Boot Tracker, July 3rd 2008, Southside Johnny Live at the Stone Pony

Southside Johnny has remained rock's best kept secret through out his career, operating on a level quite a few fans would have liked to have seen Springsteen operates. This year marked the 30th anniversary of Southside's greatest album, "Hearts of Stone." A birthday that was celebrated in much the same fashion as Springsteen celebrated the 30th anniversary of "Darkness on the Edge of Town" at the Count Basie theater. Though Rollingstone Magazine at one point elected the Miami Steve produced "Hearts of Stone" album as one of the seventies top 100 records, it never brought John Lyon the fame it should have. Together with Little Steven's "Man Without Women" it stands as one of the best blue-eyed Rock 'n Soul albums of all time. As Lyon commented during the show "Forever" winded up on Steve's album but was written for his. "Hearts of Stone" with most of its songs written by van Zandt, is as much vintage Miami as it is classic Southside Johnny. Though "Hearts of Stone" cemented Southside Johnny's reputation amongst hard core Jersey shore fans at the time, the album didn't sell well enough for Epic's tastes. Though I'm not sure how many copies Lyon actually sold of his album, I suspect that Southside Johnny got lost in the shuffle of the changing industry. By the seventies, local markets were no longer something major labels were interested investing in, Disco and mega sales were starting to dominate the scene, any artist failing to go gold was in danger of getting dropped.

Though "Hearts of Stone" has found a re-release on Legacy records, I doubt there will be a luscious 30th anniversary re-packaging from the people who own the masters to this fine album. So the Stone Pony performance with its broadcast on Sirius radio is probably going to be the only tangible mark of this fine album. But judging from this recording, Lyon gave one hell of a party. Though cynics may claim he swiped the idea from Springsteen's birthday batch for the "Darkness" album, this party was something else. Though it would be unfair to compare the shows, but from what I'm hearing Southside gave his audience a decidedly bigger cake. By playing a full show after the album 'recital' it sounds like Lyon wanted to stress that his brand of Rock and Soul has more than survived disinterest from the record labels. The taper of this show, Kathleen was kind enough to give me her impressions of the show;

The show at the Stone Pony was everything a Jukes fan could ask for. The weather cooperated - it was sunny and beautiful. There was an excellent opening act from Bob Burger. He was the perfect intro for the Jukes. He put on a good show. I knew he would break a string the way he was strumming.

Then came the main event and what felt like a marathon (officially 3 hours and 8 minutes according to the website). I knew that it would be special with the 30th anniversary of Hearts of Stone being played, but I didn't expect a beautiful acoustic section afterwards - and then a full concert after that. What a way to start the summer!

I personally was looking forward to the entire Hearts of Stone album being played after seeing the 30th anniversary advertised on the Jukes website. I was planning to go to the show anyway but that made it extra special. I am old enough to remember when that album came out and hearing it live and in person was a real treat. I didn't know if Bobby would be there but I hoped he would. Ralph is a great guitarist in his own right but, when Bobby hooked up to that amp,it made the show. He played like he had something to prove or he was just glad to be back home. His riffs were awesome.

Bobby is buried in the Bon Jovi band - he has an excellent voice but he doesn't sing as well as Jon - and his guitar skills are superb but his style is very different than Richie's. It's a no win situation for him - though I assume he's being paid well. His acoustic guitar work was superb during the acoustic set and his voice and Southside's blend together perfectly. He really shines with the Jukes where he simply can't with Bon Jovi.

Everything that these guys tried wasn't perfect. Ghost in This Town (with Bob Burger) is a George Jones song. About a minute and a half into it they figured out that they had started in the wrong key. John mentioned that they had only played it a few times - and he didn't want to hear any shit about it. It didn't work too well but it was really the only one that had major problems.

I personally loved the acoustic set - I wasn't expecting it and it was a real treat. Bobby's guitar and their two voices made a great interlude between the two main parts of the set. I assumed that the show was ended after the first encore - but no. John came back out and said something to the effect of having a great band when they wanted to come out and play some more - and they even made suggestions of stuff that had been missed. I have seen many Southside Johnny shows over the years - this one was extra special for many reasons and I'm very glad I didn't miss this historic concert.

Thanks to Kathleen's registration of the show we get to be part of the party. Now this recording will obviously not be of the same quality of the Sirius broadcast, but it is highly enjoyable none the less. The tape is extremely pleasant to listen to, especially considering it was taped outside, even though it is a bit rough and raggedy in some places. Kind of like a Southside Johnny show.

"Trapped Again"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 4- out of 5
Show: 5+ out of 5
Artwork: none

The show also saw a performance of Tom Waits' "Gin Soaked Boy" as an appetizer for Lyon's new album of Tom Waits covers. You can find Southside Johnny's new album, "Grapefruit Moon" through the Jukes store. Pick it up, you won't regret it.

Boot Tracker; June 14th 1977, South Side Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, featuring Ronnie Spector

I managed to snatch this little gem from Jungleland before the torrent got banned because it isn't a Springsteen bootleg. Which if you ask me is a crying shame. There are few very good South Side Johnny bootlegs out there and this one is borderline superb. I guess I got lucky. The recording is sound board sourced. Though there are a few sound drops and some occasional slurring in the tape, this recording is a fine taste of how the Jukes sounded in their prime days. Though Springsteen was know to jump on stage from time to time during this period in South Side Johnny's career, not this night. However this tape does capture the Queen of R&R Ronnie Spector in her giddy old ways. A guest performance no doubt courtesy to Miami Steve. Van Zandt was quite prolific in those mid to late seventies. Aside from grinding his ax as Springsteen's the side kick in the pimp suit, he produced Southside Johnny on his first classic albums and managed to get a genuine Ronnie Spector single out. A 45 I have yet to chase down for this blog, but when I do, we'll take a closer look at that one.

Back to the show! I always wondered how Southside Johnny never managed to get more of a career out of his first few albums released on Epic. Southside in my mind is one of the finest blue eyed Soul wailers ever to roam the earth. Those van Zandt produced albums are forgotten classics in my mind. This Time It's for Real and Hearts of Stone are must own items for any serious Springsteen fans. As this tape testifies he gave a mean show as well. Those Asbury Jukes shows were some of the most exiting and raving Rock and Soul shows you could catch in those days and I dare say, they still are even today. This show is a fine mix of classic covers, such as Solomon Burke's "Gotta Get You Off My Mind", and originals from the pens of Springsteen and van Zandt. Maybe the bottle neck is that Southside never became a prolific songwriter himself, he arguably never developed a real distinct voice of his own. Though I don't necessarily agree, I can see how some critics rather pick up the originals by Sam Cooke than a Jukes joint. I think those critics are short changing themselves in a misguided sense of purisms, but I guess you'll find part of the explanation there. But maybe South Side simply hit the scene to late. Ten years earlier Joe Cocker became monstrously successful with much the same concept. Like Cocker, Southside reinterprets those classic Soul sounds. If you ask me, Southside did a better job than Cocker. But by the time Southside started out, R&B infused Rock and Soul had its hey day.

Those who are in the know however, will love this recording. Southside had the Soul theatrics down, he knew how to work a room like the best on the chitlin' circuit. He may never have had any fancy dance moves, but then again never did Sam Cooke. I'm not saying Southside comes anywhere near Sam, but he sure had a mighty wailing voice and a wry sense of humor to make up for being rhythmically challenged. Even Soul classics like Sam & Dave's "You Don't Know Like I Know" never become cheap rip offs when Johnny tears into them. He approaches them with genuine love and respect, but never tries to fully copy them. With the Jukes wailing behind them, he makes them his own like few performers can. Ronnie Spector's appearance is endearing on this show, but listening back to it now, I'm wondering why she never hit it big again. In the case of Southside however, it is a crying shame.

"Got To Get You Off My Mind"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, only burn mp3s for personal use, but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The Quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 4- out of 5
Show: 4,5 out of 5
Artwork: 2 out of 5

Boot Tracker, July 23rd 1982, Asbury Park

Greased back hair, flashy tattoos, Gretsch guitars and Hot Rod Rockabilly rhythms, put them all together and you've got an image of Brian Setzer from the Stray Cats. A runaway greaser punk shooting on the scene during the early eighties. For a while I thought that Setzer's love for early R&R was all he had in common with Springsteen until I found a performance of the two of them together today flying around on BTX. As a bootleg the recording is much, it kind of sounds like a terribly worn down 45 rpm record with pops, clicks and scratches all over the place. But it is a nice testament of a unique Springsteen appearance. Springsteen wasn't touring in '82, but did make quite the number of guest appearances in that year and as it turns out one of them was during a Stray Cats show when they were playing his native Asbury Park. Springsteen joined the band for a three song set, taking the vocals on two. Eddie Cochran's "20 Flight Rock", Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula" and Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" were played with the crowd going wild. Through the static you can tell Springsteen and the Stray Cats are on fire together.



The Stray Cats spearheaded the early eighties Rockabilly revival, a genre that tends to have one every ten to fifteen years or so. Their flashy appearance was tailor made for the early MTV generation and as far as revivals go, this was a more successful one. Springsteen was sympathetic to the revival, he had donated "Fire" to Robert Gordon earlier in '78, but he never jumped on board himself fully. Though you could make an argument that songs like "Johnny 99" or "Open All Night" fitted nicely into the trend. Ultimately Springsteen simply had too much of his own distinct voice to even be really associated with the retro movement. The Stray Cats and the Rockabilly revival had first found popularity in Britain, maybe because the UK had essentially missed out on on the first wave of the genre. But the Stray Cats popularity and original life as a band would prove to be brief. They scored three top ten Billboard hits in '82 and '83, most notably "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" and that was it. The fad was momentarily over and the band had too little of an own voice to transcend it. The band split up over artistic differences in 1984, though they would reunite on various occasions over the next decades.



In the mid nineties Brian Setzer would find success again, spearheading yet another fad mixing Rockabilly and Swing. Setzer took a whopping 17 piece orchestra on the road performing songs of the Rockabilly heroes from the fifties dressed with a Duke Ellington sound. It was some of the most original music Setzer had ever produced and the very capable orchestra together with his uncanny guitar picking would make for some red hot live shows. Commercially the albums with the orchestra didn't do all that much, except in Japan, but Setzer was able to keep the orchestra afloat for a very respectable time by touring extensively with it. There was a flood of bands that jumped on the scene when the fad hit its peak with groovy names like the Cherry Popping Daddies, but none of them were good enough to make any lasting impact. Neither did Setzer, again his inability to write meaningful songs never pulled the band beyond being a nice oddity even though he did earn a Grammy for his interpretation of Duke Ellington's "Caravan" somewhere along the ride.



Setzer has earned quite a few hardcore fans over the years that keep his career afloat up till a certain degree, mostly because he is respected for his puristic approach. He still gives a hell of a show, worth while checking out if you're feeling nostalgia for music that had its hey day when Springsteen was barely old enough to pick up a guitar. I believe the Stray Cats are even doing a farewell tour again.

Download the show in mp3 here

Sound: 2- out of 5
Show: 3+ out of 5
Artwork: none

Boot Tracker, December 1st 2007, Patterson Hood

For a long time Patterson Hood was the front man of the Drive By Truckers. A while back I reviewed their new album on the Soul Shack and came across this recording of Patterson doing his favorite songs from "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" on Southern Shelter. I listened to it a couple of times and still do not quite know what to make of it. I'm a big fan of the Drive By Truckers, their music is a pleasant mix between Crazy Horse era Neil Young and "Nebraska" era Springsteen. All their albums are consistently good and keep getting better. That doesn't necessarily mean a cover project is automatically a success. Patterson performed this set at an AIDS benefit in Athens where bands were asked to perform songs by their musical heroes. Patterson chose songs from "Darkness" claiming in the opening announcement that he was 14 years old when the album came out, "it saved my life so I'll try not to slaughter it" he said.

I'm afraid that Patterson didn't quite succeed at his objective. The recording is nice enough, clear with a lot of depth, no complaints here. But the band Patterson is using here is smaller and nowhere near as tight as the E-Street Band. On top of that Patterson's voice is a lot thinner than Springsteen's. While his voice would probably work very well on Neil Young related material, it disappoints here some what. Especially since Patterson doesn't change the arrangements of the songs, adapts them to his own personal style. Though Patterson's performance is very charming indeed and he puts as much conviction in the songs as he can muster, his nasal voice puts me off every time, especially when Patterson stumbles and mumbles through the words when he forgets the exact words. Charming, nice to hear every now and then, but certainly not something that will ever get heavy rotation in my collection.

Download the show in MP3 here or play them on line through this site.

Sound: 4,5 out of 5
Show: 2,5 out of 5
Artwork: none