Read the Asbury Park Press’s feature article on Glen Burtnik’s Summer of Love tour, which comes to MPAC August 15th, 2019!
Asbury Park Press: “Woodstock 50th anniversary: Glen Burtnik’s Summer of Love celebrates era with shows, album”
By Chris Jordan
The music mattered in the 1960s.
“There really was an explosion and revolution that happened,” said Glen Burtnik, who has just released “Love Live,” a live document of his hit Glen Burtnik’s Summer of Love concerts. “There was this youth culture, baby boomers coming into their own with the Beatles showing the way. They were the pied pipers with ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ and there was a whole new generation that not only wanted to experiment with pot and LSD, but also didn’t want to fight a war in Vietnam. It was a highly motivated moment in every way, artistically, musically politically, and the music reflected this.”
It was the soundtrack for a social upheaval.
“It was like a recruitment, a calling to arms for the peace and love generation, which was very shocking to the Word War II generation that their sons and daughters were talking about tuning in, turning on and dropping out,” said Burtnik, whose first public performance was as a pre-teen at a “be-in” at Johnson Park in Piscataway in 1966. “This music was really the church of that generation and it won’t go away. This music still means something.”
A trip to the movies will tell you that. “Yesterday” features the music of the Beatles and “Echo in the Canyon” highlights the music of the late-’60s Lauren Canyon scene. Burtnik and musician-turned promoter Tony Pallagrosi teamed up for the Summer of Love concept nine years ago as a benefit for a local theater.
The concept spans the musical era spanning the release of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967 to Woodstock, which took place Aug. 15 to 18, 1969.
“I just think that classic rock is not going away,” Burtnik said. “There obviously is a huge audience and when you’re a musician, you go to where the audience goes. At least what I’m exposed to, young musicians are very much looking back, for better or for worst. I think it’s great in a way but I also think I was born at the right time.”
Burtnik, a North Brunswick native, began his career as a member of Beatlemania, scored a few hits as solo artist in the ’80s, wrote “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” for Don Henley and Patty Smyth, was a member of Styx for 10 years and now he’s a member of the ELO off-shoot the Orchestra, the Weeklings and Max Weinberg’s Jukebox.
Pallagrosi was a member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes who had performed with Bruce Springsteen and the Street Band before he became a Jersey Shore-based concert promoter and nightclub owner.
The two met when both were members of LaBamba and the Hubcaps in the ’80s.
Summer of Love members are the crème de la crème of the current Asbury Park scene, including Reagan Richards of William’s Honor; Freedom Bremmer; Remember Jones; and Jaquita May of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul.
“I constantly hear people say Asbury Park is the new Nashville, or Asbury Park is the new Memphis, and what they miss is that Nashville and Memphis have had tens of thousands made in those cities, but we’re just getting to the point were people are making their records in the city,” Pallagrosi said. “But what Asbury Park always was is a live music capital.”
That comes through at the show, and on the record.
“I wanted to capture how it felt to hear it from the audience, and I think I did that,” said Pallagrosi, the producer of “Love Live.”
You can practically “feel” the concert’s Marc Rubinstein’s Pig Light Show on the record, but you’ll definitely be able to see it at the upcoming Summer of Love Woodstock edition Jersey shows on Thursday, Aug. 15, at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and Aug. 24 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
Classics and nuggets from the Beatles; Creedence Clearwater Revival; Janis Joplin; the Doors; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Jefferson Airplane; the Turtles; the Mamas and the Papas; Lulu; Procol Harum; Joe Cocker; Melanie; Ike & Tina Turner; Otis Redding; and Sly and the Family Stone will be performed.
“It’s not as much an imitation as it is trying to celebrate it and do it justice,” Burtnik said.
Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. His multiple awards include recognition for stories on both Bruce Springsteen and Snooki. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com. Stay with app.com or consider a subscription today.
Glen Burtnik’s Summer of Love Woodstock Edition
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15
Where: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown
Tickets: $29 to $59
Info: www.mayoarts.org
Also: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, Sound Waves at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, Atlantic City. $20 to $30. www.hardrockhotels.com/atlantic-city.
Visit summerofloveconcert.com for more information.
