I said Help me Doc I got songwriters’ block
I just can’t find my inspiration
He said That ain’t no block you just ran out of stock what you need dude is a long vacation
I was in the east my heart was in the west
and when asked why resist assimilation
I left my heart back in Asbury Park
that was the explanation
In junior high I would lift my eyes
to from where will come my salvation
In the army I swore I’d head straight for the shore
when my three years reached their cessation
The beacon that shined its light into a mind
blackened by social darkness and isolation
With the promise that someday
after the bull gets blown away
I’d undertake massive relocation
Chip on my shoulder since I was a soldier
Drive your friends crazy don’t get lazy
Underground homesick grab yourself a broomstick
This ain’t no statement just block abatement
Tramping around through the streets of this town
under an onslaught of precipitation
The mist was so thick I knew I’d be sick
without some spiritual medication
I staggered my way to nuevo dolce café
and sat down to the taste of innovation
Then the evening sky cleared so I regrouped and steered my sights to nocturnal invasion
Saw her sitting on the boardwalk rails
with her usual gang of friend females
in sweatshirt jeans and flirtation
Flashed her my jazz and blues and snakeskin shoes
and then she was mine for the duration
She took my arm she felt so warm
she was soft intoxication
I didn’t inquire she was lover for hire
but she didn’t fit the characterization
What am I trying to say here this ain’t no cliché here
You wanna be a beatnik you gotta be a streetnik
Check the rhyme and meter you ain’t gonna beat her
Blinded by the light Bruce no use call a truce
But you know it’s all right
Yeah you know it's all right
But you know it's all right
It's all right if it's all night
Long Beach Rockaway Beach Jones Beach Lido Beach
Not looking for a job or a vocation
Long Island Block Island Fire Island Coney Island
Just blowin’ through town on revisitation
Monmouth Beach Bradley Beach
Point Pleasant Beach Island Beach
Don’t want no redemption or salvation
Atlantic Highlands Mystic Island
Holgate Margate Long Beach Island
I’m just here in life to find my station
Jamaica Bay Raritan Bay Sandy Hook Bay Delaware Bay
Mile upon sandy mile of sensation
Montauk Point Breezy Point Somers Point Cape May Point
Pick choose point and shoot for my destination
Surf City Sea Isle City Atlantic City Ocean City
The possibilities of limitless exploration
Sea Bright Barnegat Light
Sea Girt Sea Gate Seaside Heights
I won’t accept any statute of limitation
Playing my wordgames all the same I’ll drop names
None of this crap rap beatin’ like a clap trap
Radio hum drum makes me go ho hum
Rock’n’roll tidy bowl no soul pigeonhole
Grab your attention keep it in suspension
It’s the great backlash against all the cheap trash
Mindless conformity mental deformity
If you ain’t receivin’ it don’t you believe in it
©2024 The Hesh Inc.
In the best tradition of songs like "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "Blinded by the Light" comes this song, which actually is more closely modeled on "The E Street Shuffle." It came to me during my time in Boston, when I was feeling the ache of being away from my beloved Jersey Shore. I would take long road trips by myself, often leaving Boston in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning, and I'd cruise through the deep darkness of the New England night, through the light pollution and endless road constriction of the New York megalopolis, and then down the Garden State Parkway till I reached my shore point of choice by the time the sun came up. Mind you, I had left the East Coast for Israel with my family some nine years before and all I had were memories and romanticized visions of the beach towns I had left behind, and now, armed with a driver's license and beat-up old Datsun, I went on a whole series of exploratory trips to begin to see what these places were really like. This era ended after two years, at which point I made good on it all and finally moved to the Shore. The exploration didn't stop after I moved there, however; I drove a limo for a living and it afforded me the opportunity to get to know the tristate area like the proverbial back of my hand, and it got to the point where I could find my way from any point in central New Jersey to any of the area airports in my sleep. And on days off, I hit the road with my songwriting notebooks and my camera. I'm glad I'm no longer driving for a living, but I do miss those days of road-tripping and exploring.
The song itself ... it was always intended as the second section of the five-song suite that made up "Side One" of the Soul In Exile record that I envisioned from the start. I really kept the music to myself for a number of years, not quite ready to spit the wordy lyrics out while playing the frenetic piano part at the same time. But eventually, after changing the last verse to make it a bit less location-specific and a title change to "Coastal Groove," it was recorded for my second album, Soul In Exile 2: Jersey Shore Baby, in 2002.
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