Max Weinberg - Success With The E Street Band

Success With The E Street Band

Weinberg was still living at home when he met Bruce Springsteen on April 7, 1974 when his band, The Jim Marino Band, were Springsteen's support at Seton Hall. Springsteen had parted ways with his drummer, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez, earlier that year, and the replacement, Ernest "Boom" Carter, lasted only six months before leaving with pianist David Sancious to form Tone. Weinberg answered a Springsteen Village Voice newspaper ad that famously requested, "no junior Ginger Bakers," in reference to Ginger Baker's reputation for long drum solos. Weinberg auditioned with Springsteen and the core E Street Band in mid-late August of that year at the SIR studios in Midtown Manhattan, bringing a minimalist drum kit with him. He knew one Springsteen song from the Marino band, "Sandy", and played it. His drumming on the Fats Domino song "Let the Four Winds Blow" sealed the position as his. A week later he was offered the $110 per week job and he quit college immediately, about six academic credits short of a degree. Weinberg's first public performance came on September 19, 1974, at The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Weinberg rose to success as the drummer for Springsteen's E Street Band, as his powerful yet controlled beat solved the E Street Band's drumming instabilities. On 1975's Born to Run, Weinberg's drumming evoked two of his idols, Ringo Starr and Levon Helm, and he covered his snare drum with heavy paper towels to capture some of the Memphis soul sound. While travelling on tour, Weinberg became known for his exact requests, such as specifying the particular brand of paper towels to use for his drums or the standards for his hotel rooms. Weinberg never adopted the "rock and roll lifestyle"; he treated his music seriously and kept to the mantra, "Show up, do a good job, and give them more than their money's worth." One compromise Weinberg did have to make was sometimes playing on the High Holy Days. During shows, Springsteen built up the personas of his bandmates, and Weinberg was frequently referred to as "the Mighty Max". Weinberg started a long practice of keeping his eyes on Springsteen every moment during the show, as he never knew when Springsteen would change a tempo or suddenly deviate from the set list. Decades later, E Street guitarist Steve Van Zandt would say of Weinberg, "What nobody understands is that not only is Max a great drummer, Max reads Bruce’s mind. You can’t learn that." Weinberg bought a house overlooking the water in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, triggering a lifelong interest in real estate and home design.

Tempos slowed to an oft dirge-like pace on the 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town; Rehearsals and recording of the album stretched out over a long period, with Springsteen and bandmate and co-producer Steven Van Zandt experiencing a prolonged frustration over their inability to capture a more resonant drum sound. Weinberg soon regretted not playing faster on "Badlands", and tempos did speed up on that number and some others during the accompanying Darkness Tour. The River Tour Springsteen and E Street Band shows that opened New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena in 1981 became one of the top highlights of Weinberg's career.

Weinberg suffered an acknowledged "drumming slump" around 1980, and his time-keeping skills were criticized by Springsteen. What could pass unnoticed in concert became apparent on record, and Weinberg practiced drumming components for months in order to regain a fine sense of timing. Weinberg also suffered from repetitive stress injury and tendinitis, eventually requiring seven operations on his hands and wrists. He studied for a while with noted jazz drummer Joe Morello; Weinberg credited Morello for helping him to learn how to play with the tendinitis. Weinberg's gear included Ludwig and Pearl Drums and Zildjian cymbals; he subsequently switched to DW Drums. His setup was always simple: "I've got four drums. Anything more is redundant. Besides, I tend to trip over things."

In 1981, Weinberg married Rebecca Schick, a Methodist who had grown up in Tinton Falls, New Jersey and whom he had met through a mutual friend. Springsteen and the band played at their wedding, which was officiated by the same rabbi he had growing up. Becky Weinberg worked as a high school history teacher. In 1984 they bought a 5-acre (20,000 m2) farm in Monmouth County; after feeling taken advantage of in the deal, Weinberg became a scrupulous researcher in real estate matters, often spending days at town halls looking over obscure zoning regulations. While on tour he studied books about architecture, and dreamt of building houses in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright or Richard Meier. They had two children, daughter Ali (born c. 1987) and son Jay (born 1990).

He made a full recovery from his injuries in time for 1984's Born in the U.S.A., which featured an aerobics-timed beat on some tracks that also owed something to the popular Phil Collins drum sound. Weinberg's own experimentation since the Darkness days had also led to a more reverberant sound. Overall, Weinberg's more fluid drumming combined with Roy Bittan's use of synthesizers and better overall production to give Springsteen a more modern sound, resulting in the album becoming Springsteen's best-selling one ever and spawning a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles. Springsteen later said of the album, "Max was the best thing on the record." Weinberg's most well-known drum part came on "Born in the U.S.A.", where his snare drum paired against Bittan's signature synthesizer riff on the opening and throughout the main part of the song. The recording then descends into improvised chaos; Springsteen had told Weinberg, "When I stop, keep the drums going." Upon the restart, intentional drum breakdowns matched bass swoops and guitar feedback; Springsteen subsequently said of the performance overall, "You can hear Max – to me, he was right up there with the best of them on that song." Weinberg said it was one of his most intense musical experiences.

On the subsequent Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen generally interspersed hard-rocking song sequences after every three or four numbers in order to give Weinberg's hands a chance to recover. Weinberg's wife Becky unintentionally triggered one of the tour's most celebrated episodes. She was a fan of the This Week with David Brinkley television program and invited panelist George Will to the Washington-area Capital Centre show. After seeing the band perform, Will became convinced that they were exemplars of hard-working patriotism and traditional American values; he wrote, "... consider Max Weinberg's bandaged fingers. The rigors of drumming have led to five tendonitis operations. He soaks his hands in hot water before a concert, in ice afterward, and sleeps with tight gloves on." Will further decided that Springsteen might endorse Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential campaign and talked to the campaign, which later led to Reagan's famous extolling of Springsteen at a stop in Hammonton, New Jersey and Springsteen's subsequent negative response.

For his efforts, Weinberg was named Best Drummer in the Playboy 1985 Pop and Jazz Music Poll and Best Drummer again in Rolling Stone's 1986 Critics Poll. The adulation got to him a bit as he aligned with the Mighty Max persona and went to fashionable parties.

Weinberg had a reduced role on Springsteen's 1987 Tunnel of Love album, replacing Springsteen's drum machine parts on a few tracks, but the full band was in place for the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express and Human Rights Now! tours. Weinberg called the latter tour's visiting of many third-world spots around the globe one of the most rewarding things the band had done.

In 1984, Weinberg published The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Greatest Drummers, a series of interviews conducted over two years with drummers from various eras, including Starr, Helm, D. J. Fontana, Charlie Watts, Dino Danelli, Hal Blaine, and others. The book captured drummers revealing more about their musical approaches than they normally did to the press and was thus considered an important addition to the rock literature. In 1986, Weinberg began taking a one-man show "Growing Up On E Street" to college campuses around the country. It contained some short films that Weinberg produced as well as a question-and-answer session.

Weinberg also played as a session musician, enjoying particular success in connection with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman. He drummed on the very popular 1977 Meat Loaf album, Bat out of Hell, playing on the Steinman-penned tracks "Bat out of Hell", "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth", and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". At a point in 1983, Weinberg was featured on the number one and number two songs on the Billboard Hot 100, Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", both Steinman creations. Weinberg also recorded with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Gary U.S. Bonds, Ian Hunter, and Carole King.

On October 18, 1989, Springsteen unexpectedly called Weinberg to say he was dissolving the E Street Band. As Weinberg later said, "That's why they call him the Boss."