Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, in a vintage publicity photo.
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will perform at The Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park on Aug. 31, in a show honoring the club’s 50th anniversary. Surely, there will be lots of reminiscing among those attending, and possibly by those onstage, as well.
But for anyone who wants to look back in a different way — or anyone who goes to the Pony, and wants to take a deep dive into nostalgia, later — Dennis P. Laverty has a great option to offer.
Laverty, a former Old Bridge resident who now lives in Staten Island, is a filmmaker who specializes in thoroughly detailed documentaries about Jersey and Jersey-related musicians. His past works include films devoted to Clarence Clemons, John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band, Bobby Bandiera, Elvis Presley’s influence on Bruce Springsteen, and Springsteen’s Born in the USA-era breakthrough. He relies, mostly, on previously existing videos — often made by amateur fans, not professionals — and makes his work available for free on the Internet. He credits himself as a “compiler and editor,” not as a director.
RENE VAN DIEMEN
From left, Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg, Southside Johnny and Bobby Bandiera at the Jukestock fan convention in 2001.
He has previously examined Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes’ early years, and their 1979-1991 period. And, in part III of the series, which can be seen below, he turns his attention to the band in the years from 1992 to 2005. It’s a four-hour film, loaded with performance footage and interviews that you wouldn’t be able to track down yourself, even if you spent the rest of your life trying.
Laverty chronicles the albums, tours, big benefit concerts and lineup changes of those years. In the interview segments he includes, the conversation often turns to Southside explaining his philosophy as a middle-aged working musician who knows he’s not going to be the next big thing in the music world, but keeps plugging away, because he loves it so much.
In one of these segments, Southside says that when he thinks about fans listening to his music, in their cars or their homes, “It reminds you of what you did with the music you loved, and now you’re a part of that. I’m stunned that I actually make something that other people like, that enhances their life, hopefully.”
Summing up his influence on other musicians, Jon Bon Jovi says that “without him, there would be no me.”
In the course of the documentary, you see Southside performing with Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt, Jon Bon Jovi (solo) and the Bon Jovi band; as an acoustic duo with Bobby Bandiera; and, of course, with an ever-changing assortment of Jukes (Bandiera, Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg, Mark Pender, Jeff Kazee, Ed Manion, Joey Stann, etc.).
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes’ 2000 album “Messin’ With the Blues.”
You hear Southside talk about going to see Aretha Franklin at a supper club with Springsteen and others; and talking about his life and career, in great depth, with TV’s Regis & Joy Philbin; and with sports radio co-hosts Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo at a live broadcast at Bar Anticipation in Lake Como. (Footage of performances from both appearances are included as well.)
A long segment chronicles the March 2001 fan convention Jukestock, which took place in Tinton Falls. (I covered that event for the Star-Ledger newspaper, and Laverty includes some comments by me about it. Newspaper clips written by me, and many others, are also shown at various times in the film.)
Laverty unearths the intros of the ’90s TV series “Down the Shore” (which used the Jukes’ “I Don’t Want to Go Home” as its theme) and “Dave’s World” (which used Southside’s version of Billy Joel’s “You May Be Right”). Laverty also touches on the Jukes’ 2000 blues album Messin’ With the Blues; Southside’s creation of his own record label, Leroy, after decades of disappointments with other labels; and the approximately 18-month break he took from music, in the mid-’90s, to deal with a “deep depression” and other personal issues. (A move to Nashville, suggested by his friend Garry Tallent, helped him re-engage with music).
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The movie is loaded with stuff that Southside Johnny fans will want to see.
Here it is, so you can see for yourself:
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