Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes are an American band from the Jersey Sh… Read Full Bio ↴Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes are an American band from the Jersey Shore and led by Southside Johnny. They have been recording albums since 1976 and are closely associated with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. During the bands formative years Steve Van Zandt (sometimes known as Miami Steve Van Zandt, sometimes as Little Steven) acted as the band's co-leader, guitarist, songwriter, arranger and producer while other E Streeters including Clarence Clemons, Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent, Ernest Carter, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell have all performed, toured and/or recorded with the Jukes. The band's horn section - The Miami Horns - has also toured and recorded with Springsteen. More than one hundred musicians can claim to have been members of The Asbury Jukes, including Jon Bon Jovi who toured with the band as a special guest during 1990.

Southside Johnny (real name John Lyon, born December 4, 1948 in Neptune, New Jersey) is an American singer, harmonica player, and songwriter, who usually fronts his band The Asbury Jukes.

Lyon grew up in Ocean Grove, New Jersey and graduated from Neptune High School. As an artist, Southside Johnny first achieved prominence in the mid-1970s as the second act to emerge from the Jersey Shore music scene and be considered part of the Jersey Shore sound, following Bruce Springsteen. Southside's first three albums, I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), This Time It's For Real (1977), and Hearts of Stone (1978), were Stax-influenced R&B arranged and produced by the co-founder of the band and Springsteen confederate Steven Van Zandt and largely featured songs written by Van Zandt and/or Springsteen. The Van Zandt-written "I Don't Want To Go Home" became Southside's signature song, an evocative mixture of horn-based melodic riffs and sentimental lyrics. Other notable songs included "The Fever","Talk to Me," "This Time It's For Real," "Love on the Wrong Side of Town," and the definitive version of Springsteen's " Hearts of Stone."

Southside has long been considered the Grandfather of "the New Jersey Sound." Jon bon Jovi has acknowledged Southside as "his reason for singing."

In 1982 the Rolling Stone Magazine voted the album Hearts of Stone among the top 100 albums of the 70's and 80's.

Cast under Springsteen's long shadow, national commercial success eluded Southside and the Jukes, and in 1979 they were dropped by their record company. Now working without Van Zandt, they released The Jukes in 1979 and Love is a Sacrifice in 1980. Neither of these achieved much success either. The band's first official live release also came out in 1980, the double album Reach Up and Touch the Sky.

During the 1980s Southside Johnny's recording contracts continued to change almost by album, but he continued to release records: Trash It Up (1983), a disco influenced album written by Billy Rush and produced by Nile Rodgers; In the Heat (1984) an album trying to reach out to "Adult Oriented Radio"; and At Least We Got Shoes (1986) where guitarist and Jersey shore fixture Bobby Bandiera, who often plays a custom guitar built by First Act Guitars took over songwriting and guitar work from Billy Rush and led the Asbury Jukes back to their original sound. Songwriting credits on At Least We Got Shoes also contain a song co-written by Bandiera and singer Patti Scialfa, who was known as a Jukes collaborator since the 1980 album Love is a Sacrifice and who became a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band in 1984.

In 1988 Southside Johnny released his first solo record Slow Dance containing ballads and love songs, but also "Little Calcutta" which is still discussed as Southside's most political song of his career, describing the life and environment of the homeless in New York City.

More record label switches, Jukes personnel changes, tours and club dates followed.

Jukes' recording career was re-launched with the album Better Days (1991), which featured production by Van Zandt, songs by Springsteen, and vocal performances from Van Zandt, Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. With Bobby Bandiera driving the band, the Jukes were gaining new energy for a world wide tour supporting the album. But once again, Southside Johnny's bad luck with the industry was shown when the record label went bankrupt while the tour was still rolling.

Southside performed the theme song for the 1990s sitcom Dave's World, a cover of Billy Joel's "You May Be Right."

Southside eventually relocated to Nashville taking a break from the music business. A few members of the Asbury Jukes would end up being part of The Max Weinberg 7 on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien television show, while some others went on tour and into the recording studio with artists like Jon Bon Jovi, Mink DeVille, Graham Parker, Robert Cray.

In 1998 Southside Johnny came back into the spotlight with an independent release titled Spittin' Fire, a live record with a semi-acoustic Jukes lineup released in France containing a 20 song set recorded during a series of 10 shows at the "Chesterfield Café" in Paris, France.

After a decade without a record contract Southside finally founded his own record label in 2001 under the name of Leroy Records, and started releasing and distributing his new records fully under his own control: Messin' with the Blues (2000), Going to Jukesville (2002), Missing Pieces (2004), Into the Harbour (2005).

Southside continues to perform, and maintains substantial audience followings in some regions of the U.S., such as New Jersey, New York, northeast Ohio, and abroad, in the UK and continental Europe, as 2002's Live At The Opera House DVD, filmed at a sell-out performance in Newcastle upon Tyne, demonstrates. As of 2005, he resides on the Delaware Bay. His annual appearances at Springsteen's Asbury Park holiday shows draw as much crowd excitement as Springsteen himself.

Snatchin' It Back
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

(G. Jackson/C. Carter)

I try to get your love
But you keep on snatchin' it back
Tell me, tell me, tell me baby
How can I get your love
If you keep on snatchin' it back?
Oh, yeah

Have to expect not to get it
If you keep on doing like that

You want me, baby
And I want you
But you're afraid to come up to my room
I get your love in the palm of my hand
But you change on me baby
And snatch it back again

How can I get your love
If you keep on snatchin' it back?
I got to know, won't you tell me baby
I wonder how can I get your love
If you keep on snatchin' it back?
I do expect this, I'll never get it back
If you keep on doing like that

Some other lover
Before my time
Took your love
And left you behind
Now you afraid, baby
That I'll use you too
I won't do nothing darling
I won't, it's the truth
Tell me, tell me

How can I get your love
If you keep on snatchin' it back?

Some other lover
Before my time
Took your love
And left you behind
Now you afraid, baby
That I'll use you too
I won't do nothing darling
I won't, it's the truth
Now woman

How can I get your love?
Tell the truth baby
How can I get all of your love?
Come on darling
Tell me, how can I get your love?
How can I get your love?

How can I get your love
If you keep on snatchin' it back?

Fame Publishing Company Inc. BMI

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes's song Snatchin' It Back are about the struggle of trying to win over a lover who has been hurt in the past and therefore keeps pushing the singer away. He is trying to figure out how to get her love when she keeps snatching it back, and is frustrated because he feels like he is not getting anywhere. The song suggests that the woman in question is afraid of getting hurt again, which is why she is so hesitant to commit to a relationship. The singer wants her to trust him and to give him a chance to show her that he won't hurt her like the other lover who left her behind.

The chorus of the song repeats the question of how to get her love if she keeps snatching it back, indicating that the singer is struggling to understand her actions. He acknowledges that if she keeps behaving this way, he can't expect to get her love. There is a sense of frustration throughout the song, as the singer wants answers and is tired of being confused by her actions.

Overall, the lyrics of Snatchin' It Back are about the struggle of trying to win the love of someone who is afraid of getting hurt again. The singer is frustrated and confused by her behavior and wants to know how to get her love.

Line by Line Meaning

I try to get your love
I'm doing my best to win your love

But you keep on snatchin' it back
But you keep taking it away from me

Tell me, tell me, tell me baby
Please, tell me what's going on

How can I get your love
How can I win your love

If you keep on snatchin' it back?
If you keep refusing to give it to me?

Have to expect not to get it
I have to accept that I won't get it

If you keep on doing like that
If you keep acting this way

You want me, baby
You desire me, my love

And I want you
And I desire you too

But you're afraid to come up to my room
But you're scared to get close to me

I get your love in the palm of my hand
I feel like I have your love at hand