Student Prince, now Porta, in Asbury Park is where Springsteen met Clarence Clemons
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No matter what the building’s called, 911 Kingsley St. in Asbury Park will always occupy a couple of special places in Bruce Springsteen history.
It was as the Student Prince that in 1971 the building was the site of rock ’n’ roll history: the first meeting of Springsteen and saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Bruce and his band were in the process of building an audience for their original material one show at a time, while Clemons was playing with Normal Seldin and the Joyful Noyze.
“As I walked in there I saw the vision of what would happen with us,” Clemons told the Asbury Park Press in 2001. “I knew I had to follow this dream."
Clemons had soon quit The Joyful Noyze, over Seldin’s objections.
"Norman thought I was crazy," Clemons said. "He said, `Nobody is going to be into that (a local band playing originals).' If you wanted to make money you were in a cover band. But I knew what I was doing. I left to be with Bruce, and the rest is history."
After touring behind a pair of now-classic, but initially unsuccessful, 1973 LPs, “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” and “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle,” Springsteen, Clemons and company returned to the Student Prince in December 1973 for a three-show run, hoping to earn some Christmas money.
"The Prince was always fun for us," drummer Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, who first played the Student Prince in 1967, told the Asbury Park Press in 2017. "When we got off the road, and had a few days, we would play at the Prince."
By 1984, the Student Prince had transformed into Xanadu, a dance club selected by Springsteen as the testing ground for “Dancing in the Dark,” the soon-to-be-hit from his “Born in the U.S.A.” LP – and the crowd in attendance reportedly loved what they heard.
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The building at 911 Kingsley has gone through more transformations since then, including a stint as the LGBTQ-friendly go-go bar Swell.
These days it’s found a devoted following as Porta, an artisanal pizzeria and bar that occasionally hosts live music and doubles as a nightclub.
Go: Porta (site of the former Student Prince), 911 Kingsley St., Asbury Park; 732-776-7661, pizzaporta.com/asbury-park.
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This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Porta, then Student Prince, site of where Springsteen, Clarence met
