NUM033
Album cover

Light

On The South Side

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.

  • 2xLP+BOOK

    2 x 150 gram LPs
    18 tracks totaling 58 minutes
    1 x monotone tip-on slipcase
    1 x monotone gatefold jacket
    2 x full color inner sleeves
    1 x 132 page, 12

Track List

  1. Arlean Brown I'm A Streaker Baby
  2. Bobby Rush Bowlegged Woman
  3. Ricky Allen No Better Time Than Now
  4. Little Mac Simmons The Same One
  5. Lady Margo This Is My Prayer
  6. Andrew Brown You Made Me Suffer
  7. Artie White Gimmie Some Of Yours
  8. Lucille Spann Women's Lib
  9. Hugh Hawkins Bring It Down Front
  10. Slim Willis Band I Sayed That
  11. Little Ed & the Soundmasters It's A Dream
  12. Syl Johnson Is It Because I'm Black (Inst.)
  13. Walter "Butterball" Davis Baby Watcha' Doing
  14. Willie Williams Detroit Blues
  15. Little Mac Simmons Goose Walk
  16. Detroit Jr. Young Blood
  17. Willie Davis I Learned My Lesson
  18. James Kind California Lady