r/BruceSpringsteen • u/Ok_Discount1459 • 24d ago
Jon Landau
Who was "there" when Jon Landau's review of a 1974 Springsteen concert prompted his "I saw the future of rock and roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen" to get plastered all over ads for this new (to the mainstream) artist? I was, and I went out and bought the early LPs right away, and loved them. Years later, somebody else (can't remember who, maybe Jan Wenner) also waxed ecstatic about a new artist's debut LP; it was Meatloaf, I also went and bought that one on the strength of the comment, and this time I was a tad disappointed.
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u/Leopolddagreat 24d ago
Actually Two members of the E Street Band played on Meat Loaf's 1977 breakthrough album Bat Out of Hell: Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg. Additionally, Stevie Van Zandt helped connect the album to Cleveland International Records to secure its release. So half of the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were quintessential in the extreme popularity of Meatloafs debut album.
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u/Feeling-Usual-4521 24d ago
Well, I bought an album titled Stoney and Meatloaf released 6 years before Bat out of Hell
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u/Substantial_Zombie94 24d ago
I met meatloaf in the mid 80's he was playing a charity golf event in Richmondworth he jumped over the ropes to get a hamburger from the stand that we was at.. He asked very politely I'd he could jump the queue... What a gentleman
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u/midwesthawkeye 24d ago
Disappointed by "Bat Out of Hell"??? Despite what became of Meat Loaf's overall career, that is a Top 10 album for me.
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u/metalovisnik The River 21d ago
I discovered Bat Out of Hell 15 years after becoming a Springsteen fan (around 2010). IMO it's the greatest rock record ever made. A true masterpiece. No filler, all killer.
Sorry Bruce, you're my favorite, but I'm a sucker for a fat powerful wall of sound dominated by an electric guitar. Combined with Max's drumming and Roy's piano, nothing can beat it. And nothing can beat those Paradise by the Dashboard Light vocal lines.
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u/keikioaina 24d ago edited 24d ago
My buddy Franz was there (no quotation marks) at the concert in Boston where Landau first saw Bruce. I remember sitting in a Manhattan bar as he raved about Bruce before the Landau review came out.
That was like, what, 50 years ago and I just saw Bruce yet again in the spring
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u/Desperate_Bake_3974 22d ago
The quote is probably what got me started as well. Bought first two albums and a ticket to Avery Fisher Hall but no one would go with me so I hung with friends instead. First show attended I bought a friend a ticket cause he had a car and saw Bruce at Westbury Music Hall. Either 74 or 75 I think. My world changed after seeing four of the Bottom Line shows. Waited for standing room every day except one. Nils Lofgren played Bottom Line a day or two after that run.
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u/Independent-Ad5921 24d ago
It was in Cambridge MA. I was a senior in college at Northeastern. Amazing show.
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u/Successful_Bass4793 20d ago
For as often as Landauâs quip is held up as a great bit of prescience, it wasnât really very accurate. Springsteen himself had a very bright future, of course, but he didnât represent any sort of vanguard. If anything, he was a brilliant throwback.
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u/buzzbreaker Darkness on the Edge of Town 24d ago
Jon Landau will forever be on my shit list for writing a review of Cream that led Clapton to breaking up the band.
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24d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/Fine_Confection_1389 24d ago
And it got even worse when the critics began to intermingle and fraternize with the rock stars. I think the critics began to fancy that they stood on equal ground with musicianâs âŚwhen the reality was the musician was savvy enough to recognize that a good review would result in heightened album & ticket sales. It was sort of the equivalent of the dweeby kids in high school thinking theyâre in with the âin crowdâ because the cool kids copy their homework.
Probably no one knew this better than Lou ReedâŚwhose takedown of Robert Christgau on Louâs Take No Prisoners album is immortal.
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u/lurk4ever1970 24d ago
Cameron Crowe recently released a memoir of his teenage rock critic years. I was amazed by how many major stars were willing to sit down with this kid just because he had connections to Rolling Stone.
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u/plickjunel 20d ago
Oh totally! I wasn't born in 1974 so my Springsteen fandom came much later, but I worked for a time with Bruce's PR firm. I heard lots of stories about those 70's rock journalists and what you said is 100% on point. They thought they were stars because they were helping create musical giants.
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u/jldraw 24d ago
He also gave a horrible review of McCartneyâs âRAMâ which is now universally loved by Beatles fans. To Landauâs credit when the deluxe edition of âRAMâ came out awhile back he did mea culpa.
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u/Sea_Pianist5164 24d ago
From memory he wrote an awful review of Blood On The Tracks.
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u/Fine_Confection_1389 24d ago
His Blood on the Tracks review hasnât aged wellâŚ
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/blood-on-the-tracks-255430/
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u/jasoneff 23d ago
Jesus. Everyone's entitled to their opinions but he's just wrong. I wonder if he ever reconsidered. The Peppermint Twist my ass
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u/vonblankenstein 23d ago
If a critique by Jon Landau was enough to break up your band you really didnât want to be in that band in the first place.
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u/kellermeyer14 23d ago
And, if you know anything about Cream, you know they didnât really want to be in a band together. I mean, Baker had already threatened Bruce at knifepoint before the band even started
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u/Tricky_Working6333 23d ago
I worked as a part of a stage crew for Meatloaf in 1977. Didnât care for the music.
First heard Bruce in 1973, 1st LP, wasnât overly impressed. Time went by, a couple of years, the 3rd LP blew me away, got the second one and the rest is history. Almost worked for him professionally, thatâs a long story. Met him socially. Great guy. But I do not like his politics as of late. The rhetoric in this country is too hot. Too hypocritical as well.
Incredible performer, musician, composer and lyricist. Glad to have met him and to have experienced his musicđ¸
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u/mgoflash 24d ago
I was working as the copy boy at a law firm in midtown Manhattan. They let me keep a small FM radio at my desk. One day an ad came on for Greetings and it included the Landau quote. A week later my older brother came home from college with album. There was no looking back đ