This show was a double bill. John Eddie And The Front Street Runners opening for Mink DeVille at the Fast Lane in Asbury Park … some summer night in 1981. The exact date escapes my aging brain cells. Don’t remember if anyone went with me to see this show. But for those who might remember … you now what to do … write about it in the comments. Makes me wish I would have written in my journal a bit more back then. And so it goes ….

When I get my Mink DeVille negatives scanned … they will go up as a separate post.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Click the “Continue Reading” link below. And if you know anything about this show … leave a comment.

Thanks … Joe Continue Reading > > >

“For The People. By The People.”

I came to the Clash as a fan. I heard the British import of their first self titled album when it first came out … and I was hooked! When I went to the Palladium to see them for the first time in 1980, I went as a fan, who happened to bring his camera. And even as I gained access to get back stage at Bonds (thanks Brenda!) or got guest listed to the three Asbury Park shows in 1982 (thanks Kosmo!) I was still going as a fan … really. A very FORTUNATE fan.

It’s been over thirty years since I took my first live and street photos of The Clash at the Palladium in New York City. And in the following two years I’d have more chances to photograph them live and backstage. Since first publishing my photos on my blog go2jo.com, I have had many people ask me … ‘so Joe … when will you make a book of your photos?’ It’s taken me a while to get here. But here I am. I’m in the process of working on said book.

Here’s the twist. Continue Reading > > >

When I start a piece of new original music, sometimes the chords and melody come first. Sometimes the hook comes first. With this song, I’m not sure how it developed.This new music is not so new. I wrote it years ago in 2002. I have a feeling the chords and the picking pattern on the high e-string were the start of it all.

Did I write it for my song circle? Duh … I don’t know. What I do know is I love the story. It’s about a strong, constant woman, living in a seaside fishing village, who’s husband goes to sea for months at a time. It might have been an homage to my friend Sue, who had a husband in the Coast Guard. He’d be gone for weeks at a time, stationed on a lighthouse in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. A strong woman making the best of a bad situation. Trying to make things better for her daughter and namesake Constance. Continue Reading > > >

It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been preparing for the second coming. Jesus! No … not that one! The second coming of the Hoover Hootenanny. I’ve taken to recording new original music to help me learn lyrics. I figured I could record the songs, then put them on my iPhone & “sing along” in the car, the shower, while making breakfast … you get the idea.

I even bought myself a new/used Alessis MultiMix8 USB 2.0 / 8 channel mixing board. This way I could record up to 8 tacks at once directly into Apple’s Logic Pro. Not that I will be doing that myself, but it was the cheapest way to break the 2 track limit of my current & obsolete FireWire interface. Okay … TMI … I know! End result is I can finally use my AKG Perception 220 microphone I bought last year to mike vocals. Use my Shure to mike my Taylor, and also have  a line in from the Taylor as well. And then it’s one take wonders-ville. After 97 takes. It challenges me too. So it’s all good.

Continue Reading > > >

Rest in peace Clarence.
Rest in peace Big Man.

Last week we all found out that Clarence Clemons had a stroke in his home in Florida. It took us all by surprise. We all thought he was invincible. Indestructible. Super-human. He’s the BIG MAN! Then comes that moment of terrified realization. Our heroes are only flesh and blood. They are susceptible. They are fallible. In a word. Human.

We prayed. We negotiated. We denied. We poured out or hearts and our feelings in support of the Big Man. And they were met with the greatest of all inevitabilities. Death. Yesterday our hero, our friend, our dad, our guru, our mentor, our sax player, shuffled off this mortal coil. Is he in a better place? Who’s to say. Until we shuffle off to Buffalo ourselves. Continue Reading > > >

Okay! It’s official! I’ve become a doddering codger! One too many synapses have misfired & my prefrontal cortex is Pretty Vacant or so it seems. Maybe I’m being a little too hard on myself. Or maybe not.

I started attending CW Post Center of Long Island University in the spring of 1978. (Had to look that one up too!) I was twenty-one. Going back to school to get a degree. I was living in the dorms with Danny Laughlin. Through him I met Tom Quinlavin. Tom was a painter … as in fine artist. We hit it off right away. Somewhere in that first semester I met a girl, Brandy, or Candy, or Nancy, or Chuck … can’t remember her name. Don’t even remember how we met … memorable huh! I think the thing that interested me about her was she liked punk music. Music was always a good “bonding” agent for me. Always has been. Always will be.

The reason I remember her, was because there was a photo of her on the first exposure of the two rolls of film I shot at the Gang Of Four show. So I’m also thinking that we went to the show together. As in … on a date. But what kind of date could it have been? She was probably sitting alone at the table, for most of the night, while I was off shooting the band. Oh well. Continue Reading > > >