It’s been a long time since “It’s Been a Long Time.”
By the time Southside Johnny sings the opening lines, we’re already rooted in the golden age of the Jersey Shore sound by that whoa-oo-oh oh-oo-whoa-oh intro.
But the irony of “It’s Been a Long Time” is that it’s as much a time capsule of the early nineties as the mid-seventies.
Little Steven Van Zandt wrote the now classic Asbury anthem for Southside Johnny’s 1991 comeback album Better Days, and it’s somewhat staggering to realize we’re further out from that album now than the album was from the period it paid homage to.
Van Zandt’s often underrated songwriting powers are at their peak in “It’s a Long Time,” capturing both in lyric and arrangement the earliest days of trio of artists who provide the song’s lead vocals: Van Zandt, Southside, and an off-the-radar (at the time) Bruce Springsteen.
You could call them the holy trinity of the Jersey Shore, and in 1991 they were all at career crossroads. Springsteen was four years on from his last album with the E Street Band seemingly in his rear view mirror for good. Van Zandt was without a record label due to his recent political material. But Southside Johnny seemed like he was finally, finally poised for a breakthrough.
And by all rights, Better Days should have been that breakthrough. Featuring eight Van Zandt-penned songs, a Bruce Springsteen original, and two appearances each by Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, Better Days was the first Southside Johnny album in a decade worthy of the artists behind them.
Unfortunately, though, the nineties ushered in what was arguably rock and roll’s final act, and Better Days was rooted in Acts I and II.
Still, “It’s a Been Long Time” managed to break through on its own, becoming almost a standard in the twenty-first century. It’s an autobiography of sorts, and although the artists were only in their early forties when they recorded it, we all tend to grow increasingly nostalgic as the years pass.
“it’s Been a Long Time” works as well as it does because it captures the arrogance of youth–the feeling that you can somehow cheat the clock if you can just stay out late enough– with an already knowing wink to inevitable reality: we were never gonna get old.
Van Zandt captured in song the early days of the Upstage and the Stone Pony. There’s no hint in “It’s Been a Long Time” that one of its heroes had become the voice of America, another had become America’s conscience, and the third synonymous with the town whose name graces his band. They’re just three kids sharing a coat between them, forty-somethings grateful to still be standing at a time when rock careers still ended early.
We’re fortunate to have a music video that not only captures the trinity, but does so at a period of time where we don’t have a lot of live documents. It’s one of my favorite clips with any of them, let alone all, and it deserved more airplay than it received–although they did get a spotlight on In Concert ’91.
Throughout the nineties, it was almost a lock that any time Bruce, Southside, and Little Steven shared a stage “It’s Been a Long Time” would make an appearance.
The tradition continued into the early years of the new century at Bruce’s string of holiday shows.
When the holiday shows faded into history, so did “It’s Been a Long Time,” but when Little Steven reunited the Disciples of Soul to tour behind his Soulfire album in 2017, he added “It’s Been a Long Time” to the encores whenever his old friend decided to drop by.
It’s been almost a decade since Bruce last sang “It’s Been a Long Time” with his old friends, but as long as they’re all still standing, never count this song as retired.
“It’s Been a Long Time” only gets better with age.
It’s Been a Long Time Recorded: 1991 Released: Better Days (1991) First performed: September 26, 1991 (Asbury Park, NJ) Last performed: September 21, 2017 (Holmdel, NJ)
© July 11, 2026