For the last forty years, Jon Landau '68 has advanced the career of artist Bruce Springsteen, beginning as his record producer in 1974 and then as his manager in 1978. He has traveled with the rock musician to Germany, India, Ethiopia, Brazil, Argentina and the Ivory Coast, among other countries, not only serving as Springsteen's advocate, but also his close friend.
From a young age, Landau was exposed to music. When he was about three or four years old and living in Brooklyn, N.Y., his parents took him to folk concerts. Later, his family moved to Lexington, Mass. where he worked summers at Briggs & Briggs, a Harvard Square music store. It is there that he eagerly awaited the albums of The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan and befriended Paul Williams, the editor of Crawdaddy!, the first American magazine to showcase rock criticism.
While attending Brandeis in the sixties, he played guitar in a band called the Jellyroll. Though he performed at Cholmondely's Coffee House as well as off-campus, he acknowledges his natural talent as a musician was lacking.
Landau transitioned from what he refers to as a "frustrated musician" to a music critic, publishing articles in both the Justice and Crawdaddy!. It was shortly afterward that Jann Wenner, owner, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone, approached Landau to write for its inaugural issue in 1967, something he continued to do until 1977.
After Landau graduated from Brandeis in 1969, music remained a big part of his life as he became a record producer.
"The role of music in my life, the music that I love, is ... transformative, you know, at its best. It's uplifting, and when it's great, it's exhilarating," Landau said.
Though his liberal arts education did not inspire his career choice, Landau credits his History major with providing him "tremendous resources to better pursue what [he] wanted to do."
It was at Brandeis that he improved his writing ability, allowing him, as a record producer, to better comment on the lyrics artists wrote, and, as a critic, to better express himself.
In the spring of 1974, Landau's perspective of rock and roll music transformed. In an article in The Real Paper, Landau wrote the famous rock review where he stated, "I saw my rock 'n' roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time."
Thus began Landau's fascination with the artist.
"The way I felt was if I had the ability, if I had the talent, this is what I would-this is the music I would hope to be making," Landau said.
Springsteen's two-hour set at the Harvard Square Theater in 1974, on which Landau's review was based, evolved into a relationship between Landau and Bruce Springsteen.
Up until 1975, Landau balanced his two acts: record producer and music reviewer. But after the success of Springsteen's Born to Run album, he began focusing on producing. "It just overshadowed my journalism, and I needed to concentrate on my role as a record producer," Landau said.
Three years later, Landau became Springsteen's manager, adding another job to his resume. Though Landau lacked a management background, his friendship with Springsteen convinced the artist that he was the right choice.
With his developed business acumen and managerial company, Jon Landau Management, the Brandeis graduate also attracted other talent such as Shania Twain, Train and Natalie Merchant.
In record production, he additionally produced MC5's Back in the USA, an unsuccessful but influential album in 1970 that debuted punk music, and Jackson Browne's The Pretender in 1976.
After realizing that he was doing more as a manager than producer, however, he chose to direct his attention to the former.
After Rolling Stone's Wenner and Ahmet Ertegun, head of Atlantic Records, established the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in 1983, Landau became its executive vice-president. With this title comes the responsibility of chairing the nominating committee and supervising the annual induction process.
"It's my real contribution. That's been a great thing to be involved with," Landau said.
In recognition of his accomplishments in the music industry, University President Frederick Lawrence will present Landau with the Alumni Achievement Award on June 8 during reunion weekend.
"What worked for me was I found my dream," Landau said, "but, you do have to find your talent. ... It's locating your talent, locating what you're special at, you know, and then following that. ... When you can put those two things together, your special ability and make that your dream, that's when great things are going to happen."