So I'm driving down Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park yesterday and as I'm sitting at the red light at Grand Avenue, I look to my right and see this new sculpture in Kennedy Park. It's this huge head and pretty scary looking. I look at the name below and it reads: "Bruce Springsteen, Soulful Humanitarian."

UGH!

The bust has been put up as part of what's called Sculptoure, which is sponsored by the Arts Coalition of Asbury Park (ArtsCAP) and the Shore Institute of Contemporary Arts (SICA).

The five-month long sculpture display will take place in Asbury Park and Long Branch and runs from May 7 until Sept. 11.

According to a story in "The Coaster" an Asbury Park weekly newspaper, the Springsteen sculpture was molded out of cement and done by Princeton trained sculptor Stephen Zorochin.

Stephen, I'm sure you worked hard on this bust, but sorry, it is hideous. Bruce with a red bandana and the nose the size of a ski slope just looks creepy.

Not too mention, it's really, really tacky. Bruce Springsteen would never want something like this put up. Plus, from posts I've read on Springsteen fan websites and Facebook, his fans think it's horrible too.

Billy Smith, the former owner of the Asbury Park Rock and Roll Museum and a long time Springsteen collector and historian who now lives in Florida, was surprised to see the bust last week when he was in Asbury Park

"My wife Ruth and I saw it last weekend and couldn't believe it," Smith said. "Not only is it a poor likeness, it's totally inappropriate. Bruce hates this type of thing, and you'd think the city would show him some respect. Don't they want him to keep hanging out in Asbury?"



More than 10 years ago, there was talk of Bruce's hometown of Freehold putting up a statue of him.

In 1999 sculptor William Dean Kilpatrick proposed to Freehold Mayor Michael Wilson to create a 10-foot-tall statue of Springsteen. The mayor, a friend of Springsteen since childhood, passed the proposal on to the Citizens Advisory Council, which recommended to the Borough Council at an April 28 meeting that the proposal be turned down because of the project's $200,000 estimated cost. There was no vote, and the statue was never made.

Springsteen addressed this in a version of his song "In Freehold" played at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford on Aug. 11, 1999.

He added this verse:

"Well I read something in the papers a few weeks ago that was pretty funny

Seems the town council was debating whether to up a statue of me in my hometown, but it cost too much money

Well I'd like to thank the Town Council my friends

For saving me from humiliation by displaying the good hard common sense

We learned in Freehold."



I just hope that Asbury Park follows Freehold's lead and displays "the good hard common sense" and this sculpture doesn't have a permanent home in Kennedy Park.

The quicker it's removed, the better.