Search - Southside Johnny :: Jukes

The Jukes quintessential and Revealing Johnny Record

James M. Cayon | Northampton, MA United States | 08/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As the previous reviewer observed, if you buy one Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes album, you really can't go wrong with 'The Jukes', from 1979. While I love a party as much as the next guy, I won't ever be referred to as a "party person" and so most of this well-played material was lost on me except for two songs that reveal just how lazy it is to lump this New Jersey ensemble in with other Garden State recording artists (no, you won't ever see me at a Springsteen or Bon Jovi show, either.....) and those are "Vertigo" and "Wait In Vain", the first single (to radio, anyhow) and what really should've been a follow-up. "Vertigo", with its otherworldly, dizzying but insistent jazzy brass and nitroglycerin guitar, threatens to induce its title in places, only to be pulled back by some grounding piano, while "Wait In Vain" resolutely and brightly chimes even as resigning its protagonist to a seemingly hopeless vigil. Neither track lends itself to easy characterization, although Bill Medley could do much Righteous justice to the latter and "Vertigo" wouldn't sound at all out-of-place in a typical Tower Of Power live workout. At a typical $39.99 on Amazon - used, no less, Universal REALLY needs to re-release this at a reasonable price already!"