You’re no doubt familiar with Google image search and Google news and maybe even Google’s Froogle shopping search. Now comes Google music search. This one, I thought, is right up my alley. So I gave it a whirl by searching for “Springsteen.”

Okay, this was cool: “Land of Hope and Dreams” (otherwise known as *ahem* LOHAD) was the top result of any Springsteen song. But it also showed two songs titled “Springsteen,” one by Princess and one by Whitford. Interesting: I hadn’t heard of either one. Tell me more.

This was not so cool: Trying to find information about Princess, I click on the band’s name: I get pretty much the same information I got from the music search — a CD cover thumbnail — but with the added bonus of “buy me now!” links to music stores like iTunes, eMusic, and artistdirect.com. Whoa! I don’t even know what I’m looking at, what’s with rushing me to buy? So I click on “artist websites,” figuring I’ll get some band information. Nope: Princess Cruises, Princess Bride, Princess Mononoke. So I go back in my browser one step and click on the album title link in the search results. I get a list of tracks. Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I click on a song title and get — no information, just “buy me now!” links to iTunes and eMusic.

A search for “Sinatra” fared only a little better: two of the three album results included links to reviews: one from Blender, one from Epinions. Now we’re on the right track. If we’re going to have a Google devoted to music, let’s do more than provide relentless sales links. Let’s get some actual information in there.

Someday, maybe Google music search will find its groove. I hope it does. For now, though, it’s back to the garage for a lot more practice.

“It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes life worth living.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“Faith will be rewarded.”
—Bruce Springsteen

Columbia, doing everything in its power to whip up enthusiasm for the three-disc set (two DVDs, one remastered CD) commemorating the 30th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, sent out the above email a few days ago offering recipients access to a podcast about the making of Springsteen’s hallmark album.

“This 7-episode series takes the listener from inception to completion of the seminal album through audio highlights,” states the email. “In order to subscribe to this podcast, you must be using iTunes or similar software to transfer the audio files to your portable device.” This is the Feedburner link, in case you’re interested.

Gotta give the Columbia marketing folks credit on this one: This is an excellent blend of email and podcasting to deliver a highly relevant and valuable message. The email carries no overt call to action to buy the set — any fan receiving this email knows the anniversary box is out there. But Columbia is fueling the inclination to buy with real content here — seven podcasts that look like they’ll total about an hour of audio. (Right now, only the first two installments are available.) I’d love to see the final metrics on this mailing: I suspect the conversion percentage (those who opened the email that went on to download the podcasts) is deep into the double digits.

Time flies. Dammit. The latest reminder is that Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Talk about buzz marketing: Springsteen’s legend was built on the extraordinary word of mouth generated by his incredible live performances. It’s often been said there are two kinds of people: Springsteen fans, and those who’ve never seen him in concert. Having seen him about two dozen times, I’d have to agree.

When Born To Run came out on August 25, 1975, the official release of any material from his concerts was still a decade into the future. Fans would spend months scouring independent record stores seeking bootlegs of his live shows. Finding a badly recorded third-generation tape of even one song from a Springsteen concert felt like discovering the Rosetta Stone.

Fast-forward three decades. The 30th anniversary edition of Born To Run comes out next month. It consists of a remastered CD, plus two DVDs: one a documentary on the making of the album, the other a landmark concert that’s been traded for years on bootleg vinyl and video: November 18, 1975, at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.

And the Rosetta Stone is just a click away, no scouring necessary: This link on Amazon offers the complete Hammersmith Odeon version of the title track of the album NPR declared “one of the most important American musical works of the 20th century.”

Yep, time flies. Cool.

I hope everyone took some time yesterday to remember and reflect on the events of four years ago. I was fortunate to spend the afternoon attending a performance of “Empty Sky … The Rising” at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. Described as “a 9/11 dance theater experience performed to eleven songs from The Rising by Bruce Springsteen,” the production was conceived and choreographed by Bob Boross, with proceeds to benefit The Memoria Project of Highlands, New Jersey.

It was a very well done production, extremely moving in places, joyous in others, and Bob did his source material proud — not an easy task, by any measure. The biggest disappointment was that more people didn’t see it: The theater at yesterday’s matinee was less than half full. What a shame. Even so, this deserves to become an annual performance tradition somewhere, somehow.