I Don't Want To Go Home / This Time It's For Real

If you are looking for a band that brings all the excitement of your first adventure into soul music from New Jersey then this is the album for you. I first saw this band on the Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70s perform I Don't Want To Go Home and bought the album on vinyl. Have now bought this CD and.it is still as good now as it was then. Timeless

Great present, well packaged

excelliant

For many lovers of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes who have grown up with them since the 1970s, their first three albums are the best. The third, "Hearts of Stone", is available in its entirety on a "Best Of" CD, but it is only now that i have caught up with CD versions of the complete first two albums. That they are presented back-to-back (with their original running order maintained) on this one CD is a bonus, economically speaking, although I admit that I do tend to listen to them seperately at different times.Southside Johnny grew up with bruce Springsteen, of course, and perhaps less famously with "Miami" Steve van Zandt but both have always been associated with Southside's music, writing many excellent songs for him. Van Zandt played with Southside many times, so much so that he can be regarded as an honorary member of the band - on this CD he plays guitar on the "I Don't Want to Go Home" album.Both are wonderful albums: "This Time It's for Real" is perhaps the more commercial but both have some wonderful songs, making this a great CD as a whole. The brass sound of the Asbury Jukes just cannot be beaten - and in combination with some great songs makes this CD an absolute winner!"I Don't Want To Go Home" (Van Zandt) is a Southside Johnny classic and a great way to open up this CD. Also worthy of special mention on the first album are the bluesy "Got to get you off my mind", Springsteen's "The Fever"; "It Ain't the Meat (It's the Motion)", a duet with some super bass vocals by Kevin Kavanagh the keyboards player; and the final song off the first album is again Springsteen, "You Mean So Much to Me". On it Southside duets with Ronnie Spector and it's a show-stopping number full of verve and energy - totally brilliant!So...the second album - of course part of the same CD - is just as good. The highlights on this for me are "Without Love", which is one of my all-time favourite songs by any artist; "Little Girl So Fine" (a song co-written by Sprinsteen/ and Van Zandt) is given an excellent rendition here in collaboration with The Drifters; "Love on the Wrong Side of Town" and the closing number "When You Dance" - both again Sprinsteen/Van Zandt numbers. "When You Dance" is an absolute storm, starting with sounds of African drums before a great guitar riff comes in - it is a song that you just HAVE to dance to.Music to make you happy! Absolutely brilliant!

Thank goodness for BGO Records! What we have here are Southside's first two albums re-issued by a label specialising in hidden gems. Southside had more than his fair share of bad luck, but talent shines through. This is the New Jersey Sound, bit like Springsteen but more horns, and like Stax in places.

SSJ first burst into the UK about 30 years ago. touring with another Legend Graham Parker, and with these two albums. They were and remain the two definitive records of New Jersey rock and blues... and if you don't believe me, believe Bruce Springsteen.Blessed with the greatest white soul voice EVER and blowing harp, Southside churns every emotion, from driving rock, to sad soul, to idiot rythmns and mad horns that'll blow your head off.The Jukes are simply amazing, and with Billy Rush, Miami Steve, La Bamba and the rest of the boys, this is the original (and still the best) line-up.So the greatest records from the greatest near-miss in popular music.... what is there not to love?