In 1977, the Jersey sound was getting hot. Some guy named Bruce Springsteen had put out a record called Born to Run in ’75 and while everyone waited for the next album (and then waited some more), the word was there were more bands out there in the “flats of Jersey”. The Sugar Miami Steve of production credits in the above video is indeed Little Steven of E-Street (and solo, and The Sopranos) fame. For those who have wondered what he did between ’75 (when he was a part time member of the E-Street band at best) through the release of Darkness on the Edge of Town, he was usually working with South Side Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
SSJ @ the Jukes put out their first album I Don’t Want to go Home in 1975. Bruce wrote the liner notes and contributed songs (notably “The Fever“) and Miami Steve Van Zandt produced and contributed songs of his own (Title track).
I still remember SSJ’s second album “This Time it’s for Real” displayed in the front window of the Flip Side record store on Foster between Christiana and Spaulding in Chicago in ’77 when I came to visit that summer. On it there was an ambitious attempt to incorporate R&B bands from past decades. With 5 songs written by Van Zandt and 3 by Van Zandt/Springsteen, the band did songs with the Coasters, the Five Satins, and the Drifters, lending a serious Do-wop/R&B sound to the Asbury Park sound they already had going.
One of the songs that wasn’t written by Little Steven or Bruce was “Without Love” (video is above). “Without Love” was written by Blues and R&B veteran Ivory Joe Hunter and Carolyn Franklin, Aretha’s youngest sister. It’s a song that spans genres and generations, but the Jukes make it their own with the horn and string sections setting the tone early. The thing that really makes the song though, is the vocal by John Lyon (Southside Johnny). This is not a song that can be carried on a weak vocal and the performance here is anything but. You have to believe the words to sell this one and believe me, it gets sold. Add in one of the best harmony vocal guys ever (Little Steven) on the chorus and at the end of the song, and you get something that lasts.
– Ron Swanson
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Ron Swanson’s Updatable Top 25
Seeking classic pop song lyrical couplets – Post your faves, by Ron Swanson
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