Knockin’ On Sinatra Park

Hundreds of guitarists (and other assorted music types) descend on the banks of the Hudson River to jam to Bob Dylan songs.


Some say (including myself lately I’m afraid) that live music in Hoboken is dead. The final nail in its coffin was slammed into place upon the closing of Maxwell’s. Thankfully there are those in town that are fighting this assumption and — on a night like July 25, 2013 — could very well be winning that fight.

I had no idea what to expect that night, I just knew I had to be there. This would be the first time for me playing guitar in public in over 6 1/2 years & it would be a selection of Dylan songs. Those who know me know how unlikely this situation was.

But I had to be there.

The idea presented by James Mastro of Hoboken’s Guitar Bar was that we’d be trying to break the world’s record for the most guitars playing one song at the same time, in the same place. Of course as the night drew near, I started to suspect that this would be an impossible task. After all, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the current record stands at 1,857 folks in Texas on August 23, 2009.

Then there is the claim that, in April of 2011, 5,600 guitarists assembled in Wroclaw town square in Poland to play ‘Hey Joe’ by Jimi Hendrix. Well, it depends on where you read about it. I’ve seen numbers as high as 7,200. This hasn’t been validated by Guinness. At least not that I could find. So let’s stick with 1,857.

As my doubts about the number of folks that would show up burned in my brain, so did all those echoing emotions since the news of the closing of Maxwell’s. I had been in an extremely low funk for weeks. I really began to believe that the end of anything that remotely resembled a musical culture in this town would soon be gone for good.

As I rode my bike into Sinatra Park, my mind was happily blown.

Hundreds of guitarists tuned up and gathered around, waiting to jam out. No exaggeration here. Hundreds of guitarists. With me proud to be one of them. My heart and soul filled with actual, palpable glee. I do wish three things had happened differently. I wish I would have remembered my guitar strap. I wish I would have taken my gig bag off my back (you can’t miss me in the video below). I wish we played something other than Bob Dylan (but this is not the place for my usual anti-Bob rant).

OK, yes we missed the record by about 1,500 people but it was amazing. And, for those who say that music in Hoboken is dead, here’s proof that they are wrong. For those who say there are no musicians left in Hoboken … well, just watch the video.

That was fun to say the least. It helped to reaffirm my love of music and indeed my love of this town, no matter how tough that love has been to hang on to over the last decade or so. I remember a line I wrote back in November 2000, calling an event “A long needed shot in the arm of an ailing music scene.”

So yes, we’ve been fighting this for a very long time now. I admit to getting a little tired of the fight, but if nights like this keep creeping around the corners of my life, I will be a happy, happy Hobokenite. I can’t wait until the next time.

See Also:
Guitar Bar


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