INK & AUDIO: A Rhythm Romance with Nils Lofgren
A selection of images from the Roundhay Park gig, July 1985 (Image: Point Blank Fanzine purchased photos)
I’d just seen Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band at Roundhay Park, Leeds on his Born in the USA tour. It was 1985, I was 15 and impressionable in a musical way!
Wanting to explore the Boss and his extended musical web of connections, led me to venture into the world of his former (at the time) and current guitar slingers; Steve Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren.
The Boss’s Right Hand Men
Steve Van Zandt, in his Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul nomenclature, opened my eyes to both the political messaging of rock music, whilst also providing a segue into rock and soul music (including his influential work with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in the 70s), hard rock and beyond, as he widened his musical palette in the 90s.
This was a journey I would revisit many times in the subsequent years, most notably when he returned to live action in 2016 with a stellar 15 piece touring band (see my review of his Cavern Liverpool gig in 2017).
Nils Lofgren on the other hand provided a more traditional route into Classic rock and my Stones obsession. A solo career going back to the mid 70s, band work with Grin in the early 70s, together with appearances on notable recordings such as Neil Young’s seminal “After the Goldrush”, on which the 17 year old Nils played piano, having blagged his way into Young’s inner sanctum.
From "After the Goldrush" to "Night After Night"
So following the Springsteen Roundhay Park gig, I plunged into the back catalogue of Nils Lofgren.
Initial vinyl purchases were his recently released “Flip” LP, together with the 1977 double live album “Night after Night”, the latter of which I managed to find a second-hand version in Bradford’s Wax Museum/ Discovery Records.
Both records represented extreme ends of the Nils canon - the more recent album being more lighter rock/80s pop sheen focused, whereas the live album contained longer, guitar focused blues-rock fare.
Both still hooked me in and I was soon extending the vinyl collection - the more well known “Cry Tough” and the compilation “A Rhythm Romance” finding their way onto the trusty 1970s Dynatron turntable gracing my bedroom.
Code of the Road: Leeds University Refectory
Nils Lofgren, Flip Tour UK December 1985 (Image: Web images)
As my luck would have it, Nils, in solo form with band, returned fairly rapidly to Leeds. Monday, 9th December 1985 to be precise, promoting his Flip album.
Tickets soon secured, I was beside myself with anticipation for the gig at Leeds University Refectory especially being the first date of the UK leg of the tour.
Attending with a couple of school friends, we squeezed our way near to the front of the venue and witnessed an incendiary gig.
The band consisting of Nils, brother Tommy Lofgren (Guitar, keyboards, vocals), Steuart Smith (Guitar, keyboards, vocals), Wornell Jones (Bass, vocals and a stalwart of the “Night after Night” album) and Johnny “Bee” Badanjek (Drums, ex Mitch Ryder’s Detroit Wheels and owner of the legendary drum break on “Devil with a Blue Dress On”).
Neil Young’s long standing guitar technician, Larry Cragg also helped out on guitar, keyboards and saxophone on some songs.
A stellar band with massive pedigree!
Blitzing through songs new and old, we were well and truly blown away. The revamped accoustic reading of “Keith Don’t Go” twisted the “Ode to the Glimmer Twin” into a new direction and by the time the extended guitar laden “Shine Silently” reached its tumultuous conclusion we were totally in awe!
Given it was only the third gig of my music life, it was incredible to see the musicians so close up, particularly in contrast to being sat on a hill with 80,000 other fans at the Springsteen gig. Now we were virtually in touching distance of the striped ribbon tied to the headstock of Nils’ 1961 Fender Stratocaster, making the guitar playing and solos even more compelling.
The Refectory at Leeds Uni back then was a reasonably compact venue with a fairly small stage that the band were crammed onto and one question remained.
“Would Nils do one of his legendary back somersaults?”
Well, the answer was a resounding “Yes”, Nils flipping with guitar via a mini-trampoline in the corner of the stage!
The last train back to Bradford meant we had to rush back to Leeds station, and sadly missed Nils’ seasonal reading of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” but it was a small price to pay for what we had already witnessed beforehand.
“In the days before camera phones and social media there was no YouTube to re-watch any songs from the gig or photos on Facebook, X and Instagram.”
The best bet would be to pray for a live album, VHS video (remember them) or a gig review in Sounds, Kerrang, NME or Melody Maker. Or failing that a ropey bootleg tape cassette with dubious fidelity sounding like it had been recorded inside a biscuit tin!!
Thankfully the UK tour was later commemorated with the double live album, “Code of the Road”.
Code of the Road released in 1986 (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
I recall eagerly racing down to Bradford City Centre to purchase the LP on the day of release (Good Friday, March 28th, 1986) securing a copy from the Littlewoods record department of all places!
It captured the essence of the Leeds gig brilliantly and I probably almost wore the grooves of the record out (though I do still have the original copy).
The Rhythm Romance was now in full swing!
1+1: The Roots of a Guitar Hero
Backtracking further into the archives revealed further treasure in the form of four Grin albums recorded by Nils Lofgren and band (drummer Bob Berberich, bassist Bob Gordon (replacing original bass player George Daley) and latterly brother Tom Lofgren on guitar) between 1971 and 1974.
Formed by Lofgren in 1968 the band leveraged his relationship with Neil Young, the debut album “Grin” also being produced by David Briggs, Young’s producer, who would go on to produce some of Nils’ early solo work.
The other albums “1+1”, “All Out” and “Gone Crazy” are solid albums showcasing Nils’ developing talent, with many songs (“Beggar’s Day”, “You’re the Weight”, “Like Rain” being staples of his live sets for many years after).
Nils also found time to join Crazy Horse on their self-titled debut album from 1971 (his song “Beggar’s Day” getting its first outing). The album was also famous for guitarist Danny Whitten’s “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”, covered famously by Rod Stewart, and also frequently played by Nils, in tribute to his friend Whitten, who died of a drug overdose in 1972.
The Grin early 70s albums and compilations (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
Shine Silently: The Club and Theatre Years
The 1980s and 1990s saw Nils return many times to UK shores and I was fortunate to attend plenty of gigs in either Bradford or Leeds.
Nils Lofgren gigs across Bradford and Leeds, early 90s and Harrogate 50th anniversary tour (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
The gigs were always memorable and it was always pleasing to see such a talented artist and his impressive band in more modest venues in contrast to the arenas and stadium’s the E Street Band frequented.
Every Breath: The Obsessive Collector’s Tale
In tandem with the gigs the collecting of vinyl continued unabated.
Countless trips around record stores across Bradford, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham amongst other places helped in this regard, and the expanding Lofgren & Grin vinyl took pride of place in my collection.
Before long I’d managed to acquire his full back catalogue, not to mention associated collaborations, including Neil Young (yes, even the “Trans” album!) Crazy Horse and Lou Gramm.
My Nils Vinyl Collection! (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
Of particular pride was the fairly rare (1,000 - 2,000 pressings) Nils Lofgren Live: Authorized Bootleg - recorded in 1976 and was a radio station promotional white label album (housed in a white cover simply adorned by a photo and wording pasted on).
I recall finding this within the detailed listings in Record Collector (my Dad was a regular subscriber to the publication), ordering it, despite a fairly high cost to me at the time, but was delighted with such a special acquisition.
The Authorized Bootleg LP, 1976 (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
Despite it’s bootleg nature it’s a top notch, Record Plant, Sausalito recording with perhaps the definitive version of “Goin’ Back”, his Goffin-King cover.
Whilst not quite as rare as the white vinyl 7” version of Nils’ ‘sure-fire-nailed-on-hit-that-actually-was-never-the-hit-it-should-have-been’ “Shine Silently” from 1979, was also a valued acquisition.
“The song itself, should have been a commercial breakthrough for Nils, but fell foul of timing (the onslaught of Disco, New Wave around the time), record label A&M’s promotion and the slow burn nature of the song.”
Despite the injustice, as noted earlier it’s generally the cornerstone of his live performances and a major fan favourite.
White vinyl version of Nils’ classic Shine Silently single (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
With a few cassettes plugging a gap (and the odd Walkman) CD’s soon entered the fray and became the norm for the new releases from Nils. Of course there was the inevitable re-purchase of many of the older titles, supplemented by newer albums such as Silver Lining, Crooked Line, Every Breath, Damaged Goods, Breakaway Angel and Sacred Weapon.
Reaching the age of 60 saw the release of “Old School” in 2011, Nils sounding both revigorated and rebellious (“60 is the new 18”) and on great form.
This was followed up by “Blue with Lou” (2019) an unexpected collection of songs Nils had written with Lou Reed in the late 1970s.
The CD collection reached somewhat of a peak with the “Face the Music” box set released in 2014. A fairly limited release, it’s a sumptuous collection covering the full extent of Nils’ career. Housed in a stiff cardboard box it includes a detailed 136 page booklet, 9 CDs and a DVD, and I was lucky to get a signed and numbered version.
It’s a great and lovingly curated detailed career summary to that point.
The Face the Music box set (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
Taps and Harps: The Unplugged Revolution
My Nils story intertwined with my Bruce live journey, which had taken something of an hiatus between 1985 and 2012!
Whilst I had continued collecting Springsteen’s musical output, this wasn’t complemented by any gig attendances. This was partly compounded by Springsteen’s moth-balling of the E Street band for much of this time (I massively regret missing the Seeger Sessions live performances mind you!!).
2012, however saw me return to the fold - a gig at Manchester City’s Etihad stadium re-lit the fire, and I was soon repeating the trick at the same venue, in addition to the surprising and unofficial opening in 2013 of the Leeds First Direct Arena, a small venue, by Bruce’s standards, for what was an amazing night.
Around this time, although Nils continued regular UK tours, they became more acoustic and stripped back. He toured largely solo or with some accompaniment from Greg Varlotta, playing trumpet and keyboards,
The gigs, however, added a new dimension to his back catalogue, Nils even coming out and playing a harp for the opening song! Varlotta also helped provide the musical bed for Nils’ tap-dancing routines on the “Cry Tough'“ album classic, “Mud in your Eye”!
These gigs were captured admirably in the “UK 2015 Face the Music” live album.
Nils would also be accompanied by his delightful wife, Amy, who would help on merch duties with both happy to chat to the audience after the gigs.
Other ventures
As a sideman extraordanaire, Nils was a long standing member of Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band, I never got to see the band tour but took a keen interest in their performances with “Shine Silently” continuing to entertain audiences.
Nils also rekindled his association with Neil Young, rejoining Crazy Horse in 2018 (replacing Frank "Poncho" Sampedro) and playing on the albums Colorado (2019), Barn (2021), and World Record (2022). Young returned the favour appearing on many of Lofgren’s more recent albums (Nils also recorded a full album of Young songs “The Loner”).
More unusually Nils, a huge American football fan, also led a musical project recording rock instrumentals for John Madden’s annual “All-Madden” television teams.
See What A Love Can Do
My Nils Lofgren rhythm romance has endured over the twists and turns of the last 40 years and has become an integral part of my own musical journey over that time.
Both solo and intertwined with Bruce Springsteen and others you seemingly can’t keep a good man down.
Keep on Shining Silently Nils!
Nils Lofgren, Roundhay Park, Leeds, July 1985 (Image: Point Blank Fanzine purchased photo)
Nils was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
7 Essential Tracks:
Shine Silently
Keith Don’t Go (Ode to the Glimmer Twin)
The Sun Hasn’t Set (On This Boy Yet)
Black Books
Like Rain
White Lies
Goin’ Back
