Bruce Springsteen, Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom, Jumbeliah, Look Towards The Land

In the March 13, 2009 Friday Bruce Fix, I featured what I thought was the first of only two live performances of Bruce Springsteen's band 'Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom'.  The date was May 14, 1971 at the Sunshine Inn in Asbury Park, NJ.  This week's fix features the final live Dr. Zoom performance from May 15, 1971 in Union, New Jersey, at Newark State College.  This Dr. Zoom gig was part of the "1st Annual Ernie The Chicken Festival", an all day outdoor party featuring several local bands.  Don't ask, I don't know, but something tells me that festival isn't still running.

It turns out that an earlier incarnation of 'Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom' had done two other shows, both on March 27th of that year, opening for the Allman Brothers.  By this point Steel Mill had broken up, and so Bruce assembled a band from the many musicians he was jamming with at that time on the Jersey Shore.  They needed a band name for promotional purposes and Bruce hastily came up with Bruce Springsteen and Friendly Enemies.  Sometime after the promotional material was printed, but prior to the performance, Bruce changed the band name to 'Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom".  So, all those Allman Brothers fans expecting to be warmed up by 'Bruce Springsteen and Friendly Enemies' had to settle for 'Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom'.  I'm sure that caused quite a ruckus.

Bruce wrote 'Jumbeliah' for the Dr. Zoom band in early 1971, and the Bruce Springsteen Band that followed by July of 1971 also performed it a few times.

At one point during this final Dr. Zoom show, 2nd drummer Big Bad Bobby Williams' bass drum pedal broke.  Bruce grabbed band manager Tinker West's acoustic guitar (Bruce didn't own one at the time) and bought time for Bobby to make his repairs by playing this solo acoustic performance of Bruce's original composition 'Look Towards The Land'.  If you listen closely (a good excuse to crank the volume up at work...) you can hear Tinker's dog JD Woofer barking in the background.

The contrast between this and 'Jumbeliah' was an early opportunity for some insight into the depth and range of Bruce's talent.  These are the closing lyrics:

Oh and I'd be singing look towards the lovers
For they are the key
Keep an eye on the lovers
And an eye on the war machine

And that's why at night I'm afraid to sleep
'Cause some of my dreams frighten me

A special nod today goes to www.springsteenlyrics.com as the source of much of this week's content and a great ongoing resource for Your Friday Bruce Fix.

Happy Sonic Boom Friday!

Comments

[Friday Bruce Fix]

Hi Walter. I have to apologize for not commenting previously. Somehow I missed the notification email when you posted your comment. It must have been a busy email day.

So great of you to comment and share your story. You were so lucky to have been involved with Bruce back in those early days, but also astute enough to have recognized in Bruce what the rest of the world would eventually find out. I can imagine you would have some great stories and memories to share. If you ever wanted to turn a story or two into a guest spot here on Your Friday Bruce Fix, I think that woould be fun.

Thanks so much for commenting and also for enlightening us on the source of the name of the Ernie the Chicken Festival! I hope you'll see this comment. Cheers.

[Walter Planer]

Happened to be surfing the web and came across this page.

I was one of the people who put together and promoted the Ernie the Chicken Festival at what was then Newark State College.

I even have one of the few remaining posters which were the creation of one of my dorm mates who was an artist who had a comic strip called Ernie the Chicken thus the name of the concert.

I have a lot of stories about the events leading up to the concert and a lot of memories of Bruce and Tinker in the early days.

For example, about a week or two before the show, Tinker and I drove into Manhatten one afternoon and went to Rolling Stone Magazine and Channel 13 the local PBS station, trying to get them to cover the concert and promote Bruce who at the time was unknown except on the Jersey Shore and maybe Richmond Va.

Basically we got blown off by everyone we talked to and got no publicity. I would have liked to go back about 4 years later as Born to Run was breaking and said I told you so to all of them.

Anyway reading your page brought back a lot of memories, those were the days.