Local music staple Southside Johnny Lyon recently told Metromix Jersey Shore that playing in front of local audiences is tough because, odds are, the crowd already knows all of his "tricks."
Well, the leader of the beloved bar band the Asbury Jukes is about to surprise a lot of listeners with a whole new bag of tricks in the form of his latest album, "Grapefruit Moon: The Songs of Tom Waits."
Recorded with Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg’s 18-piece big band, "Grapefruit Moon" is a swinging and surprising tribute to the gritty and perennially cool Waits. Lyon said he first heard of him around the time Waits released his 1973 debut album, "Closing Time."
"I just thought he was brilliant and I liked his attitude," Lyon said. "I loved his voice, the whole thing. There was the romanticism but there was also the gritty street feel, and I guess Jersey people have an affinity for that, certainly Bruce (Springsteen) does, Jon (Bon Jovi) and all. And I just loved him over all the years."
Lyon recently spoke with Metromix Jersey Shore about the making of the album, which hits stores Tuesday (Sept. 2).
What prompted the decision to do an album of Waits' tunes?
Well, I always liked singing his songs. I remember he played me a demo of "Downtown Train," which Rod Stewart later did and I went, "I don’t hear it, I don’t hear the melody," and so I didn't do it. (laughs) Then, of course, three months later it was, you know (a hit for Stewart).
So here’s what I’m not hearing: I’m not delving deep enough to find the melodies, to find that inner rhythm that I can make my own, which is what you do with somebody else’s material -- you try to make it your own. I started to try to do that and I thought I should make an album of these things, even if I don’t put it out, just to learn how to find a melody in the internal structure that fits me for the songs. And then I always wanted to do an album with La Bamba where he could use the big band, because he’s ... a great arranger, spectacular, and then I said, "Well, why don’t you just do both as one project?" And that’s how it happened.
Do you think this album will help folks who only know La Bamba in more of a comedic way from his work (as a member of the Max Weinberg 7) on "Late Night with Conan O’Brien" see another side of him?
I hope so, yeah. I mean, if they do go -- and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna go with Conan to California (when O’Brien takes over "The Tonight Show" in 2009) -- he should be doing TV work, he should be doing movie work, he should be arranging horns for all that stuff. He’s got the ability, he’s got the enthusiasm, he’s a hard-working guy and he just deserves a shot.
That was one of the reasons I wanted to make a record with him, just to showcase his abilities, but not to further his career as to say to people "Look at what this guy can do."
How did you guys feel out what direction to take each song in? "All the Time in the World" almost sounds like a james Bond theme, and "Please Call Me Baby" sounds like something Jimmy Durante would have sung.
Well, Richie is the main thrust of all of that. Certainly, he’s a big fan of all of the Bond movie stuff … so he wanted to do that. I wanted to do some of this, some of that, and we understood each other pretty well. I’m a big Count Basie fan, Duke Ellington, that kind of thing. "Tango 'till They’re Sore" kind of lent itself to a New Orleans funeral march kind of thing. So, we were very much attuned so whenever one of us came up with an idea, and he came up with most of the ideas, we were already thinking along that line.
I've heard that you and the band are planning on doing something from the album on "Conan" in September.
Yeah, the 18th I believe it is. It'll be the big band and we'll do, I don't know, one song or two songs. We've got to shorten everything. You only get three minutes and 45 seconds or whatever the hell it is, and every song (on the album) is six minutes long. But, that’s up to Richie. I just say, "Do it," so he's editing as we speak. He's trying to rearrange things so we get the full flavor but shorter. I'm looking forward to it, that’s easy.
We're also gonna do a live show, and that's gonna be a little more nerve-wracking, because I’ve gotta find a way to make it all work without becoming staid or very high-brow. I mean, I still want it to flow and have fun and all that stuff. I can’t see it being a problem, but it does loom fairly large in my neurotic consciousness.
And do you guys know when you're going to do that as a live show?
No, we're still trying to find opportunities, places and musicians. It's quite an endeavor. It's not like throwing the Jukes on a stage -- it's 18 musicians and there are certain people we definitely want but they’re not always available, certain places I want to play and they're not always available, so it's quite an undertaking.
Are there any plans to do versions of any of these songs with the Jukes live?
Probably not now. It depends because the album is coming out … and it should be in stores and everything. We’re actually going to be in record stores, yippee. And we’re gonna try for radio play and all that stuff, and when that all happens then I’m gonna kind of be forced to do some of that material, and we'll figure it out. It all can be done.
Southside Johnny Lyon (photo by Eddie Malluk)
