Overlooked Albums #24: Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes - This Time It's For Real

Let’s get the hard truth out of the way: Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes made three critically acclaimed albums in the late 70s that barely raised their profile before returning to the same clubs where they came from. Unfair? Yes, considering the great talent and musicianship involved. That’s the price to pay for going against the grain of synthetic pop. I Don’t Want To Go Home, This Time It’s For Real, and Hearts Of Stone could all rank alongside any classic album of that decade. I’ve chosen to write about This Time It’s For Real because it’s the most ambitious. Dedicated to the writer-producer team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, it takes pains to recreate their production style without resorting to easy nostalgia.

Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes were the houseband of New Jersey’s legendary Stone Pony Club. Since the late 60s, a tight-knit group of musicians had honed their skills in the dives and joints of the Jersey Shore. Through lineup and name changes, they had all played together at some point. Guitarist Steve Van Zandt left the Jukes in July 1975 to join Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band for the Born To Run Tour and a stake in rock ‘n’ roll history. True to his pals, he was instrumental in getting the Jukes signed to Epic. The links of friendship didn’t end there, as both Van Zandt and Springsteen wrote songs for the group’s albums.

As producer and writer, Van Zandt functioned as a de facto Juke. Following the Lieber and Stoller model, the album was a big production that involved vocal rehearsals, brass and string arrangements, a revolving door of special guests, and countless orders of takeout food. When the last pastrami sandwich was finished, Van Zandt had a tight, easy-flowing record that belied the toil and tears.

The ten-man Jukes honor their gangster nicknames, attacking the title song with a blast of guitar and horns that gets the heart pumping and the feet moving. The band is a tight R&B unit, yet track after track, they prove their versatility. In their hands, Without Love doesn’t sound at all like Aretha Franklin’s version, going instead for a full orchestra approach. It features a complex break that moves from piano and guitar solos to a celestial strings-and-brass climax. They could switch to blues on a dime: I Ain’t Got The Fever No More is anchored on Southside Johnny’s well-seasoned voice and harmonica for a perfect change of pace.

Three legendary vocal groups sang backing vocals, a last hurrah before returning to the grind of rock ‘n’ roll revival shows. The buoyant Check Mr. Popeye could pass for a Coasters jokey A-side from way-back-when; First Night is doo-wop in excelsis, thanks to the Five Satins’ silken vocals. The Drifters are not outdone: Mariachi horns and a soaring chorus make Little Girl So Fine another standout track.

That Drifters song is one of three that Springsteen co-wrote for the album. At the time, the release of Darkness On The Edge Of Town was still months away, and Springsteen was paring down the material he’d accumulated through a long legal battle with his former manager that kept him from recording. This material would be released years later on Tracks (1998) and The Promise (2010), which show his attachment to the pop records that shaped his youth. His songs for the Jukes share the same qualities, with their focus on Brill Building songcraft. Love On The Wrong Side Of Town takes a Phil Spector approach, building layers of sound upon a catchy piano motif, its larger-than-life drama needing an opera stage. When You Dance, the last song on the album, is another production feat that starts with jungle sounds and native chants before shifting to a Latin-tinged groove that stays with you after the song fades out.

None of the Jukes albums made a significant mark on the charts, and they were soon dropped by Epic. They could survive on their own outside the Van Zandt-Springsteen shadow, but they couldn’t do any better. Records like Love Is A Sacrifice (1980) and Trash It Up (1983) were crassly commercial. The Jukes have always been at their best when they trust their instincts; albums such as At Least We Got Shoes (1986) and Better Days (1991) keep a better balance of raw power and R&B tradition.

The Jukes are still a killer live band. Their most recent album is Pills And Ammo (2010), and they have some new tracks in the works. Southside Johnny sings both with the Jukes and with The Poor Fools, whose all-acoustic sets have gained him new respect as an interpreter of classic songs.

Both I Don’t Want To Go Home and This Time It’s For Real have been recently reissued in the UK by T-Bird. If you’re looking for musical magic, this is your chance.