{"id":4586,"date":"2021-03-28T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T08:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=4586"},"modified":"2021-03-08T13:21:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T13:21:32","slug":"nils-lofgren-the-formative-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=4586","title":{"rendered":"Nils Lofgren: The Formative Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As a teaser for our forthcoming Family Album feature on NILS LOFGREN\u2019s classic 1975 self-titled debut album, we present some excerpts of Nils\u2019s conversation with MARTIN RUDDOCK about his formative years, his long association with NEIL YOUNG, and his future plans<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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Nils Lofgren Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nils Lofgren:<\/span><\/b> I was a classical accordionist, I started playing aged five in Chicago. Bless my Mom and Dad, they paid for nine years of classical accordion lessons and I just took to it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was a great musical backdrop for me. At maybe ten or eleven, somebody played me a Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry record. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0At the time I wasn\u2019t emotionally mature enough to understand the guttural street soul of it. It\u2019s three chords, it\u2019s quite repetitive. I didn\u2019t get it. But fast forward a couple of years and all of a sudden there\u2019s The Beatles with minor chords and incredible melodies, really interesting harmonies with that street soul of rock \u2019n’ roll. It just floored me. Literally it possessed me. Literally overnight almost, between The Beatles and the Stones I fell in love with the entire British Invasion, of course the American counterpart \u2013 Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Moby Grape.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I got to open for The Hollies in a high school band called The Crystal Mesh when I was a teenager. They were extraordinary. All of a sudden through The Beatles I discovered Muddy Waters, Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Little Richard, Stax-Volt, Motown. Within a couple of months there were hundreds of these incredible pieces of music I was completely oblivious to. It was kind of like a possession. My brother Tom started teaching me some guitar. I started playing in teen club bands but it was always a hobby. Nobody thought you could do it for a living, it was just beautiful music that inspired us all<\/span><\/p>\n

At Constitution Hall I went to see The Blues Magoos, Herman\u2019s Hermits, and The Who.<\/p>\n

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It was extraordinary. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was playing the late show over at The Ambassador Theatre so we all rushed over there after being blown away by The Who. We went to see Jimi and Pete Townshend was in the audience, that was the big buzz, this murmur through the crowd. That night Jimi came out, he completely blew our minds. I\u2019d never been so mesmerised by a musician in my life. It was really The Beatles and the Stones that got me off the classical accordion and into rock \u2019n’ roll, but it was that night I became almost uncomfortably possessed with this notion that \u201cYou need<\/i> to be a professional rock musician.\u201d It grew and it festered, and became an uncomfortable haunting, if you will… but sure enough in my senior year <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I dropped out of high school and ran away to Greenwich Village and officially began my professional career at 17. I\u2019d look up record companies in the Yellow Pages and I\u2019d subway up to an address, walk in, not knowing what the hell I was doing and say \u201cHey! I need a job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Early on I realised it was a mistake to confuse the massive love and passion for rock \u2019n’ roll with anything to do with getting a job. (Laughs)<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1969, Grin went to an audition in New York and struck out. So we decided we\u2019re going to LA. Before we left I walked in on Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Cellar Door. Another long, beautiful story short… Neil let me sing some songs for him, he liked them and said \u201cWhy don\u2019t you stay and watch our show and hang out with us for a couple of days?\u201d My familiarity with Neil was through Buffalo Springfield, I hadn\u2019t bought that album yet. It was a beautiful shock at how talented he was.<\/p>\n

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On working with Neil Young, and a crash course on piano\u2026.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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NL:<\/span><\/b> David Briggs and Neil said, \u201cLook, we need you to work with us on the After The Gold Rush <\/i>album we\u2019re about to make.\u201d I was very excited, They said \u201cYeah, you\u2019ll play guitar and sing and some piano\u2026\u201d and I said \u201cWait a minute. Did you just say piano? I\u2019m not a piano player.\u201d But they\u2019d seen pictures of winning trophies at accordion contests and they said \u201cLook, we like your basic rhythm and melody ideas and you played accordion your whole life,\u00a0 you\u2019re really good at it, so we think you can make the transition and come up with some simple parts.\u201d At that point I\u2019ve got Neil Young and David Briggs explaining to me I can do this, what am I gonna say? My right hand after 10 years of classical accordion was pretty well-versed in the keyboard, and when you move to piano it<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s the same thing, just bigger. So I practiced day and night, I was nervous about it and it worked out great.<\/span><\/p>\n