Raven [Australia]
2008
Fever!: The Anthology, 1976-1991
About This Album
It should not have taken 17 years for a cross-licensed career retrospective of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, but it did. Australia's Raven imprint has consistently done reissues and compilations of American artists with requisite excellence in sound, presentation, and aesthetic choices. Here are 20 tracks of the Jukes from 1979 through 1991. It begins with four from the release of the band's debut Epic album, I Don't Want to Go Home. All four were written by fellow townies Bruce Springsteen (whose "Fever" is a highlight) and Miami Steve Van Zandt (who was a member of the Jukes during the Epic period -- and later on). These tunes offer a hint of the killer Jersey sound that the Jukes were tearing up East Coast stages with. The band included an enormous horn section and was rooted in rhythm & blues and vintage rock, and drenched in Johnny Lyon's blue-eyed soul. Lyon is a quintessential rock frontman in the same way that Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band is. He claims full authority and control of a band that breathes pure rock fire, and has the requisite charisma and energy to whip up an audience like a tent preacher at an evangelical revival. There are a pair of cuts from This Time It's for Real included as well, the title track and the dramatic street-corner opera "Love on the Wrong Side of Town," written by Springsteen and Van Zandt.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 and 19)

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