Tune Tag #43 with Colin Cerniglia of CERNIG: Yes, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Eagles, Chi Coltrane, David Bowie, Kinks
Some AM, some FM, some AC, some DC! Leaning more toward the hitmakers, Tune Tag newcomer, Colin, lays down some tasty tunes and goes yard in the 9th!
(*whiff*) I mean, Tag! You’re IT, Colin!
Tune Tag welcomes of , on Substack for 3 years!
“Hey there, I’m Colin Cerniglia, and I’m diving headfirst into the world of writing after a successful stint in another career. My love for writing started in high school when I found my groove writing sports columns for Sportscolumn.com, and later became the sports editor for my high school paper.
“My passion for writing landed me the gold award at Syracuse University’s Newhouse for a sports feature I penned in 2007.
“But, life took me down a different path during college and beyond, until 2018 when I rediscovered my love for writing. Since then, I’ve been on a roll. In 2020, I hit the Amazon Bestseller list with Culture of Excellence (above), a book I self-published (about the Yankees and leadership) and poured my heart into. The following year, I launched a Substack newsletter to delve even deeper into the craft.
“In September 2023, after a decade in talent acquisition and recruiting, I decided to switch gears entirely: I began freelancing for The Charlotte (N. Carolina) Observer in November of 2023, marking a significant shift in my career trajectory. More recently, in January 2024, I began crafting a rock’n’roll novel that I hope will resonate with readers!” Colin even sent along a baseball shot of himself!
“My favorite MLB team is the Yankees - sorry, Brad! You’ve had our number for years, but it’s been rough going for your ‘Stros so far this year!”
From one career to the next, I’m proving it’s never too late to pursue your passion.
Last week, joined us to Tune Tag:
Next week, we’ll be visited by
of Daily Music Picks!
Colin’s song #1 sent to Brad: Bruce Springsteen, “Thunder Road,” 1975
Colin’s rationale: I don't remember exactly when “Thunder Road” became my all-time fave, but given I’m in my mid-30s, it’s been quite some time. Ballads later became my favorite type of song, inspiring me to write about it and create a playlist of some of my favorites!
Springsteen is my favorite artist. Including his most recent show in Syracuse, I’ve seen him twelve times. Some Spring-Nuts have seen well over a hundred shows, but given I didn’t get to my first concert until the Magic Tour in 2007, I think it’s pretty impressive! I’ve been lucky to hear him sing the song at all twelve shows, too! A few times it was his encore closer!
The song became the “closer” for my wedding in 2017 - my wife and I picked the live version from the first concert we went to together: Albany 2014 (encore closer, too!).
I love the song so much that I got my favorite lyric from the song, “throw roses in rain,” tattooed onto my left arm around 2011 or ‘12. The sheet music is the piano notes to that part of the song, and you can see the roses below with raindrops on them:
It’s just a brilliant song and I could go on for hours talking about it. I never turn it off when it comes on; I’ve probably listened to it thousands of times!
Brad: Colin, add one more to your list: The show I attended at Houston’s Summit in 1978, with the “Thunder Road” I experienced with several thousand others (I was 23):
Three years before, I was part of the DJ crew who was pretty heavily responsible for breaking Springsteen in Houston with his first two albums (he played Liberty Hall downtown a few times, too, as I recall. Houston was an early Bruce hotbed).
We, at KLOL-FM 101, were gifted “bootlegged” tapes of previously unreleased Bruce material, generously supplied to us by Bruce’s manager/producer, Mike Appel (completely against Columbia’s wishes or desires…I’m pretty sure Bruce was incensed, as well, but, pre-’75 Born to Run, he had little clout)! We’d put them on 4-track “carts” and play them when no one else in town (and possibly Texas) had them!
They’ve since been released on reissues, compilations and box sets: “The Fever” and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.”
Brad’s song #1 sent to Colin: Chi Coltrane, “Thunder and Lightning,” 1972
Colin’s response: My takeaways after seeing Brad’s first song choice, “Thunder and Lightning” by Chi Coltrane—Similarities: There is the word “Thunder” in the song title. Written in the 1970s. Has a great sax! Same record label.
Differences: Little funkier...more bluesy. Seems to have given the artist more early commercial success than Springsteen (Bruce’s first album, in ‘73, versus his third, Born to Run).
Replying back, I tried really hard to make the connection with CBS/Columbia (same label as Springsteen and Coltrane) to either John Mellencamp or Frank Sinatra, but neither was on the labels when they came out with music I enjoyed, so I felt it wasn’t authentic enough of a link.
Brad’s rationale: Yep, thunder! As for Sinatra, he was on Columbia through most of the ‘40s. His vinyl ‘50s was spent, largely, at Capitol, and in 1960, he founded Reprise Records, for whom he recorded (as did fellow Rat Pack-ers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.), and has become a major Warner Bros. affiliate for many decades. Curiously, Mellencamp had a brief 3-album stint with CBS around the turn of the century.
I appreciate Colin’s awareness and mentioning record labels! That’s my natural reference point for virtually all artists. Yes, Chi and Bruce were both signed in 1972 to CBS on Clive Davis’s Columbia Records watch.
Springsteen’s signing was a tad “sexier,” in that the legendary John Hammond (producer, and Clive’s artistic “right-hand man”) brought Bruce to Clive’s attention. Hammond had discovered the young Bob Dylan a decade earlier and gotten him signed to Columbia (for virtually his entire 60+ year career, save for the 1974 Planet Waves album on David Geffen’s and Elliot Roberts’ Asylum Records).
Colin’s song #2: AC/DC, “Thunderstruck,” 1990
Brad’s response: BOOM!💣More thunder in the Tune Tag Thunderdome!
Colin’s rationale: I ended up going with the easy route, “Thunderstruck,” which is really a fun drinking song! [Brad butts in: Is there any other kind of drinking song? Oh, yeah…..Cue Tom Waits!] Back to Colin: And I loved getting pumped to AC/DC during my athletic, playing-day games!
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