Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Tag: Steven Van Zandt

The Empty Hearts: ‘Supergroup’ ready to hit the road with a new album

The Empty Hearts - Elliot Easton, Clem Burke, Andy Babiuk and Wally Palmar - are ready to hit the road in support of their new self-titled album "Empty Hearts."  (Photo by Robert Matheu)

The Empty Hearts – Elliot Easton, Clem Burke, Andy Babiuk and Wally Palmar – are ready to hit the road in support of their new self-titled album “Empty Hearts.”
(Photo by Robert Matheu)

This isn’t the first time Elliot Easton has cut a debut album with a new band.

In late 1977, he spent 21 days in London where he took only a day-and-a-half to lay down all his lead guitar parts for the record. He and the rest of the band were staying in a beautiful rented house in the Mayfair District of central London, and when not in the AIR recording studio – an independent studio founded by Beatles producer Sir George Martin – Easton would explore the area.

The punk movement was going strong by that point, and all the young people roaming the local markets in and around London were wearing mohawks and dressing outrageously.

“The first thing I wanted to do was go to the marketplace,” said Easton. “They had these stalls where you could get custom-made boots and clothes. I wanted a pair of snakeskin boots like Brian Jones had.”

Jones, who had died in 1969, was one of the original founders of the Rolling Stones and one of Easton’s musical influences.

By the end of the three-week stay in London, Easton and his Boston-based bandmates – Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson – had cut an album that many would come to consider a rock masterpiece, the self-titled “The Cars.” By late 1978, the album would be certified platinum.

Oh, and Easton got those snakeskin boots.

More than 35 years later, Easton has a new set of bandmates and they have recorded their first album. Billed as a “supergroup” consisting of Easton, drummer Clem Burke of Blondie, Wally Palmar of The Romantics on vocals, harmonica and guitar and bassist Andy Babiuk of The Chesterfield Kings, the group has just released its self-titled debut album “Empty Hearts.”

Now the band is ready to hit the road in support of the album, opening a tour that kicks off with four dates in the northeast – Oct. 16 in Londonderry, NH; Oct. 17 in Ardmore, PA; Oct. 18 in Brooklyn, NY; and Oct. 19 in Cranston, RI, before heading to Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 22-23 for four more shows.

And Easton is having just as much fun this time around as he did three-plus decades ago with The Cars.

“Andy (Babiuk) called me and asked if I wanted to play in a band with guys I liked and have fun playing the kind of music that reminded us of why we wanted to play music in the first place when we were young kids,” said Easton. “And I told him that sounded like a wonderful idea.”

The four got together in Babiuk’s studio in Rochester, NY, to write and record. They added another friend, Ian McLagan of Faces and Small Faces to help on keyboards, and a producer that they all knew, Ed Stasium.

And the end result came out great, according to Easton.

“We’ve all known each other for a long time and we’ve all liked each other. We just wanted to have a band without drama and just have fun. We’re not trying to change the world, we’re just trying to play music we love that’s good,” said Easton.

Choosing a band name presented a bit of a challenge, that is until another friend, Steven Van Zandt from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame E Street Band, suggested “Empty Hearts,” chosen from his personal list of “secret” unused band names.

Van Zandt, along with his rock and roll pedigree, also starred as the consiglieri Silvio Dante in the long-running HBO series “The Sopranos.” And nobody in the “self-proclaimed band of rock and roll lifers” was going was going to disagree with Silvio Dante’s “suggestion” for the band’s name.

“There was no pressure. We all have nothing to prove. We’ve all had great careers and have a lot to be grateful for. So the only pressure is what we put on ourselves to just do good work,” said Easton.

“We’ve all made tons of records, we all know how it’s done, what to do. And we knew the kind of record we wanted to make. I think it was obvious to us that it wasn’t going to be one of those laboratory records. It was going to be a real rock and roll record with people playing off each other. So that’s what we’ve got.”

The band is now in rehearsals preparing to hit the road. Easton said the goal is to capture some of the fire of the band and translate that into the live shows.

“When the band is firing on all cylinders, it’s a really good band. It’s a raging band. We just want to get on the road and start rocking and having a good time with people,” said Easton.

For more information about the album and the tour schedule, visit www.theemptyhearts.com.

 

Southside Johnny at The Stone Pony: A real rock and roll show

Southside Johnny rocks the summer stage.

Southside Johnny rocks the summer stage.

The famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J.

The famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a theory that had at least the hint of possibly coming true.

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were scheduled to play a July 3, 2014, show at the famous Stone Pony is Asbury Park, N.J. The venue is, as many music fans know, the place where Bruce Springsteen got his start. As did Southside Johnny – John Lyon – and his band the Asbury Jukes.

There’s a chapter in The Vinyl Dialogues, featuring an interview with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steven Van Zandt of Springsteen’s E Street Band, that details the evolution of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in the mid-1970s, the influence of Springsteen on the band and the development of what we now know at the Jersey Shore Sound.

Over the years, it has not been uncommon for both Springsteen and Van Zandt to join Southside on stage, especially when the band is playing in or around Asbury Park or specifically, at the Stone Pony.

There’s a lot of rock and roll history that’s been made at the Stone Pony. So when I saw that Southside and the Jukes were scheduled to perform at the venue’s summer stage on July 3, I said to myself, “Hmmm. I wonder . . . .”

Let me state upfront that I’ve never seen Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band or Southside Johnny perform live. I know, I know, shame on me. My only excuse is that I grew up in the Midwest having no idea about anything New Jersey. So I came very late to the Springsteen-Van Zandt-Southside party. (I’m still not at the Jon Bon Jovi party yet.)

The point now is that I’m all-in with everything Springsteen. I’m listening and learning and enjoying all the music that I missed the first time around, starting with the early Springsteen and Southside stuff from the 1970s.

So the plan for the Southside concert was a no brainer: Seeing Southside Johnny for the first time at the historic Stone Pony. I wouldn’t want to have seen him at any other venue the first time. (John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, from “Eddie & The Cruisers” fame, was the opener.)

But in the back of my mind, I wondered: July 3 was on a Thursday, the start of a long Fourth of July four-day weekend. Maybe, just maybe, Bruce – who had finished his 2014 tour – would be hanging around Asbury Park with the family. Or maybe Van Zandt was in the neighborhood. And maybe they both didn’t have anything else to do that evening. Would it be possible that one or both of them would stop by and do a few songs with Southside in their old stomping grounds?

It had happened before at the Stone Pony. The odds seemed, at the very least, plausible.

And then Mother Nature interfered, the ratfink. It rained like hell on July 3, so much so that the Stone Pony management canceled the show since it was at the club’s outdoor summer stage, which offers no protection from the elements.

Fortunately, the show was rescheduled for Aug. 2, a date that was open on the schedule. Once again, Mother Nature threatened to interrupt the proceedings with a lot of threatening skies, but the rain held off.

The Stone Pony itself is old and it needs some work. It’s a club, not Radio City Music Hall. The ceiling is half falling down in places and people still spill beer on its floor. The summer stage outside is a general admission ticket and fans have to stand for the shows. Fortunately, you can pay an extra fee and sit in a small grandstand, which we did because my wife and I have determined that the days of standing through entire concerts has long since passed for our knees and hips.

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes at the Stone Pony – a real rock and roll show. It was excellent and just what I hoped the entire experience would be.

Oh, neither Springsteen nor Van Zandt showed up. I was looking for them when Southside started singing “I Don’t Want to Go Home.” That would have been some serious gravy had they popped up on the stage at that point, huh?

But Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes had this one. It was homefield advantage all the way for them. And it was just that cool, even without those other two guys.

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