Tinker West

The Godfather of the Jersey Shore music scene and Bruce Springsteen’s first manager has left us.  Carl “Tinker” West passed away peacefully on Memorial Day, May 26.  He was 89.

It wouldn’t be stretching things to say that Tinker was the man who started it all.  In the late 1960s, he arrived on the Jersey Shore, having just driven from southern California.  An entrepreneurial surfer, his aim was to shape surfboards for Jersey Shore surfers and make enough money to spend his days riding waves. Tinker also knew and loved rock & roll and had an incredibly high IQ that he put in motion every time he started “tinkering” around with things, mechanical, electrical, and otherwise.  It became very clear to those who met him: he was one of a kind.

Not long after arriving at the Shore he met drummer Vini Lopez, who introduced him to the late ‘60s music scene around Asbury Park. Impressed, Tinker told Lopez that if he ever got involved with a band that played original music, well, he had a surfboard factory where they could rehearse.  He also let on that he knew a thing or two about sound systems and that he could build this band, should it ever come to pass, the best it ever heard.

Lopez said there was this guy Springsteen who wrote really good songs, and they had just begun to form a band. It would be named Child, and then become known as Steel Mill. Tinker met Springsteen, listened intently to what he was writing, and loved it all.  Without missing a beat, he offered to be the band’s manager. 

So, in one decisive action, Steel Mill instantly elevated its status at the Shore: it had a manager, a 24/7 rehearsal space, sleeping quarters for those band members who could stomach the stench of surfboard resin in Tinker’s surfboard factory, and the loudest and cleanest sound system around.

Tinker West got the ball rolling and Springsteen took it from there.  Under Tinker’s guidance Steel Mill easily became the best rock band in New Jersey.  When he felt Steel Mill was ready for a recording contract, Tinker and the band headed to San Francisco where they hoped Bill Graham would offer them a recording contract.  He did, but when Tinker read its contents, he told Graham to forget about it, and they all headed back to Jersey.

When Tinker felt he could do no more for Springsteen, he let him go – but he was always his biggest cheerleader.  When Springsteen hit it big, Tinker never asked for a piece of the action or as much as a ticket to one of his shows.  A class act.

When I began my music journalism career back in the ‘70s, working for the Asbury Park Press, Tinker became my cheerleader, too.  He encouraged me, pushed me, saying it was my duty to tell the story of Springsteen and the Jersey Shore music scene.  I have tried to do that ever since.

I knew Tinker was sick, but I was hoping he’d make it at least to spring of next year when we will open the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music.  Needless to say, his music soul will reside there, as will hours of interviews that I and others conducted with Tinker over the years.  We’ll remember him through his words, love of music, and one of his beautifully shaped surfboards.

Thank you, Tinker West.  God bless.

Bob Santelli, Executive Director
Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music

Photos:
1st Photo: Eileen Chapman, Tinker, Bruce, and Vini Lopez at the announcement of a new home for the BSACAM, Monmouth University, 2023.
2nd Photo: Karin Busichio, Tinker, Linda Bricker, Bob Santelli, and Melissa Ziobro at the opening of the exhibit “Springsteen: His Hometown” at the Monmouth County Historical Association in Freehold, 2019.