Customer Reviews

Best of SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY AND THE ASBURY JUKES

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As just about everyone knows by now, Southside Johnny Lyon & Bruce Springsteen are both products of the Jersey shore & started bands about the same time. Both have been in-house bands at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. Unfortunately, despite his soulful voice & talented backup band, Southside never made it as big as Bruce. Despite this, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes have made some great albums & their best of hits are all here. To really appreciate these guys, though, you have to see them perform LIVE. Highly recommended for fans of great rock & roll.

When the history of New Jersey bar-band rock is written, and Springsteen is anointed the all-conqueror and Little Steven the restless nomad, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes will go down as the secret weapon of the Jersey Shore: an R&B-infected band with killer chops, great songwriting (everything from Solomon Burke covers to gorgeous unknown Miami Steve/Little Steven tunes) and the inimitable vocal prowess of Southside himself, who also blows a mean harp when he's so inclined.

This is the definitive collection of never-were-but-shoulda-been hits by SJ&TAJ -- great rockers, sad ballads, Wall-of-Idiots horn riffs ("La Bamba! La Bamba!") and general brilliance.

Buy it. You'll thank me later.

This is a great collection of songs that help capture the essence of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. We recently saw them perform at Walt Disney World, in Epcot, and since the shows were relatively short (about 40 minutes) we stayed for all three and had a great time. My wife asked me why Southside wasn't a bigger act in the 70's and 80's and truthfully, I don't know why not. Maybe living in the shadow of Bruce? Not sure, but damn, the band is tight, and they can still rock the house. So, I recommend this collection of songs.

Surprised no one has yet mentioned that this is the best _of the first three albums_, not including new material from after Stevie left the band. The first 3 albums were the best, so this gives us a lot. Still, it would be unforgivable except that Rhino has released The Best Of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes (1979-1981).

The two CDs _combined_ give you everything.

Would I be showing my "age" or would I be a prophet... if I got you to experience SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY AND THE JUKES???
I had to great pleasure to catch them in the mid 1980's in San Francisco at the Warfield Theater. This is possibly the best live band... bar band... complete band I've ever heard!!!
I'm not putting anyone down, but these guys have a sound that is refined, complex... and professionally KICKS GENUINE ASS!!! They worked the crowd, they worked the hall, and they sounded dammed good!!!
Much has been lost since then. Musical styles have changed... and not for the better. Music has gotten...
"lost" at least in my opinion. What is coming out now is far from the dynamic songs that were so evident in the Jersey sound.
This CD is a collection of just "some" of the best stuff... many of the real wall busters have been omitted. Having said that, this CD and the other ones you might find are well worth buying and listening to... often. There is a genuine freshness to this music that needs to be always around the top of your CD player.
Southside is still putting out music, but, sadly, all of us on the West Coast don't get to see him much. I miss the man... I miss La Bamba... I miss that horn section... and I miss that great voice that Lyon had.
Well, at least we have the CD's.

Jim SMith
TRAVEN8@HOTMAIL.COM

No one rocks like Southside, and if you were stranded on a desert island these songs might just be all you would need.
I go back to this album again and again, and always wonder why I stayed away so long. Sure, Johnny is best ingested live, but if you listen to "You Mean So Much to Me" (with Ronnie Spector) and close your eyes, it's nearly as good.
Johnny's version of "Hearts of Stone" is the most soulful recorded ballad I have ever heard. When I'm in the right mood I can hit replay on my car tape player at least 15 times in a row. I keep repeating it because I still can't believe a tune can be so moving.
Did I mention I really like the album?
Thanks Johnny.

I was a doubter for many years, but lets face it, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes have continued to be one of the premier R&B shows for 25 years. This album showcases what they do best, cover great oldies and bring life to songs of Bruce Springsteen that never would have seen the light of day otherwise. All I can say is SEE THEM! Then you can enjoy this album for what it is, a collection of some of the best R&B since the end of the 60s. Enjoy!

If you love Springsteen, or music, buy this CD. As with Bruce and the E Street Band, you get the feeling as the hits roll out of this CD that Southside and the Jukes were born to do this, and that it is the greatest travesty in Rock 'n' Roll that they never became bigger and will soon be forgotten forever amid what passes as music nowadays.
Recently I was fortunate enough to come across a copy of a concert quite recently in Asbury Park at which Bruce and the E Streeters, Southside and a selection of other Asbury musicians got together and jammed. As Bruce calls out Johnny and Little Steven and the band kicks 'This Time it's for Real' into life, it is one of those moments in music that I hope stays with me forever. A throwback to the bygone era when the sound of the Jersey shore ruled the world, an era that can never be revisited...
Southside and the Jukes were always at their best live, this is where they learnt and became masters of their trade.
This CD has everything. There is rock 'n' Roll, soul, blues, R&b, Jazz, and I can hear influences from greats such as Hendrix, Dylan and of course the Boss as he was post 'The Wild The innocent' and pre 'Born to Run'. Stand out tracks include 'I don't want to go Home', 'This Time it's for Real', 'Without Love' and the legendary 'Hearts of Stone'. On the Jersey shore, these three words mean as much as 'Born to Run'. Springsteen wrote it, but Southside Johnny is the only man that has the voice to sing that song. "This is the last dance, the last chance, for hearts of stone" is one of those lines that sends a shiver down your spine, for you know exactly what Johnny means.
From a bunch of guys from the bars of late-night New Jersey, this CD will improve any collection and will stay with you forever.
I have the original vinyl 'I don't want to go Home', on the back of which Springsteen writes a piece on how it all came together in the Upstage Club and Stone Pony, and he writes that Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, like himself, had Rock 'n' Roll as survival - it was what they lived for, and I can't put it better myself.
The only reason I haven't given it five stars is because there is no such thing as THE perfect album, at least not while both this and Born to Run exist, anyway!
When you buy the record you'll see for yourself.

Horn-based R&B is one of my musical passions. Tower of Power, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Van Morrison & the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, the Blues Brothers Band, pretty much anybody on Stax/Volt... if there's a trumpet and a sax or two wailing away somewhere, I'm happy. So THE VERY BEST OF SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & THE ASBURY JUKES has turned out to be one of the best purchases I've made in quite a while - and not just because they have a killer horn section.

As their name might indicate, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes emerged from the same New Jersey scene as Bruce Springsteen. Johnny Lyons sounds a lot like Springsteen, and the Asbury Jukes, culled from the same pool of musicians as the E Street Band, sound like a less grand version of the same with a bigger horn section. And boy oh boy do they use it, tearing through covers of R&B classics such as "Without Love" and "Havin' a Party" with the verve and dedication of a straight Blues Brothers Band. But it's when they collaborate with their fellow Asbury Parkers that the Jukes shine brightest. I had no idea Miami Steve Van Zandt was such an awesome songwriter, but he wrote or cowrote ten of the nineteen tracks on this disc, and it's all great: "I Don't Want to Go Home", "Take It Inside", "Next to You", "This Time It's for Real"... magnificent stuff. He also co-founded the Asbury Jukes and produces everything here. And then there's the Boss himsef, offering up his early-career showstopper "The Fever" and devastating "Hearts of Stone" among other highlights. But the final cut on the disc, "Trapped Again", is the best thing here - a collaboration between Springsteen, Van Zandt, and Lyons alike, this yearning street epic wouldn't have sounded at all out of place on DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN.

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes weren't nearly as ambitious as their more celebrated counterparts. They were an R&B band, pure and simple - and a damn fine one at that. But their music pulses with much the same Jersey soul that informs the best work of the Boss & his E Streeters, and I for one love it.

THE BEST OF SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & THE ASBURY JUKES is an outstanding overview of Southside Johnny's work with Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt. However, the first two albums are underrepresented, and eight of the nine songs from HEARTS OF STONE are here. What that means is that in order to get a full appreciation of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes' best work, you need to obtain the first three albums- I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME, THIS TIME IT'S FOR REAL, and HEARTS OF STONE- on CD. Nevertheless, in a pinch, you can't go wrong with this anthology.