SOLIDARITY FOREVER: THE ART AND SOUL OF STEVIE VAN ZANDT
A CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR ROBERT LAWSON
Author Robert Lawson is a lifelong superfan of Stevie Van Zandt. His new book, Solidarity Forever: The Art and Soul of Stevie Van Zandt, explores all aspects of Van Zandt’s career. His music, his films, production credits and his social activism are all written about in the book. Lawson has thoroughly researched the subject and also had the co-operation of Van Zandt himself. “I spoke to people who haven’t seen him for decades and they still speak very very favourably about their experience with him. So, it is the idea that once you are in Steven’s world, you are kind of with him forever. So, that was what I meant by Solidarity Forever.”
In doing the research, Lawson found himself with a new kind of career. “One thing that was really cool, was and wasn’t expecting, is that I would be interviewing different people from different eras, and they would ask me who I had spoken to. I ended up giving numbers and contact information to all these musicians who have lost touch with each other. ‘Oh, you talked to that guy, send him my email address’. Or ‘make sure you say hi to that guy for me’ and ‘let that guy know I am thinking of him’. So now I am like a matchmaker, bringing all these guys together again. That was kind of cool.”
And this is a book that Lawson has been wanting to write for a very long time. “I was looking for a new project to do. I am a hardcore Steven fan. I’m not into Steven because he plays guitar with that other guy, I like Steven for Steven. I hate being at concerts, and people are yelling out for Bruce [Springsteen], that drives me nuts. They are there hoping Bruce will show up, I am thinking I hope Bruce doesn’t show up because it means that they will probably do one less Stevie Van Zandt song. So, I have always been a hardcore fan and collector. I have been documenting aspects of his career for a long time, so I already had a lot of raw data compiled from decades. It just kind of made sense. One of my good friends said ‘your whole life has been leading up to you writing this book. This is my number one guy, and I have written a few books, so that everything I learned writing those means this will be my best yet because they all get a little better as I improve, and I understand the process better. So, this is everything coming together. I know what I am doing more than I have in the past, it is a guy I have more passion for and more raw knowledge than anyone else I have written about.”
ROBERT LAWSON WITH STEVIE VAN ZANDT
And Lawson is not exaggerating when he says he is a hardcore Little Steven fan. For a large chunk of his life, Lawson has been listening to Little Steven. “February ‘83. So, I was into Springsteen when I was in High School. I didn’t know much about the members of his band; I don’t know if I cared enough. I knew his guitar player was coming to town, and I don’t think I was old enough to get into the club at the time. But after he was in Toronto, he was on the television programme, The New Music. They interviewed him and showed the video for a song called “Forever”. That song just knocked me out. I thought it was an immediate pop classic, I loved it, and I went out and bought the Men Without Women album the next day. A year after that, he put out a second album and I went to see him. And I met him before the show, and again after. This was July 10, 1984. So, spending a little bit of time with him before and after the show and after that I was a lost cause.”
And being a fan who has carefully documented Little Steven’s career certainly has its perks.
“I was, a few years ago, able to contribute to his box set, which I was really proud to do. They reached out to me, and they needed some information, and there was one thing he needed when he was writing his autobiography, and I got sourced for that.”
“I was good friends with a woman who used to publish a fanzine about Steven, called Voice Of America. It was just an independent thing that she would photocopy at work after everyone went home. So, I got to know her, she was in New Jersey, and I started contributing to that fanzine, writing album reviews and doing illustrations and stuff like that. She started working for him, full time, as his personal assistant. If he was coming to town, she would get us together.”
As a result of many years of knowing each other, and Lawson helping out Little Seven, Little Steven helped Lawson with Solidarity Forever: The Art and Soul of Stevie Van Zandt.
“He helped a lot. I went down to Red Bank, New Jersey, last year and after the second show it was arranged that I would have a few minutes to pitch the project to him. At that point it is 90% written anyway. So much of it was done. I had been working on it for four years. So, I pitched it to him, he was in right away. We did two Zoom interviews which added up to a total of four hours. We went through all kinds of stuff. After our first Zoom, he couldn’t believe I had any follow up questions,’ laughed Lawson. “But I did. But he also opened doors, not necessarily intentionally. There were a few guys who wouldn’t talk to me, unless they knew it was ok with Steven.”
Besides getting Little Steven’s story out there for all to enjoy, Lawson does have hopes of how the book will be received. “I like the idea of people looking into his music a little bit more. I was just talking to a guy who had said that he had never heard Steven’s Revolution album, and he said he would check it out. When I did my first interview with Steven, and he got a little serious, and this hit me, he said…’of everything I do, running a record label, running a radio show, playing guitar, producing these guys, running around with these guys, being a political activist. All the things I do, what is most important to me is my solo music. And nobody talks about that.’ So that is why this book is important to me.”
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Background Photo Credit: Kirsti Hovde
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