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September, 2002 Fan of the Month: Murray Webster Congratulations, you've won a signed Southside Johnny poster!  Well, those
Jukes keep writing more and more songs! www.Jukes-Tabs.org
will
never be complete at this rate. I read that Southside thinks he
has a good few more albums in him (The Lord be praised), so as
soon as the site gets close to having all the chords to the
songs transcribed there will still be more to do...for all
eternity!So, what has made me such a Southside nut that I have to learn how to play all the songs and share them on the web? Well, it all began back in the 70's when I was still at school and in my first band as a guitarist. "The Fever" was probably the first Jukes number that caught our attention via BBC TV's The Old Grey Whistle Test, and we in the UK were not impervious to all that was related to the whole 'Bruce is the future of Rock 'n Roll' hoopla.  But The Jukes were always special. I was just at the point of
exploring the black music that inspired the 60's garage bands I
had loved up to then like The Who, The Troggs, The Small Faces
etc... and you know, now that I look back, Van Zandt's writing
and The Jukes' playing on the "Hearts Of Stone" album
were the perfect bridge between that guitar energy and soulful
tenderness. In the subsequent year the album had inspired me to
perform "Hearts Of Stone" and "Light Don't
Shine" solo in student bars at college. However, being in
the UK, the only gig I got to see in that period was at The
Venue in London, October 1979.So, with the first five Jukes albums on tape to keep me very good company during a year at college in the south of France, I continued to roughly transcribe a lot of the songs, but afterwards, performance-wise, I was lucky to be part of the 1980's London Clubland world of Soul Jazz. This saw the band I was in play mostly original material at London venues such as The Hammersmith Palais, The Town And Country Club (Forum), The Astoria, release one single, feature in a couple of TV documentaries and in the film Absolute Beginners. I was even part of an advertising campaign for Harrods' Way In store! Apart from attending one gig at The Hammersmith Odeon in April 1987 I all but lost touch with what The Jukes were doing. But the next sighting was extraordinary and I'm sure every Jukes fan remembers being astonished by the power of the opening, subsequent and unrelenting tracks of Better Days. Unbelievable stuff and a real rekindling of inspiration. After that the whole digest, official website experience and renewed Jukes touring and recording activity has continued to feed the hunger. I must thank Michelle Paponetti who compiled the entire set of Jukes lyrics for the official website because having to type them out, as well as trying to get the chords, would have been way too prohibitive (I have to have some time to write and record my own music occasionally!). The Jukes-Tabs site gets a surprising number of hits considering that it's a minority sport and I have never advertised it outside of the Jukes/Little Steven community. The feedback I get from tribute bands and solo bedroom guitarists alike means that I know the site is appreciated. So 71 songs transcribed, 73 to go and counting. Will it ever end? I hope not, because I have been privileged to learn SO much about songwriting, arrangement and production from transcribing this work and that is a reward in itself. Long Live The Jukes! Murray Webster
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