John Landau

Landau, John. Landau’s unusual manager/ artist relationship with Springsteen was never made more apparent than during the post-production decision-making process of Nebraska. Usually, in the shallow world of the music industry, a manager’s primary goal for his or her artist is achieving commercial success. Putting out an album like Nebraska in the 1980s, a time of arena rock and New Wave synth bands, was an artistic detour from the typical goals of high record sales and radio airplay. Dave Marsh, in describing Landau’s one of many roles in his relationship with Springsteen, along with his ability to “communicate with Bruce,” emphasizes, “Landau also has a gift for helping Bruce understand many of his own ideas” (388). No musical idea from Bruce, coming back from Colt Neck with his self-recorded demo tape, would have seemed stranger considering the success of The River; that is, stranger to anyone except Landau, who in his own words, “had some fairly developed ideas, when you get into that folk music area” (Marsh 342). Because of his interest in folk music, Landau could hear the intimacy and quiet vulnerability of the Nebraska songs. After much debate, ultimately, Landau was first to voice the opinion, “We can just put the demo out the way it is” (355). Even though Springsteen probably had already come to the same conclusion, this was exactly the kind of reassurance he needed to release the Nebraska demo with minimal treatment, in all its stark devastating beauty.