Steven Van Zandt has made rock history taking various jobs. He was in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band from 1975 to 1984 as second guitarist, backing vocalist and co-producer. He co-founded Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, elevating the group’s archetypal Jersey bar-band sound. In his fight against apartheid, he put together the 1985 “Sun City” album featuring Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, Bono and many others.

But Van Zandt, aka Little Steven, has also revved up his streetwise activism on underrated solo releases. In the early ‘80s he conceptualized a cycle of five albums, focusing on the individual, the family, the state, the economy and religion.

“They’re about interaction between government and society, different cultures, who has control of whose destiny and why,” Van Zandt says.

The new “Born Again Savage” (Renegade Nation), his first album in 10 years, completes the series. It’s been available only through his Web sites (www.littlesteven.com and www.renegadenation.com) but will get retail distribution Tuesday.

“Born Again Savage” is the “religion” record – Van Zandt snarls his pointed lyrics on the issues at hand, spirituality and hypocrisy: “The masters of religion/Better learn a new way to love/God never created anything/Anything he’s not part of.”

“It’s important we look at all religions and create our own, because it’s a very personal thing – it can’t be handed down from parents to children. We’ re a little lazy in this country about that, partly because of our greatest contribution to world thought, the separation of church and state. It needs to be more than going to a church or synagogue once a week and singing some songs and throwing some money in a plate. It should be more integrated into our daily lives.”

On “Born Again Savage” Van Zandt has committed to a modern version of the ‘60s hard rock, with driving, slashing guitars (check out the title track and “Guns, Drugs and Gasoline". The album features Adam Clayton of U2 on bass and Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, pounding on drums.

“This album started out as a combination of everything I had done before - ethnic instruments, crazy time signatures, real horns. But somewhere in there, I missed rock’n’roll. All this world music is cool, but when I first started playing, those things were introduced to me by rock bands = the Yardbirds, the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane. Jeff Beck wouldn’t play the sitar, he’d just play the eastern melody through a fuzztone on a guitar. So I did what turned me on as a kid.”

These days, Van Zandt is a cast member of HBO’s series “The Sopranos,” playing street guy and mob enforcer Silvio Dante. And Springsteen has put the E Street Band back together for a national reunion tour. “The E Street tour is hopefully going to stay together – we only got to half of the country, so we’re going to fill those gaps like Denver in the early spring.”

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