As early as 2001, Rolling Stone’s famed critic David Fricke was asking of songwriter Alejandro Escovedo, “What does it take to make this man a star?” Evidently, the answer was Bruce Springsteen. On the weight of Escovedo’s rocking new record Real Animal, the Boss pulled him onstage at an April concert to sing Escovedo’s anthemic “Always A Friend”; before long, Dave Matthews booked him to open six tour dates, and Escovedo’s band was plugging the record on the late-night talk shows. Any time’s a good time for success, and the new album’s a great tour through a rock-n-roll life that has seen stints in New York’s dives, sunny California, and the hill country of Texas. But here’s hoping new fans also find their way to earlier records that range from achingly tender to booze-soaked and raucous. Those curious about the musical influences on Animal  might start with producer Tony Visconti, best known for his work producing some of David Bowie’s best records. A fresh glimpse of that era comes in Live Santa Monica ‘72, a long out-of-print concert album documenting Ziggy Stardust’s first tour of the U.S.; as it was originally recorded for radio broadcast, not by bootleggers, the audio quality is great — a good thing, since in addition to a limited-edition CD the disc is also being released on 180-gram audiophile vinyl