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The Tragically Overlooked Music of Little Steven Van Zandt
He’s no sidekick
He’s been called Miami Steve, Little Steven, and just plain Stevie (though he’s probably best known to most as Silvio from The Sopranos). I’ve compared him to Captain America and the Prophet Elijah. He’s been a part of not one, not two, but three great bands (only one of which you probably know). Yet after nearly 50 (fifty!) articles about Bruce Springsteen, I have somehow not written one specifically about his partner in crime, Steven Van Zandt.
In the early 1970s, Steve Van Zandt essentially split his time between playing with Springsteen and Southside Johnny Lyon. Lyon and Van Zandt formed the Asbury Jukes in 1975, at roughly the same time that Van Zandt officially joined the E Street Band following the release of Born to Run. He played lead and rhythm guitar in the band, wrote the bulk of their songs, and produced their first three albums: I Don’t Want to Go Home (1976), This Time It’s for Real (1977), and Hearts of Stone (1978). He left the Jukes in 1980 to focus solely on his work with Springsteen, but those three albums are some of the best you’ll hear anywhere; his (and occasionally Springsteen’s) songwriting combined with Southside Johnny’s voice yields something quite amazing.
There aren’t many examples out there of Steve actually singing those great songs…
