Some recommended Springsteen associates

From around the time of Darkness and The Promise.

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes - Hearts of Stone (1978)

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.

Gary U.S. Bonds - Dedication & On the Line (1981/82)

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.

Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul - Men without women (1982)

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.

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise (2010)

Bruce Springsteen is the Stephen King of Rock 'n Roll. King writes 1.000 page novels and keeps churning them out. I've always wondered how he does that all on his own. Sometimes he releases outtakes.
His two latest story collections 'Just after sunset' and 'Full dark no stars' are just that. Outtakes.
Sometimes he still comes through with a real corker. 'Cell' was like that.
Sometimes he releases a double album of which side 4 show an artist not finding a satisfactory ending. That one is called 'Under the dome'.
But enough of King.

Bruce Springsteen writes 'em by the dozen, records 'em and puts 'em in a box for thirty years.
I am not of the opinion that Bruce's first two albums were the only worthwhile ones he's ever done. Yes, I'm looking at you, Johnny Slider.
He's been great for many years, his fame deserved, but to me his last couple of albums were merely routine.

Is 'The promise' worth buying? Certainly. For a Bruce fan it is life blood. A must.
Will the casual fan be charmed? Doubtful.
After all these songs are over 30 years old and the fact that they were written and recorded during one of his most fruitful periods will probably be not enough to lure the one-cd-a-month punter.
Every reviewer will mention the fact that because of a legal battle with his former manager Bruce was not allowed to release one note of music for three years. But that didn't stop him from recording. So let's not go there.

Can we consider these songs to be the missing link between 'Born to run' and what became the final 'Darkness on the edge of town'?
Not really. In view of the fact that 'Darkness' was such a narrow, one direction only album, these songs go in too many different directions.
Also, he gave a fair few to other artists. 'Because the night' to Patti Smith, 'Rendezvous' to Gary U.S. Bonds.
'Talk to me' ended up on a Southside Johnny album. And, yes, 'Fire' went to the Pointer Sisters.
All of these are on 'The promise'.
What else? Some early versions of 'Racing in the street' and 'Candy's room' (Candy's boy here).
Some big Spectorian productions with 'Gotta get that feeling' and 'Someday (we'll be together)' probably written with Ronnie Spector's voice in mind.
The elusive title track in a band version with one verse missing. That one already was on the 'Tracks' box in a 1999 piano only version.
There's also a hidden track often bootlegged never officially released. It's 'The way' a great song.

One big omission from 'Darkness' surely must be 'Because the night'. A majestic piece of music, the best he's ever written. Only Bruce knows why he left it off.


Is 'The promise' the missing link between 'Born to run' and 'Darkness'?
Pruned down to a single disc it may have been. There's plenty of great ones to chose from.
But then the question would be: could 'Darkness' have ended up the dark and stark masterpiece it now is?


P.S. 'The promise' rates 5 stars not only for the music but also for the historic document it really is.

Iommi/Hughes - Fused (2005)

I was pleasantly surprised by the recent Black Country Communion album. You know, the -ahem- new supergroup.
As I've always liked bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes from way back when he started out with Trapeze I decided to have a look around. And came up with this little gem:

Now Glenn already sang on the Sabs' album Seventh Star, truth be told a Tony Iommi solo effort in all but the name.
Both also worked together before on the aborted 1996 DEP sessions which finally saw a release in 2009.
Both gentlemen decided to record a proper record and that's what became Fused.

Don't expect pure Black Sabbath here. Hughes voice is just too strong for that. Although the über riffmeister Iommi is in full swing  and creates some monster riffs, there are actually a couple melodic songs here.
Highlights certainly are Wasted Again, What You're Living For and Grace.
Fused may be considered by many as a little side project but if you like your music heavy and metal here's a nice surprise in this little known album.  

Cheap genre compilation (pt 2) - Hillbilly

Hillbilly, another forgotten genre that came out of the 1920's and 30's. The soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? sold over two million copies and reminded us that it had once existed.
The original music came mainly from the rural Southern states and was made by black and white folk alike.

Here is a cheap (around £ 3) compilation that gathers the old folks and some of the newer ones:

Subtitled American Bluegrass, Appalachian and Old Timey Country this cd is a great overview covering the most classic artists of the genre.
The Carter Family gets two tracks then there's Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt&Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson, Del McCoury and Hazel Dickens.
On the more contemporary side you'll find Gillian Welch, Ricky Scaggs duetting with Emmylou Harris and Allison Krauss singing lead on the Cox Family track.
Also of note is Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia's sideband Old & In the Way and the Kentucky Colonels whose Clarence White would later join the Byrds.

The music's acoustic, lots of mandoline, banjo and fiddle. And heavenly voices with lots of harmonies.

A very worthwhile introduction to some older music.

Crucial Reggae

Forget about Bob Marley. Oh yeah, he was reggae's superstar commercially marketed by Chris Blackwell.
OK, so his music was good as well.

Here's some essential albums that let you hear what true reggae was all about:

More about them later!

A boost for a record label

Glitterhouse is a combined record label/mail order service out of Germany.
They still send out a monthly paper catalogue about 60 pages thick.
Although their prices have gone up recently and they take their time delivering (usually 3 weeks) they always have lots of cheap stuff on offer as well.

I have been a fan of their record label for a number of years now. Ever since, in fact, I discovered Sixteen Horsepower.
If you should happen to be a fan of that band and of David Eugene Edwards' new vehicle Woven Hand then this label is for you.

You could start by ordering this:

A double CD that'll cost you 2.95 €. It's a perfect overview of what the label is all about.

Apart from the two bands mentioned above other well known acts on Glitterhouse would be Pere Ubu, The Walkabouts, Midnight Choir and Willard Grant Conspiracy.
Save for Pere Ubu I own practically everything by the others. All good stuff

But for every one of those there's more acts that operate in the same vein.
Washington, Ben Weaver, Baskery, Hazeldine, Hobotalk, Get Well Soon, Timesbold.
The genre? Call it Americana, Gothic Country, Country Noir. You get my drift.

If you would happen to take a peek at their website http://label.glitterhouse.com/ then check out the 'mail order only' section as well. You can't go wrong with these:

Not in the shops, friends!



Personal favorites of mine? Here's some:

Go on and take a look. Let Glitterhouse Records surprise you.

Free - Tons of Sobs (1968)

If you were to ask me what the best debut LP ever was then this is the one.
The year 1968, me 14 years old.
Out of the British Blues boom grows the Bluesrock scene and, no, Free weren't the first to arrive.
John Mayall, the Godfather, went through his Bluesbreakers personnel faster than a McDonald's franchise but he delivered some great names.
Clapton to Cream, Page to Led Zeppelin, Keef Hartley to his own band, Green/Fleetwood/McVie to Fleetwood Mac, Mick Taylor to the Stones. I could go on.

Free's bass player Andy Fraser played a couple of gigs with Mayall. He was 15 years old then and dated the daughter of Alexis Korner,another British legend. It was Korner's recommendation that got him the Mayall gig.
It was also Korner who got Andy Fraser together with the other future members of Free and helped them to their recording contract with Island Records.

Guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke played in a standard blues band called Black Cat Bones and recruited singer Paul Rodgers. Free was born.

Tons of Sobs opens and closes with Over the Green Hills a subdued acoustic affair. If you want to hear the full version then I'm afraid you'll have to get the 5 cd boxed set Songs of Yesterday...
From then on it's full strut, male oriented blues rock with Kossoff's guitar shining in all the songs.
Worry, Walk in my Shadow, Wild Indian Woman, I'm a mover.
Koss' masterpiece however is a cover. The Hunter written by Booker T and all his MG's.
For a long while this was Free's live showstopper with Koss' Gibson wailing like a derainged and derailed freight train.
Look up a live take of their version and be prepared to fall flat on your ass.


In this day and age the cd version of Tons of Sobs comes with eight bonus tracks. Visions of Hell is particulary worthwhile as this was intended to be included on the album but was replaced with The Hunter at the last minute.

If you think Allright Now was all Free ever did you're wrong. That was probably their worst song.
Tons of Sobs is the place to start I assure you.

Otis Blackwell (Brooklyn, USA)

From the liner notes:
"There aren't many performers who can sing a program of originals written by himself which is at the same time is a program of Rock 'n Roll standards."

Well, Tony Joe White is another one I can think of.
But it is true, Otis Blackwell wrote many songs that became huge hits for others.
For instance, he gave up 50% of the copyright of Don't Be Cruel to Elvis Presley because this young man from Tupelo was 'going to turn the music business around'.


And didn't it just? After all, 50% of a whole lot is better than 100% of nothing.

Wait! There's more.
Otis also wrote All Shook Up, Return to Sender for Elvis. Great Balls of Fire and Breathless for Jerry Lee Lewis. Fever for Peggy Lee. Handy Man for James Taylor. And I have a fantastic version of his Daddy Rolling Stone  by Phil Alvin somewhere.

I bought the cd pictured here for 3 €uro yesterday at a fair. Without even looking for it.
Now Otis was mainly a songwriter, he doesn't have that great a voice. He also had the bad habit of recording several other cd's with the same hit songs over and over.

If you should come across one of these cheap get it asap. It's a historical document of the man who made others into big stars with songs he indeed did write.