Last week, after publishing the E Street Shuffle Revival site and it’s accompanying blog post, I reached out to Ken Rosen. We were in contact back in December/January when I was first starting work on the archive, and I wanted to let him know it was finally done. His response was incredibly enthusiastic. So much so, that he wanted to let people know about it. Below is the email that was sent out today (June 7), which I received permission from Ken to reproduce here for those not on his Bookshelf Collection update subscriber list.
Ken, thanks again.
Greetings–and my apologies for the out-of-cycle announcement.
I’ll be back in a week with our regular edition newsletter (but don’t forget to place your orders for this month’s books by midnight tonight!), but I wanted to share some non-book-related news I believe you might want to know:
Thanks to the dedication, diligence, ingenuity, and commitment of one of my long-time readers, a full and intact version of the E Street Shuffle Blog has been restored, improved, and is now available here.
Brian (who also goes by the handle Lilbud) is a talented developer and Bruce fan, and his recreation of my blog is only the latest in a string of Springsteen-related preservation projects I highly encourage you to check out here.
You may remember that in my very last Kingdom of Days entry, I introduced Brian, who at that point was exploring an ebook solution for the site. What he came up with is much better, IMO.
Along with every essay I ever wrote for the blog (minus a few housekeeping ones no one would ever want to read again), I was delighted to discover some significant improvements to Brian’s version of the blog:
- It’s fast! Oh my goodness, is it fast. During the entire original run of the blog, load performances was never particularly snappy, but this version loads like lightning.
- The navigation has been improved–it’s much easier to move around the site and find what you’re looking for.
- The Original Songs page in particular is much more useful–Brian has included all the outtakes with the album they are associated with.
- The essays are more readable–quotes and lyrics are now offset in a way that I think makes the reading experience more pleasant.
There are other improvements as well–if you’re interested in how he accomplished it all (espcially in the midst of me taking a wrecking ball to the original version!), I found his write-up about the project fascinating.
There’s one other piece of news I’ll add to Brian’s: Since the new site will be around for the foreseeable future (or as Brian puts it, “so long as Github keeps Pages free”), I’ve committed to providing him with all of the new essays I write for the Bookshelf Collection volumes. You’ll see them there roughly around the same time as the books go to print.
(Note that you may have to go to the Original Songs page to find them, or else keep an eye on the site’s change log where Brian details all the new additions and other improvements)
Lastly a couple of points I want to make sure I leave you with for now:
- While the writing may be mine, this new version of the site belongs to Brian. He has my full blessing to do with it as he will (so long as my original essays aren’t altered without clear annotation), and how long it remains available is up to him. Please send all questions about the blog his way rather than mine.
- I remain committed to the Bookshelf Collection project and intend to see it through to its completion (which looks at this point to be March of 2028 (or sooner depending on whether I occasionally dobule-up on monthly RotD volumes once KoD and Cover Me are complete)). I totally understand if you choose to buy the books more selectively now, or not at all. However, if for some reason the new version of the blog disappears at some point, I won’t be going back and re-offering the books. This is a one-time only project, with my original version of the content disappearing after each book is completed.
- Although I had promised to keep the Kingdom of Days posts arounod on the blog for the foreseeable future, now that Brian’s version is available, I will be removing those posts from the OG blog as well. (It helps me feel a sense of progress if I see the site’s content winnowing down as I publish the books.)
That’s it for now. Brian, once again: thank you. I am humbled by and appreciative of your talents and dedication to preserving not just my blog but all the other historical and community resources we Springsteen fans have enjoyed over the years.
I’ll be back next weekend with three new book announcements for July.
Ken