Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Little Steven Edition

Steven Van Zandt was a Jersey rock ‘n’ roller, who helped found Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. Then, in 1975, his old buddy Bruce Springsteen called, needing help on coming up with a horn arrangement for “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”. Van Zandt, a soul music junkie, did his job there and then helped The Boss come up with the main guitar line for “Born to Run”. After those contributions, it wasn’t too long before Van Zandt joined the E Street Band on tour, where he has become a constant beside Bruce on his full band tours. Steven is not just a sidekick, releasing two fine albums as Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul in the ‘80s. Anyone who can write a reggae tune good enough that Steel Pulse covered it (“Solidarity”) has some talent. And beyond that, Steven became an icon as Tony Soprano’s right hand man on The Sopranos and keeps garage rock alive on his syndicated radio program. Just recently, he put together a theatrical show that reunited the great blue eyed soul band The Rascals. Little Steven has been a big man in rock history. Let’s pay tribute to Steven by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.

1. The Marshall Tucker Band – I’ll Be Loving You (Together Forever): An outlier amongst the Southern rock bands of the ‘70s, as The Marshall Tucker Blended country, rock, blues and jazz in a truly inventive way. This song has a busy Little Feat rhythm with a genuinely pretty melody augmented by a jazzy flute part and the distinctive vocals of Doug Gray. Great stuff.
2. Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves (Police and Theives): A reggae classic from 1976, produced by Lee Scratch Perry. Murvin had an angelic voice, and the dub heavy rhythm track is in line with Perry’s work with The Congos. Of course, The Clash fell in love with the song and added their defiance to their famed cover of the tune.
3. Snowglobe – Blue Balcony (Our Land Brains): Sweet Southern indie pop from the late ‘90s. This is an instrumental with Brian Wilson touches centering around some lovely string parts.
4. Wax – All Over Again (What Else Can We Do): The L.A. pop-punk band primarily comprised of Chicago area musicians stood out from the competition with creative arrangements, somewhat akin to Descendents (but not too much, or else Wax wouldn’t have stood out). This song has three different tempos and the shifts work because they all lead to the killer singalong chorus.
5. Office of Future Plans – You’re Not Alone (Office of Future Plans): This is J. Robbins’ latest band, which incorporates a cello player. On this down tempo song, Robbins combines his clipped compositions with an orchestral pop grace. He has managed to incrementally grow his sonic approach without losing his musical identity, and this album is one of the best things he has done.
6. The Features – Situation Gone Bad (Exhibit A): By the time The Features put out their first album, they had honed their sound perfectly. This song starts out with a frenzy but locates a killer melody that creates the hook that makes this a tune they still play live from time to time.
7. The Kinks – Wonderboy (Something Else): This 1968 single is a bonus cut on the reissue of this classic Kinks album. It simple proves that Ray Davies just had great tunes coming out of his ears, as this song would have fit in well either on Something Else or Village Green Preservation Society.
8. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Saturday Night Special (Nuthin’ Fancy): The dichotomy of Lynyrd Skynyrd is hard to wrap one’s head around at times. A typical populist Southern rock band waving the Confederate flag...that was capable of writing an outstanding anti-gun song. Of all the Southern rock bands, Skynyrd was most inspired by British bands like The Who and Cream, and this is evident on this song, as Ronnie Van Zant is the guy who gives this a Southern flavor, as otherwise, this is classic British arena rock.
9. Laptop – Social Life (The Old Me vs. The New You): Eccentric synth-pop from a bit over 10 years ago. The rhythms on this song criss-cross and surround the dry vocals which reveal the dry sense of humor that fueled most Laptop songs.
10. Kylie Auldist – Changes (Still Life): This wonderful Australian modern soul singer hits the way back machine for 1976 on this breezy pop-funk number. This would go well with George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby”. More people need to hear Kylie Auldist.