Music
![Stevie Van Zandt - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B098CWJTXH.jpg)
Unrequited Infatuations: A Memoir
**Instant International Bestseller, New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller**
Uncover never-before-told stories in this epic tale of self-discovery by a Rock n Roll disciple and member of the E Street Band.
What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early '60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how Rock and Roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story.
The first true heartbeat of Unrequited Infatuations is the moment when Stevie Van Zandt trades in his devotion to the Baptist religion for an obsession with Rock and Roll. Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones created new ideas of community, creative risk, and principled rebellion. They changed him forever. While still a teenager, he met Bruce Springsteen, a like-minded outcast/true believer who became one of his most important friends and bandmates. As Miami Steve, Van Zandt anchored the E Street Band as they conquered the Rock and Roll world.
And then, in the early '80s, Van Zandt stepped away from E Street to embark on his own odyssey. He refashioned himself as Little Steven, a political songwriter and performer, fell in love with Maureen Santoro who greatly expanded his artistic palette, and visited the world's hot spots as an artist/journalist to not just better understand them, but to help change them. Most famously, he masterminded the recording of "Sun City," an anti-apartheid anthem that sped the demise of South Africa's institutionalized racism and helped get Nelson Mandela out of prison.
By the '90s, Van Zandt had lived at least two lives-one as a mainstream rocker, one as a hardcore activist. It was time for a third. David Chase invited Van Zandt to be a part of his new television show, the Sopranos-as Silvio Dante, he was the unconditionally loyal consiglieri who sat at the right hand of Tony Soprano (a relationship that oddly mirrored his real-life relationship with Bruce Springsteen).
Underlying all of Van Zandt's various incarnations was a devotion to preserving the centrality of the arts, especially the endangered species of Rock. In the twenty-first century, Van Zandt founded a groundbreaking radio show (Little Steven's Underground Garage), created the first two 24/7 branded music channels on SiriusXM (Underground Garage and Outlaw Country), started a fiercely independent record label (Wicked Cool), and developed a curriculum to teach students of all ages through the medium of music history. He also rejoined the E Street Band for what has now been a twenty-year victory lap.
Unrequited Infatuations chronicles the twists and turns of Stevie Van Zandt's always surprising life. It is more than just the testimony of a globe-trotting nomad, more than the story of a groundbreaking activist, more than the odyssey of a spiritual seeker, and more than a master class in rock and roll (not to mention a dozen other crafts). It's the best book of its kind because it's the only book of its kind.
Uncover never-before-told stories in this epic tale of self-discovery by a Rock n Roll disciple and member of the E Street Band.
What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early '60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how Rock and Roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story.
The first true heartbeat of Unrequited Infatuations is the moment when Stevie Van Zandt trades in his devotion to the Baptist religion for an obsession with Rock and Roll. Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones created new ideas of community, creative risk, and principled rebellion. They changed him forever. While still a teenager, he met Bruce Springsteen, a like-minded outcast/true believer who became one of his most important friends and bandmates. As Miami Steve, Van Zandt anchored the E Street Band as they conquered the Rock and Roll world.
And then, in the early '80s, Van Zandt stepped away from E Street to embark on his own odyssey. He refashioned himself as Little Steven, a political songwriter and performer, fell in love with Maureen Santoro who greatly expanded his artistic palette, and visited the world's hot spots as an artist/journalist to not just better understand them, but to help change them. Most famously, he masterminded the recording of "Sun City," an anti-apartheid anthem that sped the demise of South Africa's institutionalized racism and helped get Nelson Mandela out of prison.
By the '90s, Van Zandt had lived at least two lives-one as a mainstream rocker, one as a hardcore activist. It was time for a third. David Chase invited Van Zandt to be a part of his new television show, the Sopranos-as Silvio Dante, he was the unconditionally loyal consiglieri who sat at the right hand of Tony Soprano (a relationship that oddly mirrored his real-life relationship with Bruce Springsteen).
Underlying all of Van Zandt's various incarnations was a devotion to preserving the centrality of the arts, especially the endangered species of Rock. In the twenty-first century, Van Zandt founded a groundbreaking radio show (Little Steven's Underground Garage), created the first two 24/7 branded music channels on SiriusXM (Underground Garage and Outlaw Country), started a fiercely independent record label (Wicked Cool), and developed a curriculum to teach students of all ages through the medium of music history. He also rejoined the E Street Band for what has now been a twenty-year victory lap.
Unrequited Infatuations chronicles the twists and turns of Stevie Van Zandt's always surprising life. It is more than just the testimony of a globe-trotting nomad, more than the story of a groundbreaking activist, more than the odyssey of a spiritual seeker, and more than a master class in rock and roll (not to mention a dozen other crafts). It's the best book of its kind because it's the only book of its kind.
Editorial Reviews
"Unrequited Infatuations is a wonderfully original take on a Rock 'n' Roll autobiography."―Paul McCartney
"In the New Jersey state of mind somewhere between Bruce Springsteen Stadium and The Bon Jovi Arena is a little known street called Little Steven Boulevard with hundreds of endless souvenir shops, gift stores all associated with Little Steven the Consigliere, all top level stuff, the gangster memorabilia, Little Steven wallets and handbags, bandanas and head scarfs, Little Steven glassware and coffee mugs, Little Steven flags, key chains, stickers and patches, pens and guitar picks, cardboard stand-up cut outs of Little Steven, jigsaw puzzles and buttons. You can spend a fortune on the street, listen to every song he ever played on and watch every television show that he's made, visit the underground garage and also enroll in the Little Stevie's underground college. It's all there, a lot of copies of this book as well. And just like one of Stevie's favorite songs, this book keeps you hanging on and checks all the boxes (check out the one on page 153-it's hilarious and there's hundreds of others).
This indeed is a cautionary tale filled with outrageous humor, worldly wisdom, and an uncanny sense of daring. No doubt about it, Stevie proves it time and time again he's the man to know."―Bob Dylan
"An inimitable Rock 'n' Roll life told as boldly as it was lived. From the stages of the biggest stadiums in the world to the politically roiling provinces of South Africa, my good friend pursued his Rock 'n' Roll vision with a commitment few have displayed. A must read for E Street Band fans and Rock fans the world over. In this book Little Steven LETS IT ROCK!"―Bruce Springsteen
"What a wonderful, witty, incisive, moving, authentic, and beautifully written memoir. Stevie Van Zandt's Unrequited Infatuations is a heartfelt and soulful tour though Rock 'n' Roll history, politics, and pop culture from the vantage point of a rare talent and singular American life. I loved every page."―Harlan Coben, bestselling author of Win, The Boy from the Woods, Run Away, and the Myron Bolitar series
"A glorious trip into the mind of a true Rock and roll Renaissance Man. Stevie's autobiography digs beneath the surface of his music, evolving into something extraordinarily rich and complex. It's part Rock 'n' Roll history lesson, part political thriller, part revelatory dive into the brotherhood of a band. And so much more. What's most impressive is Stevie's self-deprecating honesty. He has the courage to write about his failures, alongside tales of his enormous success. The stories are also wildly entertaining, hilarious and emotionally devastating. One of the best Rock 'n' Roll books ever written. It belong...
"In the New Jersey state of mind somewhere between Bruce Springsteen Stadium and The Bon Jovi Arena is a little known street called Little Steven Boulevard with hundreds of endless souvenir shops, gift stores all associated with Little Steven the Consigliere, all top level stuff, the gangster memorabilia, Little Steven wallets and handbags, bandanas and head scarfs, Little Steven glassware and coffee mugs, Little Steven flags, key chains, stickers and patches, pens and guitar picks, cardboard stand-up cut outs of Little Steven, jigsaw puzzles and buttons. You can spend a fortune on the street, listen to every song he ever played on and watch every television show that he's made, visit the underground garage and also enroll in the Little Stevie's underground college. It's all there, a lot of copies of this book as well. And just like one of Stevie's favorite songs, this book keeps you hanging on and checks all the boxes (check out the one on page 153-it's hilarious and there's hundreds of others).
This indeed is a cautionary tale filled with outrageous humor, worldly wisdom, and an uncanny sense of daring. No doubt about it, Stevie proves it time and time again he's the man to know."―Bob Dylan
"An inimitable Rock 'n' Roll life told as boldly as it was lived. From the stages of the biggest stadiums in the world to the politically roiling provinces of South Africa, my good friend pursued his Rock 'n' Roll vision with a commitment few have displayed. A must read for E Street Band fans and Rock fans the world over. In this book Little Steven LETS IT ROCK!"―Bruce Springsteen
"What a wonderful, witty, incisive, moving, authentic, and beautifully written memoir. Stevie Van Zandt's Unrequited Infatuations is a heartfelt and soulful tour though Rock 'n' Roll history, politics, and pop culture from the vantage point of a rare talent and singular American life. I loved every page."―Harlan Coben, bestselling author of Win, The Boy from the Woods, Run Away, and the Myron Bolitar series
"A glorious trip into the mind of a true Rock and roll Renaissance Man. Stevie's autobiography digs beneath the surface of his music, evolving into something extraordinarily rich and complex. It's part Rock 'n' Roll history lesson, part political thriller, part revelatory dive into the brotherhood of a band. And so much more. What's most impressive is Stevie's self-deprecating honesty. He has the courage to write about his failures, alongside tales of his enormous success. The stories are also wildly entertaining, hilarious and emotionally devastating. One of the best Rock 'n' Roll books ever written. It belong...
Readers Top Reviews
Ian MacDonaldNigel P
Steve Van Zandt has a tale to tell, and he tells it well. I only got into him, and Springsteen, and latter day Gary US Bond, through Southside Johnny, a great singer and writer who gets either ignored or insulted in everyone else's accounts of their past....he should write his own version of events.
No1Bruce fan
I loved this book, because it told me things that I didn't know about Steven Van Zant. I have been a fan through the E Street Band and his solo career over the years, but didn't know much else about him. Watched the Sopranos and Lilyhammer which were brilliant. This book takes of Steven's love of music and the arts and should be read by everyone who is interested in music and the arts.
Robert ‘Bob’ Macespe
Yep, that's me with the man, in Dublin some years ago. He was doing a radio thing for his underground garage series. I was passing and he was getting into his hotel. I stopped him, he was very polite. "Thank you for all that music", I said (or something like that). "Thank you", he said smiling. Some other guys spotted him and started to surround us. I said something like "keep on rocking" and motioned to shake hands and leave. He smiled again. It was the smile he's surely done a million times to followers: tired but sincere. My girlfriend called me. We both looked at the camera and she snapped for posterity. It was a small event indeed for someone who's been following Van Zandt, one way or another, for 30 years. And there I am posing and shaking hands with the musician, the actor, the producer, the activist, the rebel, Bruce's sideman.... And now: the writer. So I'm biased with this book. Like so many others, I waited eagerly for it. I think I actually liked it before I read it (it happens). But, how really good is it? It's good; and then disperse, incomplete, chaotic, cocky (a bit), angry, careless with the words. But it is good, essential for all rock lovers - never mind E Street fans. And by "good" I mean it is worthy, a fun ride, a joy to read no doubt. But (this "but" was a long time coming) it could have been a couple of notches better, it should have been excellent, five stars, the definite music tale of one of the most loved rock stars (or as Clarence Clemons called him in his own autobiography: a man impossible not to like). This book should have been five stars. Yet it isn't. Why? Sorry fellow E-Streeters around the world, but this is why I ranked as I did. First, it doesn't settle completely with a style, it tries to be many things at once but it doesn't find the right tone. It changes it too often, to the point that many times we do not know if the author means what he writes or is simply trying to be funny. It does not have a clear style, and it shows. To compare it with just two recent and very well known autobiographies of as many singers. Bob Dylan chose brief fragments of his long and varied career, and reflected on those for pages, creating small chapters magnificently written. Springsteen went for a full an organized tale of his life, complete and lineal but never forensic. His book is very very warm and frank, and also very well written. "Unrequited..." is lineal (of sorts) but, apart from the lack of a main tone I mentioned before, it jumps a bit too much, and without advise, back and forth. It's 1979 here, and 1983 two lines below. Mix this with lack of care for the prose (an extended malady these days) and it becomes somehow chaotic: at the end of some sentences the reader does not know who is "she" or "him" anymore, (starting for a start and an ending in a sort of Napoleonic third person). Then sometimes...
Covers his early years in New Jersey, with Bruce and E Street Band, on his own, the Soprano years and the return to Bruce and the E Street Band!
headbutler
“February 8, 1964, there was not one single rock ‘n’ roll band in the country,” Stevie Van Zandt writes in his memoir. “February 9, the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show. “Goodbye school, grades, any thoughts of college, straight jobs, family unity and American monoculture.” A year later, 15-year-old Stevie Van Zandt met Bruce Springsteen at a Jersey Shore battle of the bands. They both lived for rock ‘n roll. Eventually there was a band. Springsteen made some records. “His first record did like ten thousand, second one did like twenty thousand, and they were just done with him — Bruce wasn’t gonna get a third shot. And somehow, by sheer willpower, that song got done: four or five months recording one song. Turned out to be worth it. They sent it out without the record company even knowing, and a couple of big rock stations picked up the song, the ‘Born to Run’ song.” You may recall the simultaneous cover stories in Time and Newsweek. The sold-out arenas. “The Boss.” And Stevie was the guy in the headband who sang duets with Springsteen. What could go wrong? This: after co-producing “The River,” Van Zandt wanted to be more than a guitarist in the E Street Band. But there was only one Boss. In 1983 Van Zandt quit the band. “Immediately upon working for fifteen years to make it, as soon as we make it, what do I do? I leave, right before the ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ tour. Everybody bought houses off that tour. I’m in Africa with an eleven-piece band that I’m paying for, using my little money to keep a band on the road talking about politics. I learned everything I know from leaving the E Street Band. And of course, one of the things I learned is, I never should have left. I ran out of money every year for the last thirty years.” In his re-invention, “Little Steven” conceived and produced “Sun City,” the first celebrity (Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and Run DMC) protest anthem. “Pulling that off was beyond my celebrity status,” he says. “It was pure will power, which is one thing you can actually control.” The song and its effect launched his solo career, but his four solo albums didn’t chart. Then, a miracle. David Chase invited Van Zandt to be a part of his new television show, “The Sopranos” — as Tony Soprano. Why? He wasn’t an actor. But Chase had seen him induct The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he knew what he saw. HBO said, “No way.” So Chase hired him to play Silvio Dante, Tony’s consiglieri , which was pretty much what he’d been to Springsteen: “It was one of those stupid Hollywood stories that you wouldn’t believe if it didn’t happen to you. It was such a gift to have a whole new craft handed to me.” And then he returned to the E Street Band, scheduling his “Sopranos” shoots around tour dates. When “The Sopranos” ended in 2007, Van Zandt starred and executive produced...
