Hearts of Stone (Asbury Jukes)
Encyclopedia
Hearts of Stone is the third album by New Jersey rock–R&B band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, released in 1978.
has been called "the best album Bruce Springsteen
never recorded"http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Stone-Southside-Johnny-Asbury/dp/B0000025DM, which is not quite accurate. Springsteen did pen the title track and the radio-friendly "Talk To Me", and is credited along with Southside Johnny
Lyon and Steve Van Zandt on "Trapped Again", but Van Zandt takes solo credit for the remaining six tracks. More to the point, this record pointed the way to the kind of music the reincarnated "Little Steven" would begin making in the early 1980s. Van Zandt tapped photographer Frank Stefanko
to shoot the album cover art, after meeting Stefanko when they worked together with Springsteen on Darkness on the Edge of Town
.
Although hailed by critics, when Johnny severely injured his hand and was unable to tour and promote it, the album did not sell well enough for Epic to renew the Jukes' contract. The group parted ways with its more famous Jersey Shore brethren for the next album, The Jukes, relying on songs written by members of the band.
The first two tracks on Hearts of Stone, the guitar-driven, syncopated raveup "Got To Be a Better Way Home" and the horn-powered "This Time Baby's Gone for Good", are classic Van Zandt compositions, heavily anchored in 60s soul. The bouncy third track belies its lyric; "I Played the Fool" makes very good use of bass and horns to carve a distinctive sound. The title track, Springsteen's main contribution, would perhaps have been a smash hit had it been released by its author, Springsteen. It is soulful, almost wan, as it details the ache of lovers who cannot be together. "Talk To Me", released as a single, provided a bridge to the Jukes' familiar sound from their first two records. It did not make the charts. Pointing the way to the sound they would embrace on their next record, the record's final track, "Light Don't Shine", is light on horns and relies more on detailed guitar, alongside a soft-voiced, reflective Johnny. This song would, ironically, prove to be something of an epitaph.
The Jukes created well-received records after this. However, they were simply not able to crack the national consciousness and sell enough records to justify true star-level backing. They have bounced from label to label in the decades since, and scratch out their existence in little known bars not much higher in stature than the clubs they played on the way up. Their peak was not very high nor very long, but the Jukes, with a little help from their friends, left this one brilliant document to make sure that their contribution to the music of the Jersey Shore
would not be forgotten. This would be the Jukes' last album with Van Zandt, who departed shortly after its release to join The E Street Band full-time, until 1991's Better Days
where he and Springsteen would rejoin Southside Johnny on many of the tracks.
In 1987 Rolling Stone voted Hearts of Stone among the top 100 albums from 1967—1987 (#92). In 2000, the New York Times numbered it among the best albums the band had released, along with debut I Don't Want To Go Home
, Reach Up and Touch the Sky
and At Least We Got Shoes. Jon Bon Jovi
claims that the title track, "Hearts of Stone", was the inspiration for his song "Never Say Goodbye
".
. Versions of "Forever" and "Until the Good Is Gone" with Southside Johnny on vocals can be heard on his live album Hearts of Stone LIVE from 2009. Additionally, the track "Working Girl" was originally recorded during these sessions and appears on Southside's 2004 release Missing Pieces, which contains the recordings made during the lost 1982 sessions. The liner notes state the song is from the "Hearts of Stone" sessions and the track features the clear presence of Steven Van Zandt on harmony vocals. On July 2, 2011 Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes recorded a live performance of Van Zandt's entire "Men Without Women" album for release on CD.
History
Hearts of StoneHearts of Stone
"Hearts of Stone" is an American R&B song. It was written by Rudy Jackson, a member of the San Bernardino, California-based rhythm and blues vocal group the Jewels which first recorded it for the R&B label in 1954...
has been called "the best album Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
never recorded"http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Stone-Southside-Johnny-Asbury/dp/B0000025DM, which is not quite accurate. Springsteen did pen the title track and the radio-friendly "Talk To Me", and is credited along with Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
Lyon and Steve Van Zandt on "Trapped Again", but Van Zandt takes solo credit for the remaining six tracks. More to the point, this record pointed the way to the kind of music the reincarnated "Little Steven" would begin making in the early 1980s. Van Zandt tapped photographer Frank Stefanko
Frank Stefanko
Frank Stefanko is a fine art photographer with connections to New Jersey performers Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. Stefanko's recently released photographs, taken in the 1960s through the 80s, shed new light on the early careers of the two musicians....
to shoot the album cover art, after meeting Stefanko when they worked together with Springsteen on Darkness on the Edge of Town
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth album by Bruce Springsteen, released in the late spring of 1978. The album marked the end of a three year period of forced hiatus from recording brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel...
.
Although hailed by critics, when Johnny severely injured his hand and was unable to tour and promote it, the album did not sell well enough for Epic to renew the Jukes' contract. The group parted ways with its more famous Jersey Shore brethren for the next album, The Jukes, relying on songs written by members of the band.
The first two tracks on Hearts of Stone, the guitar-driven, syncopated raveup "Got To Be a Better Way Home" and the horn-powered "This Time Baby's Gone for Good", are classic Van Zandt compositions, heavily anchored in 60s soul. The bouncy third track belies its lyric; "I Played the Fool" makes very good use of bass and horns to carve a distinctive sound. The title track, Springsteen's main contribution, would perhaps have been a smash hit had it been released by its author, Springsteen. It is soulful, almost wan, as it details the ache of lovers who cannot be together. "Talk To Me", released as a single, provided a bridge to the Jukes' familiar sound from their first two records. It did not make the charts. Pointing the way to the sound they would embrace on their next record, the record's final track, "Light Don't Shine", is light on horns and relies more on detailed guitar, alongside a soft-voiced, reflective Johnny. This song would, ironically, prove to be something of an epitaph.
The Jukes created well-received records after this. However, they were simply not able to crack the national consciousness and sell enough records to justify true star-level backing. They have bounced from label to label in the decades since, and scratch out their existence in little known bars not much higher in stature than the clubs they played on the way up. Their peak was not very high nor very long, but the Jukes, with a little help from their friends, left this one brilliant document to make sure that their contribution to the music of the Jersey Shore
Jersey Shore sound
The Jersey Shore sound is a genre of rock and roll popularized at the Jersey Shore on the Atlantic Ocean coast of New Jersey, United States, that goes by a variety of names or, more often, is defined by its artists...
would not be forgotten. This would be the Jukes' last album with Van Zandt, who departed shortly after its release to join The E Street Band full-time, until 1991's Better Days
Better Days (Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes album)
Better Days is an album by Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, released in 1991. It yielded minor hits "It's Been a Long Time" and "I've Been Workin' Too Hard". The song "It's Been a Long Time" features shared lead vocals by Southside Johnny, Steve Van Zandt, and Bruce Springsteen and is a...
where he and Springsteen would rejoin Southside Johnny on many of the tracks.
In 1987 Rolling Stone voted Hearts of Stone among the top 100 albums from 1967—1987 (#92). In 2000, the New York Times numbered it among the best albums the band had released, along with debut I Don't Want To Go Home
I Don't Want To Go Home
I Don't Want to Go Home was the first album by seminal New Jersey rock/R&B band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. The work helped establish the basis of the Jersey Shore sound....
, Reach Up and Touch the Sky
Reach Up and Touch the Sky
Reach Up and Touch the Sky, sometimes called Reach Out and Touch the Sky, is a 1981 double live album by Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. Released on Mercury Records in 1981 to satisfy the contract of the band, which had recently broken up, it was a moderate commercial success, charting in the...
and At Least We Got Shoes. Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him...
claims that the title track, "Hearts of Stone", was the inspiration for his song "Never Say Goodbye
Never Say Goodbye (Bon Jovi song)
"Never Say Goodbye" is a song by American rock band Bon Jovi, written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. It was released as the fourth single off the band's album, Slippery When Wet, in August 1987, and reached number 11 on the Mainstream rock charts and number 21 in the UK Singles Chart...
".
Unused material
Additional songs were recorded for the album including "Inside of Me", "Princess of Little Italy", "Until the Good Is Gone", "Forever", "Angel Eyes" and "I've Been Waiting" which were not included on the final album release but were re-recorded by Steve Van Zandt for his first solo album Men Without WomenMen Without Women (album)
Men Without Women, credited to Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul, was the debut solo album by Steven Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and a songwriter / producer with the Jersey Shore band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes...
. Versions of "Forever" and "Until the Good Is Gone" with Southside Johnny on vocals can be heard on his live album Hearts of Stone LIVE from 2009. Additionally, the track "Working Girl" was originally recorded during these sessions and appears on Southside's 2004 release Missing Pieces, which contains the recordings made during the lost 1982 sessions. The liner notes state the song is from the "Hearts of Stone" sessions and the track features the clear presence of Steven Van Zandt on harmony vocals. On July 2, 2011 Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes recorded a live performance of Van Zandt's entire "Men Without Women" album for release on CD.
Track listing
- "Got To Be a Better Way Home" (Steven Van ZandtSteven Van ZandtSteven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
) - 3:23 - "This Time Baby's Gone for Good" (Steven Van Zandt) - 3:28
- "I Played the Fool" (Steven Van Zandt) - 3:29
- "Hearts of Stone" (Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
) - 4:31 - "Take It Inside" (Steven Van Zandt) - 3:22
- "Talk To Me" (Bruce Springsteen) - 4:02
- "Next To You" (Steven Van Zandt) - 3:39
- "Trapped Again" (Southside JohnnySouthside JohnnySouthside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt) - 4:21 - "Light Don't Shine" (Steven Van Zandt) - 4:33
Musicians
- Southside JohnnySouthside JohnnySouthside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
– lead vocals - Billy Rush – lead guitar, rhythm guitar
- Kevin Kavanaugh – keyboards
- Alan Berger – bass
- Max WeinbergMax WeinbergMax Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
– drums - Steven Van ZandtSteven Van ZandtSteven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
– vocals, rhythm guitar (lead "Hearts of Stone") - Bob Mucklin – trumpet
- Rick Gazda – trumpet
- Stan HarrisonStan HarrisonStan Harrison is an American saxophonist who is also accomplished in playing other woodwind instruments, namely the horn, flute and clarinet. He has also written music for television. Harrison released his first solo album The Ties That Blind in 2000 on his own record label...
- tenor sax (solo "Hearts of Stone") - Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – trombone
- Eddie Manion - baritone sax (solo "I Played the Fool")
Production
- Steven Van ZandtSteven Van ZandtSteven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
- producer, mixing - Jack Malken – engineer, mixing
- Michael Berry – assistant engineer
- Southside JohnnySouthside JohnnySouthside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
– mixing - Frank StefankoFrank StefankoFrank Stefanko is a fine art photographer with connections to New Jersey performers Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. Stefanko's recently released photographs, taken in the 1960s through the 80s, shed new light on the early careers of the two musicians....
– photography - Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
– mastering