Tune Tag #61 with Steve Gabe: Shrapnel, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Forbert, Garland Jeffreys, Ronnie Spector, Velvet Underground, Ramones, John Cale

A decidedly Big Apple Tune Tag that features a guest who's played so many of the haunts'n'hovels in The City, even his accent has an accent! Will Steve "Beat on the Brad With a Baseball Bat"?

Hey, Steve! Grab a box and let’s GO!

Tune Tag welcomes

Steve Gabe

of Steve’s Substack!

Musician, actor, writer and lawyer, Steve, throughout his musical life, has come into contact with so many of the most iconic players in the game. Remembrances, written and narrated, make his STEVEGABE.SUBSTACK.COM and his Live! From the Vault (soundcloud.com/stevegabe) unique!

These first-hand accounts of being there with his private stock of digitized recordings are collectively called “Live! From the Vault,” because you can’t get them anywhere else. He lived it and recorded it. From Wilson Pickett to The Ramones. Tall but true tales…with many more to come! 

Last week, we enjoyed Tune Tagging with former Substacker, new Alaskan, Mike Degen (Deeg’s Poems):

Tune Tag #60 with Mike Degen: Maggie Rogers, Brothers Johnson, Kid Harpoon, Hoodoo Gurus, Jackson 5, Harry Styles

Next week, let’s welcome

Peter C. Baker

of Tracks on Tracks!

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Steve’s song #1 sent to Brad: Bruce Springsteen, “Nebraska,” 1982

Steve’s rationale: Being from Jersey, we’re supposed to adore him. I never really got into it more than playing “Prove It All Night” in a bar band and digging his live cover of Tom Waits’ (whom I met working publicity at Island Records in ‘83) “Jersey Girl”:

A gal gifted me a ticket/date after a Palisades Park Bar gig where we were doing Clapton and Winter covers along with Benatar and AC/DC, so I got to see The Boss spin his magic web at the old Brendan Byrne Arena in Jersey’s Meadowlands. He was beloved and was carried through the crowd, no fear. I always understood his mastery of the craft and the excitement he created onstage, but to me he was the prime example of music’s great dumbing down.

He’s the regular person, which I now understand is the point and a damn good one at that. His recent re-release of Nebraska and his inspirational TV interview has reignited my desire to appreciate his music in its most simplistic form: guitar, harp and voice. He simply nails it.

Brad’s #1 song sent to Steve: Steve Forbert, “Romeo’s Tune,” 1979

40 years on: In a photo from 2019, Meridian native, Steve (l), poses with sons (l-r), Sam and David, and the littlest Forberts, grandsons, Liam and Ethan, all gathered for the unveiling of Steve’s star on the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience’s Walk of Fame.📸Bill Graham, The Meridian (MS) Star

Steve’s response: Wow! Great song and recording made the world safe again for folkies, even though he was enamored with punk and why he moved from Mississippi. The connection is clearly Asbury Park, NJ, the place where Patti Scialfa and Bruce met (Stone Pony) and Steve’s adopted best place to live near the city, and the guitar, harp, and voice thing.

Armani, Prada, and You Go Boss! It’s West Hollywood shopping for the Joisey couple on a recent spree. While Patti looks suitably chic‘n’tony, Bruce clearly isn’t wearing his millions on his back!

As an aside, I used to hang out with Patti at Tramps’ (NYC) Monday Night Jams around 1980. We’d settle into a booth waiting, drinking beer, and chatting. She’d get called up as the back-up singer-du-jour for Southside Johnny or David Johansen, and I’d wait in the booth.

David Johansen, after a couple of mid-’70s NY Dolls albums, released a handful of late-’70s and early-’80s solo albums, while also becoming a frequent performer at Tramp’s. He unveiled his Buster Poindexter alter-ego in 1982, and is shown here at Tramp’s on September 21, 1984. Johansen began performing under the Poindexter pseudonym chiefly to avoid having fans of his music from coming to the shows and repeatedly asking for his solo or Dolls music. The shows grew in popularity, and gradually the original three-piece band with whom he performed grew in size to The Banshees of Blue, accompanied by The Uptown Horns. His hit, “Hot, Hot, Hot” and debut Poindexter album wouldn’t emerge until 1987.

Patti would come back and once, we took a cab together to the Upper West Side. I had a cheap one-room apartment. I asked her if she wanted to come up; she politely declined, but I gave it a shot—it just wasn’t in the cards. Bruce!

Brad’s rationale: There was so little to work with on Steve’s first song! I hadn’t recalled the story behind Springsteen’s Nebraska (song or album), but it’s a fascinating one: All set to record with band and all, he suddenly decided his raw demos for the album would be the album! Thus, I had no studio musicians (or band members) to use as possible match-ups! It was just wall-to-wall “the next Dylan,” solo!

So, my Forbert choice wasn’t meant to throw Steve a curveball, and he could guess any number of around 8 possible connections and he’d hit on at least one that would be “correct”—of what will be several links, however thin or implausible! Steve Forbert has been my favorite “next Dylan” (there’s one link…Bruce was called that at one point) since his 1978 debut, Alive on Arrival (Nemperor/CBS Records):

Forbert’s first: Cool punk points for having your debut album’s jacket photo taken by Danny Fields. 85 in November, Fields signed and managed Iggy and the Stooges, signed the MC5 and managed The Ramones, and worked in various roles with Jim Morrison, the Velvet Underground, and The Modern Lovers. In 2014, The New York Times said, “You could make a convincing case that without Danny Fields, punk rock would not have happened.”

Regular readers will know I was never a fan of the overly-lyrical, wordy Dylan, with a voice just nasal and whiny enough to make Willie Nelson sound like Enrico Caruso. In the ‘70s, there were, seemingly, dozens of “next Dylans” crowned by the only-too-eager rock press, like David Forman, Willie Nile, Elliot Murphy, probably

Patti Smith

at some point, and of course, Bruce and Steve Forbert! Plus, Steve wrote a song that had my 22nd birthday in its title: “Grand Central Station, March 18, 1977”!

And, you gotta love an artist who’s unafraid to name-check himself in a title: “Steve Forbert’s Midsummer Night’s Toast.” C’mon, admit it, Bruce fans…wouldn’t you love to have “Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town” glaring at you from an album jacket?

Steve also shared Bruce’s corporate home, Columbia/CBS Records: Bruce, of course, on Columbia proper, but Steve was signed to CBS affiliate, Nemperor Records. So, at conventions, they’d both have similar corporate lanyard nametags (and could sign up for the same small-group seminar break-outs)!

Steve’s song #2: Shrapnel, “Get the World,” 1982 (Live at CBGB’s)

Brad’s response: Shrapnel’s from New Jersey, and Steve Forbert is from Meridian, MS, so a geographic connection is ruled out. My Forbert track was live, and this one’s live from CBGB’s. Without looking, I can guess (while not a punk act, per se), Steve F. likely played CBGB’s at some point, ‘77-’80-ish. I can see CBS wanting to place him there during that whole punk/new wave thing, late decade, and just for the exposure, I can’t see Steve refusing.

Steve’s rationale: Shrapnel also played CBGBs like Forbert (he once said he came to NY to play CB’s). They were the first punk band that I really got into and made CBGBs seem OK and weirdly safe. They’re also from NJ. They were incredible live…I saw them whenever I could. Theatrical, dangerous, they got me into punk. Like you’re in a war.

Dead Boys I didn’t get until later. [Brad steps in: “Gotcha covered, Steve!”]:

Unearthing The Dead Boys: Young, Loud, & More Than a Footnote In the Punk Pantheon

Back to Steve: I was a bit late to punk, but then it kind of defined my professional career. Music is just music. If it’s good it’s good. I live it and love it… all kinds! I’ve played CBs three times in three different bands. I was Animal Clinic’s drummer one night for the 9/11 tribute in 2002 right before Nina Hagen went on, so we opened for her. Bass for KilPig in mid-’80s, and Roadkill ‘03, lead singer and drums...weird animal bands. And I’ve been in so many! As a lawyer, I did a ton of showcases at CBGBs—it’s our EV clubhouse, so to speak. Hilly [Kristal] was cool. The late Alan Rickman got him down solid in the 2013 CBGB movie!

Hilly Kristal (l), 1931-2007, CBGB’s owner, and the man who played him in CBGB, 2013, Alan Rickman (1946-2016).

Brad’s song #2: Ronnie Spector, “All I Want,” 2006