The lifeblood of Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren has always been known as one of the good guys of the music business. Want to know how nice? Even a 4:30am call can’t rattle the Chicago native. But this call in the late 70s wasn’t like any other.
“Back then there was no internet or caller ID, it was just landlines, so when it rings at 4:30 in the morning and it’s pitch dark, your first thought is, ‘Is my family okay? My mom, my dad, one of my brothers, so you always answer. But it was kind of comic relief that Lou woke me up. That was before I knew what a startling, wonderful call it was gonna be.”
Lou is Lou Reed, and after Lofgren had given the New Yorker a tape with 13 songs on it, inspiration hit Reed and prompted him to make the early morning call.
“It’s not something that normally happens and, of course, it was kind of crazy that he had been so excited,” said Lofgren. “It’s why he woke me up, because he had been up for three days and nights finishing 13 full sets of lyrics. And the most hilarious part was when he asked if I wanted to get a pad and pencil and he’d dictate them in their entirety to me. Of course, I put on a pot of coffee, and a couple hours later, the sun’s coming up and I’m looking at 13 finished songs I had just written with Lou Reed in my sleep.”
Several of those songs hit the universe over the ensuing years, but there were still five more that had never been released, and as Lofgren finished up a run with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Australia and started to think about working on his first album since 2011’s Old School, it was a natural to record the tunes co-written with Reed.
“I’ve been busy with E Street, of course, and doing other projects, but at the end of The River tour with Bruce and E Street, which was so great, I just felt it’s time to get serious about making a record,” said Lofgren.
“I really wasn’t in a writing jag,” he continues. “I was on the road or playing shows or digging being home and just trying to step away from that. I’ve got instruments all over the home and I like to give myself permission to be an amateur, or actually just let it be my hobby, whether it’s an accordion, a piano, a guitar — just play for fun. (My wife) Amy got me this lever harp a few years ago and I only know one song on it but I play it in my show. But I just let music be my hobby. And it’s fun to just noodle around on an instrument with no pressure of ‘I must write a song now, and it must be good,’ blah, blah, blah. So I’ve been doing that for quite a while and then it just hit me, ‘Man, you’ve got to make another record.’ And since I wasn’t in a writing jag, ever since we lost Lou, who I always hoped would call me about the five songs left behind, I realized that couldn’t happen, and it was very upsetting that he passed. But I realized it was kind of my job, so I looked at those first and I took my old lyric notebooks on the road with me for the E Street run in Australia. And I used that as a jumpstart for writing this record where these songs have been written, so let’s tear ’em up, let’s arrange them, let’s look at where they were at when you walked away from them and move them forward. And that got me going and excited.”
The result is Blue With Lou, which is not only a celebration of Reed, but an album that shows Lofgren at the height of his powers both lyrically and musically. And for fans wondering if the guitar hero still has the chops, don’t worry, as the 67-year-old has delivered plenty of riffs and solos for the converted and the new generation. In short, it’s Lofgren at his rockin’ best, and it’s good to have him back in the recorded world.
“It’s coming up on eight years since my last record, so I had a lot of riffs and I used those Lou Reed songs to jumpstart the project, but the time was right,” he said. “I was getting into writing and feeling I had something to share, and the madness on the planet and in our country and politics, all that played into it a bit; there’s a couple kind of accidental protest songs there. But it was time and I didn’t push myself. I let it happen naturally over quite a long time. And then when I realized I had 15–20 songs that I liked, I decided to practice them to the point where I could play them live in the studio and go for live vocals because as I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten worse at overdubbing; I just don’t have any patience for it.”
Lofgren laughs, and he’s a man who has earned the fight to do things his way. And when you’ve been in the business for five decades, that way is usually the right one. And luckily, for him and us, Lofgren isn’t jaded by everything he’s seen and done, with the Reed call just an example of why he made a commitment to music so many years ago.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “For all the rockiness and ups and downs, and good and hard times you go through, those are special moments. I haven’t done it all, either. That was a rare moment that came and went that led to 13 songs. I’ve finally gotten around to sharing the remainder of them and I’m just waking up today, making a coffee, going, ‘Man, I got a band and crew that just invaded my home yesterday and today we start putting a show together.’ And after 50 years on the road, I’m still excited and nervous and grateful my wife Amy and our dog pack open up the home to all these musicians and crew. And we’ve got a garage studio we can put a show together in and blast off and travel around the country on a bus and play and sing for people. It’s my favorite part of what I do, and although I do not like leaving home anymore, it gives me more gratitude and deeper focus of why I left, which are the shows. And they take on more importance to me now than ever, which after 50 years on the road, thank God that’s the case.”
Tonight and tomorrow, Lofgren and his band are in New York City for a pair of sold out dates at City Winery, and the spring tour continues through June 2. And even though the legacy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is set and secure, the desire to play continues to drive Mr. Lofgren.
“The lifeblood for me of my work is playing in front of people,” he said. “That’s what I fell in love with, that’s what I’m best at, that’s where I feel most like me, musically, is playing in front of an audience. All the other stuff is just a happy accident.
“The next time I get up in front of an audience and sing, if they don’t leave happy, then I don’t consider myself a success.”
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