Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXI--Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul: Forever

Back in the day when I thought Bruce Springsteen walked on water, anyone that had anything remotely to do with him was worth a listen...and Miami Steve Van Zandt was a lot more than that.  He was a long time friend of Springsteen's, played guitar for the E Street Band, and had helped produce a Springsteen effort or two.  Turns out, he was pretty damn good in his own right--and not just musically.

Steve Van Zandt has had one of the most interesting and diversified careers we've had here on FNJ and he doesn't seem to be slowing down one bit.  He started out, as so many musicians do, with different bands of his own when he was a teen, joined up with Bruce Springsteen on a couple of his early bands, before helping to co-found Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (cool band name, and not a bad little band, to boot).  He joined up again with Springsteen about the time Born to Run was released (Van Zandt has been credited by Springsteen with helping to create the signature guitar line of "Born to Run" and with producing the horns on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out").  In 1982 he formed his own band, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul (you gotta admit the dude has a knack for cool band names), had a small degree of success, and would part from The E Street Band right after Born in the USA was released.  In 1999 Van Zandt would rejoin the E Street Band (and has toured with Springsteen pretty regularly since), and he also began his role as Silvio Dante on a little show called The Sopranos.  In 2002 he began his nationally syndicated (and highly acclaimed) radio show Little Steven's Underground Garage--which he parlayed into a gig as program director for two more radio shows on Sirius.  Van Zandt has released ten solo albums, produced albums for artists from Meatloaf to Darlene Love, became a noted political activist (especially for his work in bringing attention to apartheid in South Africa), and was eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The E Street Band in 2014.  Quite the resume, I'd say--and I kept quite a bit out just to keep this from becoming a novel....

Fun Fact:  Van Zandt got his nickname, Miami Steve, because after finishing a tour with a band called the Dovells in Miami, he returned to New Jersey and would only wear Hawaiian shirts because he--much like emaycee--hated winter.

"Forever" was released in 1982 on the album Men Without Women (for those familiar with Hemingway, the title is a nod to a collection of his short stories entitled, surprisingly enough, Men Without Women).  It would reach #63 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, though it would fare better in Norway and Sweden making the top 25.  So many cool kids in Scandinavia!  

"Forever" would be a fine exemplar of the Jersey Sound--lush, full of horns and plenty of instrumentation, with a slight nod to Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound, and a wee bit of Springsteen, too. It's your basic love song--nothing much of life matters if she isn't there to share it with you.  Van Zandt delivers an animated vocal performance--his vocals are somewhat reminiscent of Blood on the Tracks Dylan (though it would be hard to imagine Dylan singing such a pop song).   In the end, there's a sweetness to the single--Van Zandt infuses the music with a 1960's girl group charm but gives the lyrics enough of an edge to not make it sappy.  It's another of those singles that still sounds as good today as it did thirty some odd years ago and that I've spent the better part of the last week happily singing as I bounced around the house.  A real delight.

Lyric Sheet:  "If I give you my heart would you love me forever?  Would you pick up the pieces if I stumble and fall?"

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee