New book celebrates Springsteen's band

PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- New Jersey native Robert Santelli said he hopes his new book on Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band will end years of neglect.

"Virtually all the other books about Springsteen focus on Springsteen, and the E Street Band is almost an after-thought," says "Greetings From E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band" said Santelli, who is the artistic director of the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

"But it's a very important part of who he was and what his music was. Right from the beginning, Springsteen consciously tried to create a sense of family with the band, an all-for-one, one-for-all mentality."

Santelli, who's written about the New Jersey rock scene since the early '70s, was also the ghost writer of Springsteen's lyric book "Songs." He interviewed E Street Band members extensively for the book, whose interactive design includes memorabilia such as posters, replicated backstage passes and even a napkin from the Stone Pony bar, one of the group's early haunts.