About this item

Between 1975-77, Chicago’s southside nightclubs were experiencing dark times. The after-hours routine may have been on the up, but the sound of urban blues was on its way down, getting funkier, heavier, picking up a Zeppelin echo from the British rock scene that had raided its larder. Thankfully, lightening came by way of a lanky white guy skulking from club to club with a camera and strobe light. Chicago photographer Michael Abramson hit Perv’s House, Pepper’s Hideout, The High Chaparral, The Patio Lounge, and The Showcase Lounge nightly, not to capture the artists on stage but instead popping off a half-dozen rolls every night exclusively on the seldom photographed crowd.

Light: On The South Side gathers more than 100 beautiful black and white Abramson images, as Numero shines its own light on yet another dark corner of the musical past. The 132-page hardback book features not just these photos, but an extended and wildly colorful ephemera section, plus an essay by British novelist and Numero fan Nick Hornby. Housed in a gorgeous slipcase with the 12X12 monograph is the 2LP set Pepper’s Jukebox, a 17-track compilation of Chicago blues in transition, as heard from both the stage and the Wurlitzer.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Arelean Brown – I'm A Streaker Baby
A2 Bobby Rush – Bowlegged Woman, Knock Kneed Man
A3 Ricky Allen – No Better Time Than Now
A4 Little Mac Simmons – The Same One
A5 Lady Margo – This Is My Prayer (To Find Someone Of My Own)
B1 Andrew Brown – You Made Me Suffer
B2 Artie White – Gimmie Some Of Yours (I'll Give You Some Of Mine)
B3 Lucille Spann – Womans Lib
B4 Hugh Hawkins – Bring It Down Front
C1 Slim Willis Band – I Sayed That
C2 Little Ed & The Soundmasters – It's A Dream
C3 Syl Johnson – Is It Because I'm Black (Inst.)
C4 Walter "Butterball" Davis – Baby (Wacha Doin' To Me)
C5 Willie Williams – Detroit Blues
D1 Little Mac Simmons – Goose Walk
D2 Detroit Jr. – Young Blood
D3 Willie Davis – I Learned My Lesson
D4 James Kinds & Stack – California Lady