Garland Jeffreys

A Coney Island of the Soul

By Falling James

Garland Jeffreys is a longtime performer whose songs capture slices of New York street life as definitely as the work of his peers Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen. The Brooklyn native's latest album, The King of In Between, is as lively and diverse as the City That Never Sleeps, bursting with jaunty reggae ("Roller Coaster Town"), poetic acoustic ballads ("In God's Waiting Room"), soul-rock anthems ("I'm Alive"), shadowy funk ("Streetwise") and the sparkling thrum of Dylanish evocations ("Coney Island Winter"). Over the years, his insightful songwriting has plumbed the depths of love and racism, and his 1973 single "Wild in the Streets" has been memorably covered by the Circle Jerks and Chris Spedding. A true New York icon, Jeffreys was glimpsed up close in Wim Wenders' documentary film The Soul of a Man.