Rosalita (The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, 1973)
   • Reference: “And my machine she’s a dud/I’m stuck in the mud/somewhere in the swamps of Jersey”
   • New Jersey-ness: Okay, so the only thing more New Jersey than driving on a highway to get somewhere else is trying to drive on a highway to get somewhere else but getting stuck in a swamp instead.
     
     
9. Born to Run (Born to Run, 1975)
   • Reference: “Sprung from cages on Highway 9, chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected and stepping out over the line […] The amusement park rises bold and stark, kids are out on the beach in the mist”
   • New Jersey-ness: Okay, so the only thing more New Jersey than driving on a highway to get somewhere else but getting stuck in a swamp instead is driving on a highway to get somewhere else but realizing that you don’t have anywhere better to go than just down the shore again.²
     
     
10. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) (The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, 1973)
    • Reference: title, to Asbury Park, NJ
    • New Jersey-ness: This is it. If you were born into Jersey-shore-going culture in the back half of the 20th century, this is the world you were born into, in song form. Extra props to the late Danny Federici on the accordian; boardwalk accordian used to be a thing, though you rarely (never?) hear it anymore alas. In sum, A+ no notes would get my shirt caught in that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag again.

Album track’s in the link but I love a live version so here is “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” performed at Hammersmith Odeon 1975:

Honorable mention: Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (Born to Run, 1975) is probably about the Tenth Avenue in Belmar, NJ? But maybe about Tenth Avenue in New York City? Isn’t everywhere Tenth Avenue in our hearts? All we know for sure is that there was at one point an ice cream place in Belmar named after this song, which honestly is as good of an interpretation of the title as anything else.

Happy Day Threading!

1. Where is “Spirit in the Night” then you ask? It specifically mentions Route 88 which is in New Jersey? To which I respond I had an excellent reason for not including it which was ::checks notes:: I forgot to. Also I already had 10 things in the list and 11 things in a list is weird. ↩︎
2. Although honestly, down the shore is pretty great. One might even say “down the shore everything’s alright.” ↩︎