![]() ![]() ![]() You could call it Liverpool's cousin - it had all the same hallmarks: a seafaring tradition, a history more lambent than its present, high unemployment, the ridicule of the metropolitan elites - and a fierce urban pride. At the close of the Sixties, when Springsteen started playing, the Jersey Shore had its own anti-heroic, all-American identity, which spawned a humming rock'n'roll scene. The story of the decline of Asbury Park is also the story of the death of the kind of blue-collar America about which Springsteen has always written. ![]() 'You wanna see the girl-show or stay out?' is all he will say. The Park Cinema ('PAR CINE A') is still open, showing 'adult matinees', with a man at the door who wears a toupee and looks like a character from Nightmare on Elm Street. ![]() Now the sign made famous on Springsteen's videos of the Palace arcade reads only 'PA A E AMUS EN', though you can still just about make out 'Tunnel of Love' (it was an album and song title - the video was shot here). Take the 'Palace Amusements' arcade, until recently home to the Asbury Park Rock and Roll Museum, the walls of which were lined with Springsteen memorabilia: the psychedelic sign from the Upstage club where he first played rare photos of his old band, Steel Mill. ![]()
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