Got To Be A Better Way Home
By Mitch Berg
It’s “Southside” Johnny Lyon’s birthday today.
He’s (checks notes)…uh, 75 today.
Unlike their Asbury Park pals in the E Street Band, the Jukes never really hit it big; their last album to really. move the needle was in 1978.
But let’s be clear – Hearts of Stone didn’t move the needle, it pinned the needle to the right of the deal:
nd their one Top 40 single, in 1991, was a group effort by Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi and Steve Van Zandt to get their friend across that particular finish line. Of course, I was working at KDWB at the time, and the competition was, well, Vanilla Ice, so it was a welcome respite:
Johnny hasn’t lost a step in concert, of course.. This is his pretty stunning cover of David Ruffin’s “My Whole World Ended”, which he started rolling out about the time he last played the Dakota in Minneapolis in 2019:
Happy Birthday, Southside.
And FFS – come back to the Dakota. We’re burning daylight here.
December 4th, 2023 at 10:00 am
Of all the bands I’ve seen, the Jukes seem to enjoy playing live as much as anybody. (Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives are up there too.)