'NYC SONG' BY EDDIE & THE CRUISERS, GREAT MEMORIES

Today, The Grandma has been watching an 80's classic film, Eddie and the Cruisers, whose soundtrack is a genuine masterpiece with great songs about New York City, the city that she visited with The Grangers and can't forget.

Eddie and the Cruisers is a 1983 American musical drama film directed by Martin Davidson with the screenplay written by the director and Arlene Davidson, based on the novel by P. F. Kluge. The sequel Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! followed in 1989.

A television reporter named Maggie Foley investigates the mysterious disappearance of cult rock star Eddie Wilson. 

Flashbacks dramatize Eddie's life and the rise and fall of his rock and roll band, Eddie and the Cruisers. The band gets its start at a club in Somers Point, New Jersey named Tony Mart's. Not adept at writing lyrics, Eddie hires Frank Ridgeway aka Wordman to be the band's keyboard player and lyricist, over the protests of band manager Doc Robbins and bassist Sal Amato.

Rounding out the Cruisers are saxophonist Wendell Newton, background singer and Eddie's girlfriend Joann Carlino, and drummer Kenny Hopkins.

The band's first album, Tender Years, becomes a major hit, but recording their next album, A Season in Hell, turns out to be a nightmare. Inspired by the bleak, fatalistic poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Eddie wants something far more ambitious than their previous pop songs and he pushes his bandmates beyond their limits, musically and personally.

Eddie wants to be great, but bassist Sal replies, We ain't great. We're just some guys from Jersey. Eddie makes it clear that if the band cannot be great, there is no reason to ever play music again.

A Season in Hell is rejected by Satin Records on the grounds that it is dark and strange. In the early morning hours, Eddie's car crashes through the railing and over the Stainton Memorial Causeway. Eddie vanishes without a trace, his body never found.

Vance asked Davidson to describe his fictitious band and their music. Initially, Davidson said that the Cruisers sounded like Dion and the Belmonts, but when they meet Frank, they have elements of Jim Morrison and The Doors.

However, Davidson did not want to lose sight of the fact that the Cruisers were essentially a Jersey bar band, and he thought of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The filmmaker told Vance to find him someone that could produce music that contained elements of these three bands.

Davidson was getting close to rehearsals when Vance called him and said that he had found the band -John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band from Providence, Rhode Island.

Hey little girl take me by the hand
Walk with me down this boardwalk
Once last time again
I want to see those pretty pier lights
I want to hear those carnival sounds
I want to stop right at the top again
When the ferris wheel goes round
Well you say that I've been restless
And you don't understand
Tomorrow I'll be leavin' on that
Morning train
I gotta leave this candy apple town behind
I gotta get out while I still can
I'm going to New York City
With this guitar in my hand
I've been wishin on these stars too long
I've been playin in these bars too long
I've been hold up in your arms too long
I've been a prisoner of my heart too long
I'm goin' to New York City
Gotta find out where I stand
And I'll be walking down broadway
With this guitar in my hand
Well I sing for the tourists
Bout a dream life on the water
but when the dream it gets broken
this life gets harder and harder
I gotta leave this candy apple town behind
I gotta get out while I still can
I'm going to New York City
With this guitar in my hand
I've been wishin on these stars too long
I've been playin in these bars too long
I've been hold up in your arms too long
I've been a prisoner of my heart too long
I'm goin to New York City
Gotta find out where I stand
And I'll be walking down Broadway
With this guitar in my hand

 More information: Roger Ebert

 If you can't be great,
then there's no sense in ever playing music again.

Eddie Wilson