(editor’s note – no ex post facto proof of the Good Rats)
Southside Johnny’s rain-soaked angels want to wear his wet shoes
by Steve Webb, The Knickerbocker News, June 30, 1980
In writing about popular music, generic terms such as “rock” or “rock ‘n’ roll” can frequently lose all meaning. What’s the difference between the two, for instance?
Well, the difference relies more on feeling than anything, but it’s as clear as night and day. Kansas is rock, “Kansas City” rock ‘n’ roll. Songs about big old jet airliners are rock, songs about trains 16 coaches long are rock ‘n’ roll. Most of all, rock ‘n’ roll follows that old Duke Ellington maxim: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”
Two bands performing in the area Sunday night definitely have that swing, and are being rewarded for it with growing audiences. Although the rain hampered walk-up sales, the New Jersey horn band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes more than doubled its crowd size of its last area appearance, from just over 1,100 in 1978 to 2,825 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
And back in Albany, an evening of “City Swing Meets Country Swing” starring the Austin country rock outfit Asleep at the Wheel doubled its 250 of a year ago, pulling in over 500 dance-happy customers. (See story on Page 6-B.)
Southside Johnny Lyon greeted his growing audience, that stood through much of the 1½ hour show, by saying there was no way he would sing for that period of time in rain-drenched hiking boots. So he took them off, tossing them into the audience as souvenirs and having a stagehand rustle up someone’s white sneakers while he sang the energetic “Talk to Me” from 1978’s “Hearts of Stone” album.
The Jukes play a form of soul-rock that abounds in brisk rhythm parts, bright and sometimes overbearing work by the five-piece horn section, and some hot licks by lead guitarist Billy Rush. Lyon’s voice compares in texture to the original Temptations’ David Ruffin’s, and his musical tastes similarly run a gamut of ’60s soul.
The 1966 tune “Got to Get You Off of My Mind” is a perfect example of the latter, and the best of the former would be either the exquisite “Trapped Again,” with its pulsating opening and its distinctive interplay between vocals and horns, or more recently the ballad “Keep Our Love Simple” from the latest album “Love is a Sacrifice,” that Lyon used with a quote from the Temptations’ “My Girl” (written by Smokey Robinson, one of the most enduring songwriters since World War II).
The regular set closed with a haphazard, but heartfelt, medley of Sam Cooke songs that led into “Havin’ a Party.” That the Jukes are willing to play the title song of a repackage album by their old label that the band will probably never get a cent of royalties from exhibits a stronger devotion to having fun with the fans than merely taking care of business.
The Post-Star, June 28, 1980
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