Little Steven’s Early Solo Career Celebrated With Expanded CD/DVD Edition Of Acclaimed RockNRoll Rebel – The Early Work Box Set Out Now Via Wicked Cool/UMe

Jul 31 2020

13-DISC ANTHOLOGY COLLECTS SIX CLASSIC LONG-OUT-OF-PRINT ALBUMS ALONGSIDE RARE LIVE CONCERT VIDEOS AND FOUR ADDITIONAL CDS FEATURING 51 BONUS TRACKS OF RARE AND UNRELEASED RECORDINGS OF STUDIO OUTTAKES, B-SIDES, REHEARSALS, LIVE PERFORMANCES AND MORE

INDIVIDUAL CD AND CD/DVD EDITIONS OF ALL ALBUMS ALSO AVAILABLE

TEACHROCK ROADSHOW ROLLS ON TO DETROIT FOR SECOND EPISODE ON AUGUST 6 WITH CO-HOSTS VAN ZANDT AND DREW CAREY AND FEATURED GUEST MARTHA REEVES

Little Steven’s acclaimed career-spanning box set, RockNRoll Rebel – The Early Work is out now via Wicked Cool/UMe. The 13-disc CD/DVD set collects all of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s solo records between 1982 and 1999, including newly remastered editions of six classic albums: Men Without Women (1982), Voice Of America (1983), Freedom – No Compromise (1987), Revolution (1989) and Born Again Savage (1999), as well as the landmark protest record, Sun City (1985), by Artists United Against Apartheid, the supergroup of musicians brought together by Van Zandt, record producer Arthur Baker and journalist Danny Schechter, to fight racial injustice in South Africa. Men Without Women, Voice Of America, and Freedom – No Compromise each include an exclusive DVD featuring a classic full-length live concert video from the same era as the album.

The comprehensive collection, mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, also boasts four CDs of rarities culled from Van Zandt’s personal vault, allowing an in-depth look at his early solo career with 51 tracks spanning previously unreleased demos, B-sides, rehearsals, outtakes, radio spots, non-album singles, classic concert performances, and a number of studio gems, previously unavailable until the box set’s original vinyl release in December 2019. One of the many highlights is the rollicking title track that gives the collection its name. Van Zandt offers personal background and insight about the bonus tracks in the accompanying liner notes.

The CD/DVD box set of RockNRoll Rebel – The Early Work is available to purchase exclusively via the uDiscover music store: https://littlesteven.lnk.to/CatalogPR

Long out-of-print on CD, all six albums are also now available globally as individual CD or CD/DVD editions. Freedom – No Compromise features an 8-panel foldout poster and “Live At The Ritz 1987” concert DVD, Voice of America is paired with its own foldout poster and “Live at Rockpalast 1984” DVD and Men Without Women includes a 16-panel fold out poster and “Live at Rockpalast 1982” DVD.

Taken together, the three concert DVDs in the box set, or also available on the individual CD/DVD album versions, provide a compelling document of Van Zandt and the band’s evolution with the 1982 Rockpalast concert marking only the second-ever Disciples of Soul show. “We were much bigger in Europe due to the political nature of our music and I also credit performing on the Rockpalast TV show in ‘82 and again in ‘84 that went live to 17 countries with helping to get our music to a massive audience,” says Van Zandt.” It was a blast revisiting these shows and I’m thrilled they are now being released for all to enjoy.”

To coincide with the release of RockNRoll Rebel, Van Zandt has been making select performances from the live DVDs available on his official YouTube channel for the first time. The videos can be watched here: https://littlesteven.lnk.to/CatalogPR/YouTube

Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul made their spectacular debut with 1982’s Men Without Women, highlighted by a pair of rock radio favorites in the opening “Lyin’ In A Bed Of Fire” and “Forever,” the latter of which spent nine weeks on Billboard’s “Hot 100” while also receiving heavy rotation at the newly launched MTV. Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul celebrated Men Without Women with sold out live dates including a legendary performance at NYC’s famed Peppermint Lounge that saw electrifying renditions of the album’s “Save Me” and “This Time It’s For Real” (written by Van Zandt and made famous by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes), both included on RockNRoll Rebel – The Early Work.

Nearly four decades later, Van Zandt’s “Out Of The Darkness,” a standout from his album Voice Of America with its hopeful lyrics of “There’s a hunger can’t be satisfied/And the streets are filled with rage/It’s time to dig deep inside ourselves/And face the life we’ve made” sound as relevant as ever, and sadly could have been written about our current times. “As I said on tour back then and continue to say, we have entered a dark time in the history of our civilization, and not just in the USA, the problem is worldwide. Increased nationalism, isolationism, and religious extremism are nearly everywhere. Those of us who believe in the globalization of peace and prosperity must stick together and be prepared to non-violently fight for what we believe in for as long as it takes.”

A small quantity of the vinyl edition of RockNRoll Rebel – The Early Work, released in December 2019, are still available exclusively via uDiscover. Limited to just 1,000 copies, the bespoke slipcase box set collects the six remastered albums across seven colored vinyl LPs alongside the same four CDs of rarities and bonus tracks. In addition, all six original albums are available individually via uDiscover on both 180-gram black vinyl and exclusive limited edition 180-gram color swirl vinyl mirroring the psychedelic platters included in the box set.

Notably, Born Again Savage is available individually on 2LP vinyl for the first time ever, while the recent vinyl reissue of Sun City, by Artists United Against Apartheid – the extraordinary supergroup brought together by Van Zandt, producer Arthur Baker and journalist Danny Schechter to fight racial injustice in South Africa – marks the landmark protest album’s first time on vinyl since its initial release 35 years ago. The long-out-of-print LP arrived earlier this year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s historic release from a South African prison after 27 years in captivity. Van Zandt is donating all artist and publishing royalties from Sun City to the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation for the TeachRock.org music history curriculum.

All six Little Steven albums are also available digitally as individual Deluxe Editions, each expanded with the same rare and unreleased material from the era that make up the four discs of rarities in the physical collection. The Early Work, a special digital-only collection compiling 10 previously unreleased tracks of early rehearsals and live performances, is also now available. Also now available digitally is the rare 1985 three-song 12” EP, Let Me See Your I.D., featuring the Extended Mix, Street Mix and Beat and Scratch Mix of the landmark “Sun City” single. All albums can be streamed/downloaded below.

A staunch advocate for public education, teachers and music education, Van Zandt is founder of the non-profit Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and TeachRock, the national initiative to bring popular music history curriculum into schools across the country by using the history and culture of music to engage students in all disciplines. TeachRock recently launched their Roadshow series of living-room style talks with special musical and celebrity guests and education heroes discussing music, education, and national issues. According to Van Zandt, “The basic idea is this virtual Roadshow will go from town to town, exploring the region’s music history, talking to whoever’s around, and looking at how the arts shaped each place.”

Co-hosted by Van Zandt and actor Drew Carey, the pilot Roadshow, “In Cleveland,” featured producer, songwriter, and longtime Pat Benatar collaborator Neil Giraldo; Lance Freed, son of founding Rock and Roll radio personality Alan Freed; the groundbreaking FM DJ Kid Leo, musicians Michael Stanley and Conya Doss; Cleveland International Records’ Steve Popovich, Jr, as well as Hough Reads founder Rhonda Crowder and a reunion of Little Steven and young activists from the Columbus, Ohio Mosaic program. The inaugural Roadshow can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q05FDOam0oQ

The upcoming “In Detroit” episode will air this Thursday, August 6, 8pm ET with Carey once again co-hosting and featured guest Martha Reeves. More guests will be announced soon. For more information and to register for the Little Steven TeachRock Roadshow visit TeachRock.org/Roadshow

Proceeds from and donations to the Roadshow series will benefit TeachRock, which provides teachers with no-cost interdisciplinary, arts-driven materials and lesson plans designed to keep students engaged and in school. TeachRock lesson plans are used by more than 30,000 registered teachers in all 50 states and offer distance learning materials too.

MEN WITHOUT WOMEN

VOICE OF AMERICA

FREEDOM NO COMPROMISE

LET ME SEE YOUR I.D.

LITTLE STEVEN

ROCKNROLL REBEL – THE EARLY WORK

(UMe/Wicked Cool)

TRACKLISTING