Long time compadres of the E-Street Band and mentored by Steve Van Zandt who also arranged and produced their first two albums.
Once again for their third 'Hearts of Stone' Little Steven manned the producer's chair and wrote the bulk of the material.
Springsteen contributed two songs, 'Talk to me' (his own version is on 'The Promise') and the fantastic ballad that is the title song.
The Jukes have the strongest horn section in the world and they would later serve Miami Steve well on his first solo outing. Even the Boss himself has used La Bamba and friends on some of his outtakes.
Hearts of Stone is also the album where Southside Johnny attempted te get out from under the wings of his long time friend. No cover versions, no guest vocalists.
And plenty of great horn driven rock songs.
'Trapped again', 'Take it inside' and 'Got to be a better way home' are the examples here while 'This time baby's gone for good' and the title track are ballads at their most soulful.
I need to mention that Southside Johnny is the best vocalist of the three. He has more edge in his voice than Bruce and Steve, let's face it, never was the strongest of singers.
After 'Hearts of Stone' Southside and the Jukes parted company with Steve Van Zandt until 13 years later they reunited for the 'Better Days' album.
The band's still going but this one is their definitive best.
In the early sixties Bonds had a huge hit with 'Quarter to three' a song Bruce often played as an encore to his live shows.One fine day Bruce and his cohort Little Steven decided to re-boost their old hero Gary US Bonds' career.
The resulting albums was 'Dedication' released in April 1981.
Bruce wrote three songs while Little Steven wrote one and produced the album.
The E-Streeters were used as the main backup musicians.
The Miami Steve track 'Daddy's come home' -a ballad- along with Springsteen's 'This little girl' are the stand out tracks as is 'Jolé Blon' where Gary and Bruce duet.
There also covers of Jackson Browne's 'The Pretender', Dylan's 'From a Buick 6' and the Beatles' 'It's only love'.
Bonds retains his gritty soulful voice and the album overall sounds like...the E-Street Band in party mode with a different singer.
A year later the same formula was repeated with 'On the line' released in June 1982.
This time Bruce donated 7 songs. Amongst them a terrific ballad called 'Club Soul City' and staple rockers such as 'Hold on', 'Out of work', 'Rendezvous' (now also on 'The Promise') and 'Angelyne'.
Another solid barroom party album that gave Gary US Bonds a second career.
Dressed as an outlaw pirate long before Keith Richards got his role in Pirates of the Caribean, Miami Steve was with Bruce Springsteen from the beginning.
At the age of 32 he finally got to record his own first solo record and it certainly belongs in any top 5 of debut albums that's for sure.
His band the Discipels of Soul were all veterans of the scene. There was Dino Danelli and Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals and Richie 'La Bamba' Rosenberg's horn section straight out of the Asbuy Jukes.
In fact, their previous album 'Hearts of Stone' counted as the blueprint for 'Men without women'.
Steve wrote all but one song himself and the music is a bit more guitar driven.
But the horns have it.
From the smashing opener 'Lyin' in a bed of fire' to 'Save me' to 'Angel eyes' and 'Forever' it's unimpeachable blue eyed soul all the way. This band simply cooks.
My personal favorite is yet again a ballad 'Princess of Little Italy'.
A triumphant debut.
Steve would come out later with more albums but they were all more political inspired songs such as 'Sun City', 'Solidarity', 'Pretoria' and 'Native Americans'. Diminishing returns.
But 'Men without women' stand as a true masterpiece of big band rock.
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