There are times in Springsteen fan-dom were it seems like nothing is going your way…those years surrounding Bruce’s first Greatest Hits album where all was quiet on the Jersey-front. Then, sensory overload kicks in and you have a year where a four disc boxed-set of unreleased songs hits you with a reunion tour follow-up. 2005/2006 offered Springsteen fans one of those overload moments….a tour, a boxed set, Hammerstein Revisited…and, three coffee table books.

Greetings From E Street is one of the coffee table books. …and, it’s about the coolest Springsteen scrapbook that I’ve seen (not that I’ve seen many). It’s author, Robert Santelli, has in some ways created a whole new way of chronicling information. Instead of creating a biography merely of words and pictures, he has created a type of pop-up book for rock-and-roll reminiscing adults. Santelli packs his book with pictures of all sizes and shapes, but he also adds replicas of Springsteen memorabilia. So, for example, the book has replicas of backstage passes, itineraries, posters, a napkin, and even a business card.

Santelli’s book follows the career of Springsteen and the E-Street band from their beginnings in New Jersey through their peak of fame with the Born in the USA tour (pages 1-73). He then finishes up his book (pages 74-89) with post-Born in the USA information. As you can see the bulk of the material hangs out in the first half of Springsteen’s career. This is somewhat understandable, since Santelli seems interested in giving equal time to Bruce and the E-Street members. The book’s first appearing character is Danny Federici (E Street’s organ player), Bruce doesn’t show up for several pages.

The selling point of Greetings from E Street is its scrapbook feel. Santelli’s telling of the Springsteen/E-Street story benefits a great deal from his use of artwork. He is quite good at displaying his rock and roll loot in an attractive manner that subliminally tells a story. The reader frequently feels that the amount of space a picture takes up on the page is not an accident, but instead it symbolizes something important that the author is conveying without words. The same holds true of the inserts. Perhaps, Santelli’s replicas may become somewhat of a gimmick (he did the same thing for Dylan in 2005). But, for now, I’m satisfied in viewing his project as a type of scrapbook art.

For myself, I think the high points of the inserts are the reproductions of the newspaper clippings. Reading old Springsteen clippings allows your brain to travel back in time and imagine what it would be like to read the articles when they first came out. In a similar way, the itineraries and newsletters provided to Bruce and those on tour with him can also get your imagination running. It’s hard to picture your itinerary for the week being: Monday – RFK Stadium, Wednesday – Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Friday – Soldier Field. The book also provides two posters, one of Bruce’s early band Steel Mill and the other of the Reunion Tour.

The book’s weakest point may be in Santelli’s writing. It’s not that he’s hard to follow, confusing, or a bad writer. It’s just that his writing doesn’t reflect the awe and intensity that his artwork expresses. Including an insert of a napkin from the Stone Pony (a NJ nightclub that Springsteen frequents) isn’t “safe” in one sense. It says: here’s something silly that you may think is cool and in a sense it symbolizes something about Bruce that is hard to put into words. Santelli’s writing doesn’t make itself vulnerable like that, instead he seems to play it safe. His writing generally reads more like an outline than a description of the emotional preciseness that binds Springsteen to his fans.

In a book like Greetings From E Street a complaint about writing style isn’t as troubling an issue as it may be in other books. The point here is attractiveness and that every-picture-tell-a-story. And, in these categories, Santelli gets an A+. Additionally, I can’t complain about the story he chooses to tell. For the early part of Bruce’s career where Santelli spends the majority of his time I think he hits the key stories. He gives adequate space to following the mildly confusing early E-Street family tree. He mentions important shows and some of the resulting sought after bootlegs. And, he stays away from the gossipy side of things, he handles the Mike Appel split without pointing too many fingers and he skims over Bruce’s divorce and marriage to Patty Scialfa.

There’s a lot of bells and whistles floating around Greetings From E Street. I’d casually argue that they’re there for an artful purpose. But, if you were to strip them away, there’s not much new material presented here. The thing about Greetings From E Street is that when you read it / look at it, you want to like it. The attractiveness of the book, the general sense of fun and uniqueness make it a hard item to be skeptical about. For this reason, I think Santelli is up to something deeper than gimmicks, instead maybe he’s nuance-ing the art of coffee table books. It’s a book I would recommend, even to a casual Springsteen fan.

Also see:
Bruce Springsteen On Tour: 1968 - 2005

Recommended: Yes