Bruce Springsteen "Valentine's Day"

I had always thought of this as one of the dire-est sounding Valentine's Day love songs around.

But I saw Springsteen in concert a few years ago, when he was doing the Solo/Arena thing, and he pulled this one out, for a special reason.

He introduced the song (which I remember from my college years), by saying that it contains a reference to his manager, who had called him when his daughter was born. Bruce wanted to play it that night, because the daughter, who was in college in the Providence area, was in the audience. He pointed her out.

The detail of "A friend of mine became a father last night/When we spoke in his voice I could hear the light" seems only ancillary to the larger theme of driving a lonely highway, missing your love.

But to have the actual "detail" sudden materialize in front of me (okay, she was probably SIXTY rows in front of me!), rendered the thing so real.

And it makes me listen to other songs and wonder if the little, throwaway details were the inspiration, instead of the major/central themes.

Is that like love? Where love isn't really about this big Soul-to-Soul connection, but more of an accumulation of inspiring details? Like, as Paul Simon sings, "The way she brushed her hair from her forehead"?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Alejandro Escovedo “Faith”

It’s not wrong to assert that it’s who you know.

Who you know doesn’t give you talent. And it doesn’t give you drive. And it doesn’t give you commitment. But if you are firing on all artistic cylinders, having some connections can help propel your work into space, and/or put you in orbit with some interesting stars.

So if you’re a musician about to sign with a manager, it doesn’t hurt to look at their roster of other clients.

Brett Dennen got to work with African guitar idol Femi Kuti on “Make You Crazy,” because the artists share a manager.

Ryan Montbleau’s manager let him know that another client of his, New Orleans hero Trombone Shorty, was looking to collaborate with a sure-footed songwriter. A couple of Montbleau-penned tracks are on Shorty’s new record.

And even if the client list is short, sometimes it’s still pretty helpful.

Jon Landau is know for his one big, Big, BIG client: Bruce Springsteen.

So when Landau took on established-but-underappreciated artist Alejandro Escovedo as a client, well, it was only natural that Bruce give a little lift off to the gifted songwriter.

After inviting Escovedo to perform a song with the E Street Band during a Texas concert, which was release on a live EP, Bruce joined Alejandro in the studio to play the unusual (but increasingly less unusual as he ages) role of backing player, singing harmony on this track called “Faith.”

It’s good to have friends. It’s even better to have friends who have friends who are rock stars.



Awesome Fan-shot video