He's not rationalizing - he really is content. When reporters asked Scialfa about her extra time in the spotlight, she agreed, explaining "I didn't know when we started rehearsing that he was going to give me a lot to do Bruce coaxed me and urged me to reach. Getting some traction is the hardest thing for me. Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Despite a myriad of style changes and passing trends in pop music since the band's early 70's inception, Southside Johnny has remained true to its rhythm-and-blues roots. See pages that link to and include this page. When asked if she was working on a new album, Scialfa replied that she was, noting she was halfway through the process but was sharing a studio with her prolific husband during the pandemic: "He's always like, 'I have to go do this thing and that thing.' But lately, he has spent a lot of time on the road, leaving the canaries with neighbors. Despite wide swings in popular music and the unpredictable tastes of the record-buying public, the Jukes have managed to survive as a band while many other 70's bands have not. Chance of rain 70%.. Gary Tallent would play rockabilly, so we absorbed all those different influences and they all come out in the music. This husband-and-wife-owned shop is full of punk, soul, jazz, reggae, and R&B. Ive been very lucky. After the 1988 release of Slow Dance, a solo album of ballads that he says was recorded for his wife, Lyon began playing the Los Angeles region in a band called Blues Deluxe and making plans for a blues album featuring material co-written by him and his guitarist, Bobby Bandiera. People come and go; that's part of the business. The band also found time to make an appearance in Joan Micklin Silver's 1977 movie Between the Lines. It's not odd to me to have women as friends, and it's almost always been that way. I thought it was a great record. Bobby Bandiera and I have been writing songs. We rode up this hill, and right there was this big 8-ball on a pillar. For nearly 20 years, Johnny Lyon and his band, the Asbury Jukes, have carried on a music tradition steeped in rhythm-and-blues and blue-collar rock-and-roll that has made them one of the state's most enduring pop-music groups. Gallery | Links In 1995, Southside Johnny recorded the title song for a low-budget movie called Tuff Turf, and the tune was issued as a 12" single by Rhino Records, becoming his first solo release. I actually started singing in front of people when I was 16 years old. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. I think he started to remember how much fun it was to make that kind of music, just the heartfelt R&B; style, whether it be up-tempo or slow.. Eager to record again but not excited about signing another record deal, Southside Johnny devised a new strategy and formed his own label, Leroy Records, to release his music when and how he wanted, and giving him full creative freedom. Besides you, there aren't any original members of the band left. The album entered the Billboard charts at No. Its not so bad to be lumped in with people of that caliber.. The business is still refreshingly random, Lyon joked. Upcoming scheduled Jersey shows include June 6 at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair; July 3 at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park and July 6 at the Ocean City Music Pier. Nevertheless, the old links to Springsteen and Van Zandt are inescapable, given the mutual roots, and the fact that they wrote many of the Jukes most notable songs. In October, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes were joined by fellow Jerseyans Van Zandt, Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi for a full concert at the Stone Pony. The band's most recent album, "Better Days," was released in 1991 on the Impact label. From Brucebase: Bruce (and several E-Streeters) with Southside Johnny in the early hours of August 31 (1978) following their gig at the Richfield Coliseum. To me, the spontaneity of making music is the beauty of it, instead of this idea that you're going to program everything and everything's going to work out right. We had a Monopoly game on stage. permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com. I said, 'Well, all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that's life. She's in love. Socially conscious songwriting was one new direction that Lyon didnt foresee as he began work on Slow Dance. But as he commuted in from New Jersey to work in a Manhattan studio with co-producer Steve Skinner, the scene that confronted him each day at the New York Port Authority bus terminal demanded commentary. It seems to me thats cutting your own throat; the more people you attract to your station, the bigger base you have. Will there be a new one in 1994? No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism Live recording -- "Reach Up and Touch the Sky. I agree. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. Partly cloudy this evening then becoming cloudy with periods of light rain after midnight. That was our college. The album is on Cypress Records, the independent label whose roster leans toward such mellow folk-pop artists as Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen and Jesse Colin Young. Has Southside Johnny become Surfside Johnny? He wanted to thank a fan who left a care package at his doorstep. Thats right. Southside Johnny and The Poor Fools Thursday (Feb. 2), 8 p.m. Southside Johnny: To me, the spontaneity of making music is the beauty of it, instead of this idea that you're going to program everything and everything's going to work out right --really just let it go and see where the night takes you.. You probably never asked yourself, What if?. Q. Critics have called us the worlds greatest bar band, Lyon said. But I can tell you this. By the summer of 1988, their relationship was out in the open and they were seen together constantly in New York and New Jersey. SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: My mother and my father were great readers of good literature. A. I don't know if I have one strategy. . If you are lazy going through the songs, you wont have an audience. Southside Johnny Lyon was born on December 4, 1948 in Neptune, New Jersey, USA as John Lyon. And, he notes with a laugh, the musical cross-pollination that began decades ago is still going on - most recently, with Springsteen's poaching of the Jukes' brass section. Is Virginia ready for mandated electric vehicles? It's just the perfect stage for us in some ways. If they needed a singer and this was in the guitar-hero era, two verses and then 20 minutes of a guitar solo I became the singer. B. Just two people in the record struggling to see if they can be close, if you can trust the person, how intimate can you get without getting hurt. You somehow scrounged your way through and if you werent starving to death you got to play on Friday and Saturday night. that is degrading to another person. Im doing what I like to do--even if the surroundings continue to be earthy. Playlists | Radio | Podcast For better or for worse, playing in a band is never the same. While the club generally booked cover bands, word about the Jukes and their powerhouse live show began to spread, and soon they were playing weekends and drawing as many as two thousand fans a night. Right before I went on stage, I had this feeling of revulsion. So, out of luck.. The year was 1967, says Southside, or maybe '68, and New Jersey was alive with the sounds of the primitive, pre-Beatles rock and Stax soul that would infuse both his and Springsteen's work. Help Us | Upload. Threats of harming another You've been the leader of the Asbury Jukes for two decades. Understandably frustrated with the business, Southside briefly dropped out of music and relocated to Tennessee, but in 1996, he staged a low-key tour of Europe, where he discovered he still had an audience, and a four-night stand at the Chesterfield Cafe in Paris became the basis of a live album, Spittin' Fire. They weret really written for me. I think that the main thing about being from New Jersey is that it's so blue collar that if you don't work hard onstage, they won't respect you. Q. Why did you decide to move to Nashville at one point in your life? Tell me about the women in your life. Rich L.A. homeowners are snapping them up, High school basketball: Southern California and Northern California Regional results and updated pairings, Madonna salutes late brother Anthony Ciccone for blowing my mind as a young girl, L.A. Phils 2023-24 season lineup celebrates the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cardi B changes tune on community service, calls it best thing, spiritual journey, Moroccan singer convicted of rape in Paris, gets 6-year term, Jonas Brothers promise Broadway residency will be a walk down musics memory lane. New Jersey music iconSouthside Johnny Lyon is doing fine during the coronavirus outbreak and he has plenty of toilet paper, too. She once again explained how she always had to balance her solo work with her duties to the E Street Band as well as to her family, noting she had just taken two days off from touring to get her son Evan ready for college. While a video of the title tune earned some scattered MTV airplay, the album wasn't a hit, and they returned to something closer to their signature sound on 1984's In the Heat. So the label agreed to an alternative plan. A. Share with Us. A. Low 49F. This week, the 70-year-old singer spoke on the phone from his hometown of Ocean Grove, N.J. Hell be in Philadelphia with the Jukes at SugarHouse Casino on Saturday. For more information, visit https://www.birchmere.com. But after graduating from Neptune High School on the Jersey Shore in 1967, you enrolled at Monmouth College. More important, however, it marks a reunion with Steve Van Zandt, who produced and wrote many of the tunes for Lyons first--and best-received--three albums from the mid- to late 70s: I Dont Want to Go Home, This Time Its for Real and Hearts of Stone, the last of which made Rolling Stone magazines 1990 list of the best 100 albums of the previous 20 years. You could make a career out of it. Meanwhile, Lyon has landed appearances on The Tonight Show and Late Night With David Letterman. And theres a video of Its Been a Long Time, the shooting of which picked up national media attention. When I plan to make an album, I drive myself insane trying to think of the right thing or things to do, instead of just going into the studio and having fun. Lyon and Bandiera already have performed two weeks of acoustic gigs in Europe in support of the album, and will head East in December with the full band for a two-week tour. The couple married on June 8, 1991. He is an American singer-songwriter who fronts the band Southside Johnny & . He is an actor, known for Home Alone (1990), Adventures in Babysitting (1987) and The Karate Kid Part II (1986). I don't define myself entirely by music. The project evolved as Van Zandt began writing tunes for what Lyon describes as a homecoming album, a look into their musical past. That's the kind of freedom that you don't really think about until somebody asks you about it. It went on like that for years--first in a succession of bands that included such fellow aspiring Jersey rockers as Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt, then by more than a decade of touring and recording as the leader of Southside Johnny & the Jukes. Featured Pages, Gig Pages I cover pop music, from what's happening in the local scene to national trends and touring acts. He carried himself as a person who has something to say, and still does. Was it always your goal to be a singer and performer? I said, Great--any towns got a pool hall cant be so bad. Well, of course, as soon as I move in there they close it down and make a Volkswagen parts joint out of it. They both worked, and when she had the day shift, she worked at a telephone company as an operator back in the day when they used to have them. A. A. Then once that idea got into you, you never wanted to let it go, because what are the alternatives? Also, I was the blues guy. Anyone can read what you share. It got a lot of great reviews. Maybe Bruce will make an Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes 8 p.m. Saturday, SugarHouse Casino, 1001 Delaware Ave.. $29. Those albums featured the horn-driven Jukes sound along with a sprinkling of Springsteen-penned nuggets, notably The Fever and Hearts of Stone. Lyon went on to record several 80s albums with the Jukes, along with some solo efforts in several styles, but he never quite regained his stride after the departure of Van Zandt, who was busy in his role as Springsteens guitarist. They're both in love. . There's not just one thing, and I think that's reflected in all of our music. That'd be as bad as working in an office. Education: Neptune High School, 1967; Monmouth College, 1966-1968. We sat down after that and talked about working together again, Lyon said. Each contributed songs to the band that was known then as Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, and Van Zandt, known nowadays as political rocker Little Steven, served as the bands manager and producer. His multiple awards include recognition for stories on both Bruce Springsteen and Jersey Shore. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com. I've always known what the Jukes ought to sound like. Songs | Lyrics "He's stealing my saxophone players to replace Clarence (Clemons, who passed away last year), so we steal from each other's bands occasionally.". . Sales were modest but respectable, and the band toured hard in support, eventually taking a break to cut their second LP, 1977's This Time It's for Real, which featured more guest appearances from R&B heroes (vocal groups the Coasters, the Drifters, and the Five Satins) and songwriting contributions from Springsteen. Very much so. SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: That's correct. Since leaving Springsteens E Street Band in 1984, Van Zandt had turned much of his musical and personal attention to political causes, including the founding of Artists United Against Apartheid. Tickets: $19.50. ", Per "Racing In The Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader," Springsteen and Julianne Phillips divorced in 1989, and in 1990, Springsteen and Scialfa moved to a $14 million estate in Beverly Hills, California. Call 519-635-6257 or purchase online at www.ticketmaster.com/, - Venue change for Thursday's Southside Johnny concert in Kitchener, Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. This led to Southside Johnny reviving the Jukes as a live act, playing occasional shows in the United States and touring Europe and the U.K. every year. I treasure my privacy and l like being left alone on the street.". ", New Jersey Q & A: Johnny Lyon; Leroy was launched with 2000's Messin' with the Blues, which featured the latest edition of the Asbury Jukes. I went through months of that. One of my sax players went with David Bowie. I just cant wait to do (the new material) live, because I know its going to get a great reaction, and itll be new stuff, Lyon said. You set your sights on making the best music you can and not try to be a star or make a lot of money. And Garry wound up playing with Little Melvin & the Invaders. John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), [1] better known by his stage name Southside Johnny, is an American singer-songwriter who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes . Read Full Biography. "Garry Tallent (Springsteen's bassist and Southside's best friend) and I were talking a couple of years ago and realized everybody pretty much got what they wanted. He also trades vocals with Lyon and Van Zandt on Its Been a Long Time, the first single from the album. What about the "New Jersey magic" that transforms musicians into stars? Hell be in Philadelphia with the Jukes at SugarHouse Casino on Saturday. The site's review called the album a "slow seduction" and noted, "there's not a bad song in the bunch, and the title track is a gem." With Early Elton Trio, John mainly uses his sunburst '64 Fender Jazz bass. Its not my natural bent to write a socially committed song, Lyon said. A. S. When New Jerseys Asbury Park music scene rose up in the 1970s, there were three bright lights on its rock-and-soul triangle. The enthusiasm for the music is definitely still there. Do you view rock-and-roll and performing today with the same enthusiasm and intensity you did 20 years ago? There are times when I feel, What am I--chopped liver? Lyon acknowledged. Music was so important to us when we were young. You can't go out there and hope people like you. I was always of the mind-set of if you get a better offer for more money, take it. His go-to basses with the Asbury Jukes are a Fender Precision bass, and a short scale Jerry Jones Longhorn. I don't know if it's courage. And we were lucky to find each other. ", A 2004 interview with the Washington Post noted that "21st Street Lullaby" came out almost exactly 20 years after Springsteen's iconic 1984 album "Born In The USA." She studied jazz at the University of Miami before moving to New York and starting busking on street corners, singing in clubs, and doing session work in studios. It seems too easy. I have a real iron throat. Steven (Van Zandt) will go out and live with the people hes going to write about and learn as much as he can. Every time I got off the bus, there would be literally hundreds of people sleeping there and begging and nobody was taking care of them, he said. Something does not work as expected? We'd love to hear eyewitness "I haven't put on a suit for 40 years. King and others too numerous to mention. "I'm friends with a lot of these guys who have become big rock stars and it's not for me. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Go to any Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes show these days (the band still plays regularly up and down the East Coast) and you'll find a new, coveted item amongst fans. Not 'I'm gonna try to be a musician.' Mike Boehm Mike. 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 Only because I like a wide range of music and I think everybody would, if they got a chance to hear it., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Travis Barkers finger injury delays Blink-182 tour: One of those freak accidents, The timeless creativity of De La Soul, now (finally) available for the streaming generation, Court orders Kodak Black into drug rehab after rapper allegedly tests positive for fentanyl, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Yet more rain expected to hit California in March. Southside Johnny has long been considered the Grandfather of "the New Jersey Sound ." Jon Bon Jovi has acknowledged Southside Johnny as his "reason for singing." I wish I could have gone out and played live after it came out. Physically, it's a little bit more challenging for me now; my shows tend to be very energetic. Bruce, we all thought was really going to be something, though we didnt expect him to get as huge as he got. And God knows Ive been in enough of them.. Information: (714) 496-8930. Jersey gal Gloria Gaynor's hand-washing 'I Will Survive' video a viral hit, Bon Jovi says son Jake is '100 percent' recovered from COVID-19 scare, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The Jukes landed a once-a-week gig at an Asbury Park club that had seen better days, the Stone Pony, playing off nights for the door. Are you excited to be coming to The Birchmere? But in the summer of 90, Southside had a gig at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and decided to call Van Zandt and several former Jukes. Some people thought its success would give both you and the Jukes increased exposure, particularly with younger audiences. Van Zandt and Springsteen both figured heavily in the launching of Lyons career in the mid- to late-70s. 1,083 talking about this. While the group's membership has gone through dozens of changes since the mid-'70s, with Southside at the vocal mike their sound has remained remarkably consistent from their '70s efforts (1976's I Don't Want to Go Home, 1978's Hearts of Stone) to their 21st century sessions (2002's Going to Jukesville, 2010's Pills and Ammo), though the group did detour into dance music on 1983's Trash It Up (produced by Nile Rodgers). For the Poor Fools, where they were doing Americana, folk and blues, he mostly played a 1960's German-made Hoyer. Lyon, sounding upbeat and relaxed, said his break from the road and the musical detour he took on Slow Dance have given him renewed enthusiasm for his old calling as a touring bar rocker. You can link it to other sites. Southside Johnny (his nickname comes from his love of the raw, hard-edged brand of blues from Chicago's South Side) and the Asbury Jukes started out in 1974 as the house band at the Stone Pony,. Guitarist Billy Rush became their main songwriter and band leader, and Southside and company cut two studio albums for Mercury, 1979's soulful The Jukes and 1980's harder edged Love Is a Sacrifice. Sometimes after the weekend was over, we'd go out for a hamburger." Southside Johnny soon landed a new record deal with Mercury Records, but had to deal with an even bigger change, as Steve Van Zandt dropped out as the guitarist, songwriter, and producer for the Asbury Jukes; his role in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band had become too time consuming. Baton twirlers. Thats the nature of this kind of long-lived horn band. Lyon, frontman for the Asbury Jukes, shared an update on social media from his home in Ocean Grove on Monday, March 30. We never made any money. View and manage file attachments for this page. I always feel self-conscious. That record was like really a love letter to my husband, Bruce, and had very few characters in it. Relations (People / Bands) Well, 20 years is a long time, and my band isn't your average-size band. 877-477-3715. sugarhousecasino.com. Their son, Evan James Springsteen, was born on July 25, 1990. I suspect he was just one of the singers in the club and it wasn't a terribly important scene, but too bad for Southside! If I'd gone out and played it live, it would've made the record more accessible to people. It's just natural that you work hard onstage, because it's your chance to make music You don't just go, "Oh, I really don't care.". Maybe you could make a go out of it. Track artist So I had very little time to devote to studying. Southside Johnny's story is one of resilience, perseverance and making music for the love of music. A. After years of singing backup for her husband, Springsteen contributed backing vocals to several "Rumble Doll" songs. There's a fascination with the other gender in that you just see the world differently than men do, and I'm always fascinated by that. The homecoming feel of Better Days was solidified with the return of many of the old Jukes. You're a little bit timid the first couple of times you get onstage, but then you see those guys really just having a great time and confident that the people that love it are going to go, "That's where I'm going to be." While Lyon remains the same throaty-sounding romantic with classic soul influences, the music is tailored to the late 80s, with programmed rhythms and smooth synthesizer textures. I've always respected women. We were musicians and we were going to make a go of it one way or another, even if it meant playing in local bands on the weekends and getting a job during the week, but the main thing in our lives back then was music. After 1986's At Least We Got Shoes, Mirage cut ties with Southside, and he put the band on hiatus, cutting a solo album, 1988's Slow Dance, that leaned in the direction of adult contemporary music, dominated by love songs and ballads. We have very eclectic taste. Their next concert will be tomorrow at the Bottom Line in New York City. Career: Band leader and lead singer of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. If you're in a bad mood about having a fight with your old lady, you can talk to her about it.". The Upstage Club. Tickets: $19.50. Ive had 20 years in this music business, and Ill have 20 more. I always say this. "It really was a great crucible, and sort of our college, because we were teenagers back then, and we learned so many styles of music - country and western, blues, guitar rock - because nobody said 'no' to anything. Time to find out. Mike Boehm is a former arts reporter and pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times. I had a care package left on my porch today from a fan who left her initial as K, Lyon said. Still, the music I make isn't really like the music he makes. Click here to edit contents of this page. There's some really nice people down here," so I did. I was out here on tour (in late 1988) and I played the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, and I said, This looks nice, lets move here. And we did.. We were in bands together. The group's most recent concert in New Jersey was on New Year's Eve at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank. There are some great songs on it, thanks to Little Steven and Bruce. In 2020, as reported by Rolling Stone, Bobby Roth, a director, friend, and neighbor of Springsteen and Scialfa, asked Scialfa to write some songs for his teen drama "Pearl." The connection continues on Slow Dance with Walking Through Midnight, a fine ballad of inner turmoil and frustrated yearning that Lyon and Springsteen wrote 10 years ago. The albums appealed to the Jukes' fan base and "I'm So Anxious" from The Jukes became a minor hit, but they didn't expand their audience, and after cutting an excellent live album, 1981's Reach Up and Touch the Sky, Mercury and Southside Johnny parted ways. We've gotten older, but wiser, too. You'd go into a literature class in high school and you've already read all the books, so you go, "God, this is going to be a long season here.".

North Huntingdon Police Scanner, How Did Martin Berusch Die, Articles S