I have friends from South Jersey who call John Cafferty the K Mart Bruce Springsteen, which is both accurate and unfair. On Tough All Over, Beaver Brown's first LP, Cafferty's familiar flaws are readily apparent – the uncanny similarity to you-know-who, the dependence on clichéd catch phrases for hooks, the dramatic, overwrought production – but on his best songs Cafferty's lack of originality is overwhelmed by the fervent commitment of his performance. Both the party-out rockers and the more serious declamations exude a deeply felt sense of purpose and responsibility. Unfortunately, Cafferty's ambition exceeds his material.

Cafferty may not be an original, as anyone who's heard his soundtrack for Eddie and the Cruisers can attest, but he is committed. On the title track and on "Voice of America's Sons," he is an articulate if derivative chronicler of downward mobility; the album's best love song, "More Than Just One of the Boys," is both pretty and gritty; and the got-to-laugh-to-keep-from-crying message of "Dixieland" rings painfully true. But when you start playing musical detective, most of the direct antecedents are stamped e street. Cafferty is far from the plagiarist his detractors claim he is, but the similarities do nothing to further his credibility.

Cafferty stands at the crossroads of his career. His music is commercially successful, yet he is too ambitious to want to stand in anyone's shadow. Cafferty has to develop his own niche if he is to become a major artist; this evocative look at the U.S.A. today is an encouraging if tentative step in that direction. (RS 454)

JIMMY GUTERMAN