Customer Reviews

This Time It's for Real

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With THIS TIME IT'S FOR REAL, Southside Johnny not only avoids the sophmore jinx, but outdoes his exceptional debut album. This time, there are fewer cover versions and more Van Zandt/Springsteen compositions, but the influences derived from the Memphis-Chicago-Muscle Shoals-St. Louis-New Orleans-Detroit-Philadelphia-Kansas City blues/R&B/rock & roll axis are still highly in evidence. The title track is a song of high determination to succeed, whether at a relationship or even life itself; "Check Mr. Popeye" is a funny song that extols the nutritional value of spinach; and "Some Things Just Don't Change" is a heartfelt ballad expressing regret, sung so that it could be about a failed love, or even describe how I felt about my decision not to rejoin my old bowling league in 2002. The first and third songs I mentioned, along with a cover of Aretha Frankin's "Without Love", which says that even someone from a wealthy suburban area (e.g. Bethesda, MD; Cape Elizabeth, ME; Lake Forest Park, WA; Lake Oswego, OR) can still be poor if they don't have someone special in their lives, cut deepest. Overall, this is a great CD that just gets better with time.

"This Time It's For Real" was the second album from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Released in 1977, this strong outing shows an evolution in sound from their first, with fewer R & B covers, and more Steve Van Zandt originals with additional song-writing help from Bruce Springsteen. This album was clearly designed in part as a tribute to fifties R & B and Doo-Wop, with guest appearances by three different groups from that era: The Coasters, backed by the Jukes, singing the old Eddie Bo song, "Check Mr. Popeye"; The Five Satins, accompanying Southside on "First Night", and The Drifters singing along with Southside on "Little Girl So Fine". Particularly strong cuts are the title track, "Love on the Wrong Side of Town", "When You Dance", and "Without Love" (a reworking of an obscure Aretha Franklin tune from With Everything I Feel In Me). Steve Van Zandt does a terrific job of producing, with incredibly layered sound and a good deal of echo which works well for this kind of material. The album is also notable for the debut of Eddie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, and Eddie Manion, who have become two on-again, off-again mainstays of the Jukes horns for 30+ years. Although not currently in print on its own, this can be bought as a double release in combination with "I Don't Want to Go Home" I Don't Want to Go Home/This Time It's for Real.