Wearing Different Jerseys : Rock: Street-smart Southside Johnny Lyon, now living in San Clemente, is busy rockin' 'round the map with new album release.

By RICK VANDERKNYFF

Nov. 30, 1991 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

If they came up with a prototype for the hard-working Jersey Shore bar-band rocker, it would probably come pretty close to the real-life Southside Johnny Lyon.

Pal to Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt, longtime veteran of late-night jams at such legendary Joizy clubs as the Upstage and the Stone Pony, possessor of a classic R&B; growl, Lyon even named his band the Asbury Jukes after Asbury Park, the decaying resort town and center of the state’s productive ‘70s musical scene.

So what’s he doing in--gulp--San Clemente? Has Southside Johnny become Surfside Johnny?

“I always had kind of a soft spot for Southern Cal,” Lyon confessed in an interview at the Hollywood offices of Impact Records, his new label. “Growing up in a small town in New Jersey, when the winter kicks in and it’s around February and you start thinking about places you’d rather be, Southern California has always been one of them. . . .

“I was out here on tour (in late 1988) and I played the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, and I said, ‘This looks nice, let’s move here.’ And we did.”

Lyon, however, learned a fast lesson about the county’s tendency to wipe out any vestiges of neighborhood character.

“One of the first drives my wife and I took in San Clemente (was) when I was trying to think, ‘Well, do I really want to live in one of these little California beach towns?’ ” Lyon recalled.

“We rode up this hill, and right there was this big 8-ball on a pillar. . . . I said, ‘Great--any town’s got a pool hall can’t be so bad.’ Well, of course, as soon as I move in there they close it down and make a Volkswagen parts joint out of it. So, out of luck.”

The move came at a lull in Lyon’s musical career, and life in San Clemente (which he shares with his wife, Jill, and their two canaries) has been mostly quiet: walks in nearby Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, drinks on the pier at sunset, movie outings. But lately, he has spent a lot of time on the road, leaving the canaries with neighbors.

All the activity has been spurred by the release of “Better Days,” the first Southside Johnny album in three years. More important, however, it marks a reunion with Steve Van Zandt, who produced and wrote many of the tunes for Lyon’s first--and best-received--three albums from the mid- to late ‘70s: “I Don’t Want to Go Home,” “This Time It’s for Real” and “Hearts of Stone,” the last of which made Rolling Stone magazine’s 1990 list of the best 100 albums of the previous 20 years.

Those albums featured the horn-driven Jukes sound along with a sprinkling of Springsteen-penned nuggets, notably “The Fever” and “Hearts of Stone.” Lyon went on to record several ‘80s albums with the Jukes, along with some solo efforts in several styles, but he never quite regained his stride after the departure of Van Zandt, who was busy in his role as Springsteen’s guitarist.

After the 1988 release of “Slow Dance,” a solo album of ballads that he says was recorded for his wife, Lyon began playing the Los Angeles region in a band called Blues Deluxe and making plans for a blues album featuring material co-written by him and his guitarist, Bobby Bandiera.

But in the summer of ‘90, Southside had a gig at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and decided to call Van Zandt and several former Jukes. Since leaving Springsteen’s E Street Band in 1984, Van Zandt had turned much of his musical and personal attention to political causes, including the founding of Artists United Against Apartheid.

“He walked on stage, and the crowd just went nuts,” Lyon said. “I think he started to remember how much fun it was to make that kind of music, just the heartfelt R&B; style, whether it be up-tempo or slow.”

That musical meeting led to a renewed partnership on the new album.

“We sat down after that and talked about working together again,” Lyon said. The project evolved as Van Zandt began writing tunes for what Lyon describes as a homecoming album, a look into their musical past.

Much of the new material explores “how it feels to be us now, looking back,” Lyon said. “I’m very happy in my life, I’m very happily married, I love the band I play with, I love the material I get to play on stage. I’m sort of master of my destiny, more so now than ever before, and it feels good. It’s a good time in my life.

“But,” he added, “I think that when you get to those places, sometimes you need to look back and see how you got there.”

The homecoming feel of “Better Days” was solidified with the return of many of the old Jukes. Springsteen, working on his own album, took time to contribute a song, “All the Way Home,” on which he plays guitar. He also trades vocals with Lyon and Van Zandt on “It’s Been a Long Time,” the first single from the album. Two other E Streeters, drummer Max Weinberg and bassist Garry Tallent, appear on the album.

Recorded over six weeks in June and July, “Better Days” was released late last month. Lyon and Bandiera already have performed two weeks of acoustic gigs in Europe in support of the album, and will head East in December with the full band for a two-week tour.

“I just can’t wait to do (the new material) live, because I know it’s going to get a great reaction, and it’ll be new stuff,” Lyon said. “It’s one thing to do ‘Fever’ and ‘I Don’t Want to Go Home,’ which I still love and get a great reaction, but when you get a new song that you haven’t played a thousand times and it still gets a great reaction, it’s really a big thrill.”

A more extensive tour, including West Coast dates, probably will come next year. Meanwhile, Lyon has landed appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With David Letterman.” And there’s a video of “It’s Been a Long Time,” the shooting of which picked up national media attention.

“I don’t like making videos,” Lyon confessed. “I’m not a big fan of videos. I really am not good at lip-syncing. I don’t always remember what I’m supposed to do.”

So the label agreed to an alternative plan. In October, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes were joined by fellow Jerseyans Van Zandt, Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi for a full concert at the Stone Pony. At the end of the show, they ran through “It’s Been a Long Time” several times for the cameras, with the result patched together by the director.

Now that the pieces are in place, the only thing left is to see how the record sells. The album entered the Billboard charts at No. 96, but slipped the following week to No. 110. It could get a boost if the video catches on, but Southside Johnny records have never been huge sellers, even in the glory days.

“The business is still refreshingly random,” Lyon joked. “I honestly don’t try to keep up with all that (sales) stuff because it can make you completely neurotic, and I’ve got lots of other things to keep me neurotic.”

Still, he admitted, “It’s not an easy sell--this kind of music--to a lot of stations.” Radio, he believes, is even more restricted than it was in the ‘70s.

“I think that all stations should play all kinds (of music), instead of just trying to narrow their demographic down to this little 18- to 26-year-old white males in suburbia,” he said. “It seems to me that’s cutting your own throat; the more people you attract to your station, the bigger base you have. . . .

“I want to be on the same radio station that plays Nine Inch Nails and LL Cool J and Tom Waits. Only because I like a wide range of music and I think everybody would, if they got a chance to hear it.”