One of Bruce Springsteen’s long time Asbury Park buddies is Southside Johnny. I know, weird first name, and for that matter, a weird second name too. Johnny's real name is John Lyon, not to be confused with John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten. He acquired the Southside nickname due to his love of the blues and R&B music that came out of Chicago's South Side. In some circles, Johnny is considered the godfather of the New Jersey sound, and Jon Bon Jovi has cited Southside as the reason he became a singer.
Bruce wrote the following for the liner notes to Johnny's 1976 debut album 'I Don't Want To Go Home'. "Southside Johnny... One of the weirdest guys I ever saw. He used to dress just like my old man. He was definitely comin' in from the outside. First time I saw him he was playin' bass behind one of the early legends in Asbury, a guy named Sonny Kenn. Johnny was terrible. This was a person that could not play bass. But he could sing and play harp and he knew a lot about the blues. Once I talked to him, I realized he wasn't as weird as he looked... he was weirder, and his general conversation consisted of insulting everyone within 50 feet. But he was the only white kid on the Jersey shore that you could stand to hear sing straight R&B five sets a night."
In August of ’78, Bruce and Southside happened to both be touring and playing the same night in Cleveland. Southside, who may have a weird name but is no idiot, delayed the start time of his much smaller gig in a much smaller venue (The Agora Ballroom) so that anyone who wanted to witness both gigs, or even perform in both, would have a chance to do so. Bruce, Clarence and Steve were all on stage for this song, called “The Fever”, a song Bruce had written in 1971, but had never officially released. He gave it to Southside to include on his first album, and Johnny basically built a career on this Bruce throwaway. No idiot that Southside Johnny.
Here’s a bonus track from that same night, a Steve Van Zandt composition and the title track from Johnny's first album “I Don’t Want to go Home”. Steve’s writing and arranging were critical to Southside’s success on his first three albums, and was a key factor in creating that Stax influenced New Jersey R&B sound. Note the horn section, which was referred to as the “Miami Horns” after Miami Steve Van Zandt, before he morphed into Little Steven. That horn section, led by Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg on trombone, is an early version of the same horn section you see in the Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band, on NBC's Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
If you want to get into Southside Johnny, check out his “Hearts of Stone” album, which Rolling Stone named one of their top albums of 1978, and also one of the Top 100 Albums of the 70s and 80s. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were probably one of the best bar bands you could ever see. They had that same commitment to their music and work ethic as their buddy Bruce, and seeing them in their prime was always a party.
Feel free to watch 'The Fever' over and over. It's that good. Happy Friday!
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