Jackson Browne - C or D?

I've nothing against Browne -- seems to be a nice enough guy. But his music is a little too bland, too Southern California-Seventies for my taste. So I'll just shut up now.

Yes, the music is bland, but that somehow appealed to me today, it was easy, and sweet, and sad. Does this mean I'm getting old ?

"Lawyers in Love": thoroughly underrated anti-Reagan screed with absurd falsetto parts. I think only Dave Marsh takes it seriously, but don't let that put you off.

I'm not that familiar with Jackson Browne beyond the hits, but I think some of the hits are pretty good.

but "The Load Out/Stay" off the Running on Empty album is simply one of the best things I have ever heard, as well as the ultimate "drive home after a long night of drinking" song in my lifetime.

"A thousand miles away from here, people stay just a little bit longer..."

His taking personal offense at Punk and continuing to disparage it is very dud, however.

He dated Nico at age 17 (or thereabouts), you know.

ok wait i think the lines were "you've heard that hollow sound/of your own steps in flight." what a precious-precious line.

my mom has a lot of jackson browne records.. guessing by this thread, i should steal "running on empty." which others are worthwhile?

i am not drunk, unless one can get drunk on turkey and peach cobbler.

Ah, the gang: I knew it well. I'd had an encounter with one of its thugs, see, and in the process got tossed by said mag for telling what was it?, oh yes, the truth. This was '72. After several false starts, Jackson Browne finally had an album out, which seemed a good occasion to bring to light some interesting hokum from his past--I'd known the mutha since '67. So I did the first feature on him for Rolling Stone or anywhere else--a rave, for crying out loud, and he freaking hated it, thought it made him look "too punk." And what might be so wrong with that? Before twelve people knew who the fuck he was, he was like some weird-isn't-the-word cross between the Young Marble Giants, say--or from a later universe: Cat Power--and Byron or Shelley. On his first visit to New York, he backed up (and horizontal-danced with) the fabulous NICO, had a connection to Lou Reed and the Warhol crowd, blah blah blooey. So I talked all this stuff up--what the hey--it was what I thought would make him MOST APPEALING. And he's so upset he gets Asylum Records prez David Geffen to call the Stone and have me booted, good riddance, don't come back.

Four years later, I was eating at South Town Soul Food in L.A. when Jackson walked in with gang-sister number one Linda Ronstadt. Not wanting her exposed to my cooties, he motions for her to stay put, struts over, sits down, and in less than a minute explains to me how it is. "We singer-songwriters"--he always relished being part of something (but imagine calling yourself such hogwipe)--"feel we get a better shake from this Cameron kid...he never challenges us...accepts our side of the story...we don't have to worry what he'll say...no offense, but..." I.e., writers exist to write-about-musicians, bub...so go wash dishes or something.

poor thing.

Lots of comments here on the Jackson songs recorded by Nico on Chelsea Girls, plus Meltzer's comments on Jackson's early songs. There was a double LP acetate album produced in '67 as a songwriting demo album. Jackson has never released the stuff, but it has been bootlegged as the Nina Demos. I think Meltzer's comments are a little over the top--there's a saccharine element to some of these songs--but I swear there are like fifteen or more songs on the thing that are as good as those three songs on Chelsea Girls.

Steve Noonan's Elektra album is worth hearing. Meltzer has some things about it in Aesthetics of Rock.

i must say: alex, you've outdone yourself

i dunno, his sense of humor seems really academic and leaden to me. i say this as a pretty big fan of his first 2 1/2 records.

I also love his "Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood," done brilliantly by the Byrds...and I just heard a good version of it by Johnny Darrell, on this Raven Byrds-associated song comp called "Byrd Parts 2."

I mean, I think that's his best song ever.

Overall, though, not someone I go back to. I kinda think "Running on Empty" album is all right. He was on the road and all. I share Alex's wish to consign the Eagles to some eternal hell, though--even though I admit to liking "Take It to the Limit" and sort of halfway respecting some of what they did otherwise, like "Life in the Fast Lane," which is, uh, really well performed and recorded...

The other day I had a sudden, intense need to hear "Tender Is the Night" and "The Pretender" and maybe also "Rock Me on the Water" and even "Lawyers in Love." Just for grins I thought maybe I also needed "Running on Empty" as well.

Holy moley. The dude is catching some very specific range of Boomer middle-aged melancholy that I'm going to find irresistible for a week and then put back on the shelf for another couple decades, but don't harsh my mellow just yet.

I never want to hear "Doctor My Eyes" again but there are a few lyrics of his that I absolutely need to have exist. God sends his spaceships to America. I want to know what became of the changes we waited for love to bring. Looking into their eyes I see them running too. Tender are the hunters. Just make sure you've got it all set to go before you come for my piano.

The production values show some of the worst late-70s excess and bigness/slickness, but then he mostly stick to recognizable, basically timeless rock instrumentation--few synth drums, few sax solos--and it has some agreeable white-t-shirt purity to it. His voice can be too earnest and a bit laconic, but at the same time, the way he sings "the benediction of the neon light" and "now we've got all this room, we've even got the moon" charm me.

just yesterday a friend tried to convince me that Jackson Browne is better than Tom Petty. i wasn't having it, but i need to hear more browne

But yeah, "Tender Is The Night" is prolly my POO...

the albums are pretty uniformly excellent in my opinion all the way up through The Pretender

However, Springsteen's Tunnel of Love is his only album to approach the delicate filigrees of "In the Shape of a Heart."

Solo Acoustic is utterly wonderful - the live version of "Looking East" is terrific, the solo acoustic "These Days" is great, there really isn't an off moment in the set.

I sure do. Note the tone of his vocal on "Downbound Train" -- it's almost querulous; the character can't believe things have gotten so bad for him. Browne's voice works for what he does -- it communicates the narcissism of his lyrics and the hermetic predictability of the L.A. arrangements -- but it also just sits there. When he's on, though, he's great; the only person I want to hear singing "Lawyers in Love" is Browne, in part because Browne probably hangs out with lawyers more often than Springsteen and thus knew whereof he spoke.

this isn't true btw

once again however generally speaking I gotta agree to disagree with you Alfred

this could be a shorter post if I just said "me thinking Alfred's opinion is totally insane in an endearing kind of way" but I like hearing you unpack yr stuff

Is anyone still wondering about this? I'll explimacate it if necessary, but one hates to kill the magic and all.

"Late For The Sky" is indeed fantastic, but some of his later work is surprisingly good too. I would particularly like to mention "I'm Alive", which was his "breakup album", released as late as 1993, and which contains a lot of great songs.

One underrated record is Lives In The Balance. He spent the eighties getting upset about US policy in central America, which isn't the best recipe for making timeless music. But that record has In The Shape Of A Heart, which is in his top 5, and Black and White, which is another excellent record.

And the solo acoustic thing is way better than anybody could have imagined.

"the words had all been spoken / and yet somehow the feeling still wasn't right / so we continued on through the night..." sort of epitomizes what i'm talking about. that's a great opening line, but also sort of clinical, and the song doesn't really fulfill all its expectations,and i don't know what the clincher (the title phrase) means exactly.
Is anyone still wondering about this? I'll explimacate it if necessary, but one hates to kill the magic and all.

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Monday, October 23, 2006 12:07 PM Bookmark

yeah, i'd like to know

me too.

anyone?

funny "Running on Empty" (the song) came up last night - strange how much I wanted to like this stuff 5 years ago.

his live album with David Lindley this year, Love Is Strange, is pretty fucking great - I think in the absence of a producer with hunger & vision, his studio albums have really suffered (although I love his schtick so much that at this point I will even rep for "I'm the Cat" from Looking East), but his live records are just insanely good. his live singing voice - I don't know how they mic'd him on the last studio album, but it muffled him & made him sound tired; live, he's a little weathered, but singing with this sort of studied ease - enviable, awesome. and Lindley...I mean, cards on the table, we're from the same town so I know him some, but ask anybody, what an incredible musician he is.

there's a version of "call it a loan" on this that's just ridiculously effective - emotional, but so measured; subservient to the melody, standing in service to it. unbelievable.

singing with studied ease indeed; his voice has aged extraordinarily well, barely any deterioration to my ears, esp. for a guy in his 60s who's been pro singer since his teens.

okay... um... looks like I'm nearly a year late on this (sorry amateurist!) and i hate hate hate to go all songmeanings on such a finely-crafted lyric... so i'ma keep a gentle touch here but...

Of course, the title means what it says - "we've both got places to be that aren't this bed."

But it gets its punch from some pretty clever songcraft. Up until the final lines, we're drifting in the night... the last sleepless hours of a failed affair, the eyes shut tight, the dream of getting it right this time... and then against that, suddenly, at last, the volta. The rising sun. The morning flight that it will surely carry you up, away, into daylight and romantic love, if only this time you can catch it. It's as much a fantasy as the hope of making this one the right one, but and if we trace our steps from the beginning we know it's there waiting for us, but we dust ourselves off and grab our bag and step into the morning and gun the engine and we're off down the canyon in a plume of dust toward the 101 and LAX and if we can just drive fast enough, this time, this time we can make the sky.

Or something, no?

Somebody's Baby describes my defeatist attitude towards approaching women to a T -- circa 2008.

I don't know how they mic'd him on the last studio album but it muffled him & made him sound tired

The title track, Time The Conqueror was his best song in decades

This is really great:
http://www.indierockreviews.com/2011/02/a-tribute-to-jackson-browne-by-grails/

fav cover of one of his songs i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MHdPKCOB2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqYiHkx7ils

kills me.

"Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capitol
The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians will
Now we've got all this room, we've even got the moon
And I hear the U.S.S.R. will be open soon
As vacation land for lawyers in love"

--in 1983! motherfucker predicted the end of history six years in advance.....pretty good for an El Lay softhead, no? (#fakechristgau)

Binging on 'Late for the Sky' today. JB is undoubtedly classic in my book (doesn't mean he's the coolest guy in the world, btw), but what is even more classic is JB + David Lindley. The latter consistently elevates every thing of Browne's he's on.

This is pretty nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZFRPwrYeNA

One more - 9 minutes of 'Before the Deluge':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8y45mAGJRA

side one is just unfathomably perfect. The Road and the Sky however - fucking hell what a terrible terrible way to start side 2.

Otm on both accounts. That tune sure sticks out like a sore thumb.

totally unbelievable live. his band kills

ok wait i think the lines were "you've heard that hollow sound/of your own steps in flight." what a precious-precious line.

quoting this v v old post to say i think this is an incredible lyric

totally unbelievable live. his band kills

indeed - and they played for 2½ hours when I saw them friday!

Few things are able to make the flesh crawl all the way off of my body quite like David Lindley's falsetto in the middle of 'Stay'.

ok wait i think the lines were "you've heard that hollow sound/of your own steps in flight." what a precious-precious line.

quoting this v v old post to say i think this is an incredible lyric

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Thursday, February 26, 2015 2:49 AM (1 year ago)

an ilxor mentioned this line on his FB page recently and yes this is a devastating piece of writing imo

I love this song, but I don't see the full magic in any one line in particular. It takes a lot of words for him to get at what he's describing, but it's the whole analysis of his experience that I love:

But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Maybe I'll try again. His voice tends me to vague me out pretty quickly. But always loved Bonnie Raitt's versions of "Under The Falling Sky" and "I Thought I Was A Child"---did she do any more of his? A whole album of Bonnie Sings Jackson would be a definitive Boomer move, but/and I'd buy it (maybe not even wait for the NPR pledge drive). Equally definitive: Nico, "These Days."

Oh yeah, and his own performance of the epic "You Know The Night" on Note of Hope, where various artists provide new music for words from W.Guthrie's notebooks, diaries, letters, telephone pads etc---this is a 14 minute setting (there's also ace 4-minute "Radio Edit") of G.'s note to self after meeting Marjorie, his next wife and mother of Nora, Arlo etc. Browne said he wrote out the whole thing on loose pages and set them up around the room while he was recording, maybe writing too. Another artist's inspired verbosity rang a bell!

But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger

I'm surprised this fusspot didn't write "therein."

ha, alfred, your take on Jackson itt completely baffles me!

It baffles me too.

Three songs are all I need for my Browne fix: "Lawyers in Love" on the political end, "In the Shape of a Heart" for L-O-V-E, and "Running on Empty" for '70s angst.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, January 24, 2006 12:27 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean you are completely right that these are the best songs ever

it's possible i mentioned in some other jb thread that i saw him live in orlando last year and "in the shape of a heart" was particularly incredible

People speak of love don't know what they're thinking of

xxp they are good songs, but I'd take the first 4 albums over them

gotta do what you can to keep your love alive

I know "These Days" has been mentioned a number of times but I really love his original

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcJDI7a_1lk

The '67 demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtZ04BxrYf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzCD8YzDFD4

beautiful '67 demo

can't believe he came up with (most of?) it at age 16

i think browne was a better melodist than a lyricist, actually

most of his lyrics from his 'confessional' period -- the ones that sing well -- don't really add up to much IMO. they are often either needlessly vague or just break down into banalities. he did hit a few out of the park, though.

this song's pretty flawless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6pT_BDpnog

I love the electric strummin'.

never heard the demo! nice

Somebody's Baby is anything I could want in a song, so good

it's from Fast Times at Ridgemont High OST iirc, always liked it, after getting to know Jackson from the Pretender I was happy to find out this was his song

highlight of the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeM6pX2kCtc

um, so 'The Pretender' the song - I always thought of it as a personal song of, I dunno, existential ambivalence... but according to this 'article' "Browne is writing about a guy who could easily be described as a yuppie"

https://americansongwriter.com/2012/05/the-pretender-by-jackson-browne/

can we all agree this is bullshit or should I change my view on this song?

well, I'm glad Jackson himself is well aware of the complexity of the songs protagonist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNKT_tfWx6w

It's a beautiful and complex song.

love these two dudes in the audience as Browne starts the piano riff:

https://media.giphy.com/media/pl9Y1c82F2wWQ/giphy.gif

also, thx MFB :)

in the intro to this one he 'dedicates' it to a session player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76uSiz6fQh0

(not a v good video apart from that, sry 4 embed)

can we all agree this is bullshit or should I change my view on this song?

it's a very complex song and you should probably change your view

with every listen

yuppies are very complex people!

He's poet laureate of yuppies, don't forget.

http://www.asburyrecords.com/public/cover/3137_1.jpg

Prescient!

Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capital
The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians will
Now we've got all this room
We've even got the moon
And I hear the USSR will be open soon
As vacation land for lawyers in love

I was about to say!

this morning's Times:

"When Professor Jackson-Brown began teaching in the 1990s, most students respected her authority. But in recent years, that deference has waned (she blames the informality of social media). “I go out of my way now to not give them access to my first name,” she said. “On every syllabus, it states clearly: ‘Please address me as Professor Jackson-Brown.’ ”"

Late For Class

I'll never love him, but I came up with a decent list, I think.

Running on empty is still getting AirPlay somehow and it’s the sound of 70s exhaustion. I’m sitting in a bar in ‘76 and yeah, I’m just gonna give up ok

Lindley’s amazing on it tho

Something Fine is a gorgeous wistful tune from his first disc.

Working with musicians from Haiti for his new album, according to Afropop Worldwide!

I do my best.

p sure “I’m Alive” was a single, no?

Tested positive :(

mild symptoms! he did a really wonderful interview with rolling stone

Agreed. Rather charming and chipper.

FWIW:

https://t.co/evhB3Tm5aS pic.twitter.com/goLjDSvgpJ

— Jackson Browne (@SongsofJBrowne) March 25, 2020

Thankfully the symptoms are very mild. If it's been this long, he's probably close to a full recovery, but he makes an excellent point about how easily it has and will spread in group settings in close quarters, even when individuals are exercising a lot of caution like swabbing mics and avoiding physical contact like handshakes.

Re: his music, first three albums have his best songwriting. The following two albums have better singing and arguably a better sound/production. After that, the albums get really spotty, but the singles are still generally good, all the way up to "The Shape of a Heart" and Little Steven's "I Am a Patriot" (which lyrically is corny, but Browne sings it with great conviction). Still wrote the occasional gem after that, like "Sky Blue and Black."

Beginning with 'Running on Empty' (where much of the material was co-written or written by someone else), his strengths as a performer (and by extension an interpreter) really began to show while his songwriting became more inconsistent and weaker.

booming and largely accurate post. I think the super-political stuff of the 80s has sometimes aged well -- and his gift for delivering JUST the right vocal take on even a middling song ("I'm the Cat") ascended into some ascended-master level stuff

The Fuse is a killer opener on pretender. v. Springsteen.

that album as a whole is maybe a little messy, but Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate is also up there with his very best...(and saddest by far)

Before The Deluge is really something

I heard it for the first time last year on Springsteen's radio show, back when his playlists were specifically pandemic-themed, and because I first encountered it in that context, it's now permanently associated in my mind with pandemic literature. I'd love to hear it played over the credits of a film adaptation of Station Eleven.

Those opening lines - "Some of them were dreamers, and some of them were fools/ making plans and thinking of the future" - remind me of this passage from the beginning of The Plague: "Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and thought that everything was still possible for them, which presupposed that pestilences were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views? They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free as long as there are pestilences."

omg

love that passage of the plague and now it will be permanently associated with one of my favorite jackson browne songs

I like the idea of Before the Deluge, but JB's melody, singing and arrangement are so colourless that the song vanishes.

Did I only imagine that there was a "Running on Empty" vs. "Against the Wind" TS?

I can't find the discussion despite trying various Search stratagems.

Feels like there was some unpacking of a specific thematic strain of Boomer nostalgia and vague regret, where did things go wrong, etc.

Compare: "I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through" vs. "Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends."

Or maybe was it vs. "Night Moves"?

Or perhaps I am imagining a thread that could have existed but didn't.

I really love Late for the Sky. He really works the water motif throughout the album, but not too much and it never gets academic or schematic. I really think it's the apex of his songwriting, and after an impressive development across those first three LP's, he became much spottier as a songwriter. To be fair, the next two albums were better-made - his singing grew more confident, the bands sounded muscular, and the production was more polished - but lyrically The Pretender had quite a few lapses that he wasn't prone to before, and there was a lot of outside help on Running on Empty (i.e. co-writers and covers).

Paul Nelson really sold me on those early albums. He loved Browne just as much as the New York Dolls, but he lamented that it was very difficult getting peers to see the virtues of both. Everyone he preached to typically fell on one side or the other.

Greil Marcus, Ira Robbins and I think Robert Christgau have been very vocal about their distaste for the soft, early '70s SoCal sound. Marcus associates it with Browne's label, Asylum Records ("a famous home for self-pitying narcissists"). I'm not in disagreement - I'm no fan of the Eagles or most of Ronstadt's work among many others. The most common remarks I see from Browne's detractors are reflective of that entire scene, so I can't say their observations are wrong. But the handful of records I like most - those first three LP's, Ronstadt's Heart Like a Wheel, Warren Zevon's first LP - do sound like great records to me without sounding like they came from anywhere else, and I think it ultimately comes down to the songwriting and the performances. An old Eagles record will sound antiseptic and gutless to me, but Late for the Sky never felt that way. With Browne's early records, I find myself laser focused on his voice and words, and on something like Late for the Sky I'm completely drawn in. If I have to sit through an Eagles song, it's like the opposite experience, where the words are so off-putting I'll end up focusing on something else just to make it tolerable.

"Take It Easy" is famously shared by both artists. Browne wrote most of the lyrics while Frey wrote a verse that was inspired by one of Browne's experiences - it's the one about the girl checking him out, and even though it's Browne's experience, he never made the choice to put it in, it was Frey who was inspired to do so. I think that says a lot, but a more telling moment is the line "I'm lookin' for a lover who won't blow my cover / she's SOOOO hard to find." That's the Eagles version, and every time I hear Frey singing that, I feel like rolling my eyes. Browne tweaks it to "she's just a little hard to find," and on top of that, he doesn't sound like an asshole when he sings it (i.e. he doesn't turn it into a whining, self-entitled complaint). The Eagles may have better voices, but I think Browne's a much more palatable interpreter.

That brings up the other common complaint - those early records have a plainness that puts detractors off, and I guess colorless is not a wrong way of putting it. But ordinary feels more apt to me, and not in a way that's synonymous with colorless - for me it actually winds up working in favor of the songs, making them equally complicated and universal.

I want to see this documentary:
https://paulnelsonfilm.com/trailer

He was pretty remarkable. I think he pretty much lost any future in the music business when he went to the mat for the New York Dolls, but I can't think of a better way of burning your bridges. (The "demos" he produced are still my favorite New York Dolls recordings.)

I find the received wisdom about this era by Robbins, Marcus, Christgau, etc. so tedious that I had to play the other HLAW and SD dreams albums by Ronstandt for weeks to clear my brain of the doctrinal obstinance.

John Rockwell was the outlier on that front, iirc.

Paul Nelson also put together one of my faves of and in the 70s, the Velvet Underground's 1969 Live In Texas, which extended my sense of them from the original studio albums, incl. "roots" in sometimes bluesy 50s-early 60s rock, prev unheard by me except in Cale's Tex-Mexoid organ solo in "Sister Ray" and the backing track to his reading of "The Gift" (later legit-released as the stand-alone instrumental "Booker T")--fascinated by the way they Velvetized this inflection, befre Cramps and Gun Club (hearing all the jams later, I thought Nelson chose pretty well from those tapes)(this was the 2-LP, later on 2 sep CDs).
In the same era, he astutely assembled Sir Douglas Quintet's Rough Edges, really essential for headz (much later, some of these tracks were breadcrumb/catnip bonus tracks across import reissues, also on The Complete Mercury Recordings OOP CD box. but MP3-only reissue is in Amazon Digital Music Store.

He refused to choose between Browne and the Dolls, unusual at the time, it seemed.
Was not particularly interested in Patti Smith or any other female artist, far as I recall. Do recall that he always seemed to be into heroes, esp. Browne and Young and some West Coast--associated writers like Ross Macdonald---very compatible w Rolling Stone for a while, dunno what their falling out or his leaving the media was all about, although xgau's profile, prob still on his site, seemed pretty plausible.

Come to think of it, he was probably struck by the way the Dolls used oldies too.

And here's what he said in RS when The Ramones came out:
Ramones
By PAUL NELSON

If today’s Rolling Stone were the Cahiers du Cinema of the late Fifties, a band of outsiders as deliberately crude and basic as the Ramones would be granted instant auteur status as fast as one could say “Edgar G. Ulmer.” Their musique maudite — 14 rock & roll songs exploding like time bombs in the space of 29 breathless minutes and produced on a Republic-Monogram budget of $6400 — would be compared with the mise en scene of, say, Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly or, better yet, Samuel Fuller’s delirious Underworld U.S.A.

And such comparisons would not be specious. The next paragraph is an almost literal transcription of something the American auteurist, Andrew Sarris, wrote about Fuller in The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968. I’ve just changed the names and a few terms.

The Ramones are authentic American primitives whose work has to be heard to be understood. Heard, not read about or synopsized. Their first album, Ramones, is constructed almost entirely of rhythm tracks of an exhilarating intensity rock & roll has not experienced since its earliest days. The Ramones’ lyrics are so compressed that there is no room for even one establishing atmosphere verse or one dramatically irrelevant guitar solo in which the musicians could suggest an everyday existence…. The Ramones’ ideas are undoubtedly too broad and oversimplified for any serious analysis, but it is the artistic force with which their ideas are expressed that makes their music so fascinating to critics who can rise above their aesthetic prejudices…. The Ramones’ perversity and peculiarly Old Testament view of retribution carry the day…. It is time popular music followed the other arts in honoring its primitives. The Ramones belong to rock & roll, and not to rock and avant-garde musical trends.

How the present will treat the Ramones, proponents of the same Manhattan musical minimalism as the New York Dolls who preceded them, remains to be seen. Thus far, punk rock’s archetypal concept of an idealized Top 40 music — the songs stripped down like old Fords, then souped up for speed — has unintentionally provoked more primal anger from than precipitant access to the nation’s teenagers, and the godheads of AM radio don’t seem to be listening at all. Why? Do you have to be over 21 to like this stuff? Doesn’t “Blitzkrieg Bop” or the absolutely wonderful “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” mean anything to anyone but an analytical intellectual? Until now, apparently not.

Where’s your sense of humor and adventure, America? In rock & roll and matters of the heart, we should all hang on to a little amateurism. Let’s hope these guys sell more records than Elton John has pennies. If not, shoot the piano player. And throw in Paul McCartney to boot.

the way the Dolls used oldies

Cf.: David Johansen covering "Build Me Up Buttercup," "Reach Out (I'll Be There," and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" on Live It Up

He refused to choose between Browne and the Dolls, unusual at the time, it seemed.

Yeah, I was stunned to hear him talk about that. Obviously they're very different in a lot of ways (or rather anything related to punk and "singer-songwriters," a misleading genre label I never liked), but across the '90s and '00s, there was no shortage of good artists drawing inspiration from both. It didn't seem the least bit surprising when I came across a Paul Westerberg bootleg where he sang "These Days" without a drop of irony.

And Nico's version has always blown me away---hers was the first release, far as I know (backwhen he was her jailbait bf)
Re Dolls' oldies, was thinking of "Stranded In The Jungle," about which we had quite a lively discussion on some thread---also "Showdown," "Pills," pron some others, blending with and inspiring originals.

Well maybe not jailbait, but v young (according to something long ago in Goldmine---an epic trek into the early daze of BOC and Soft White Underbelly etc---Meltzer and classmates. one of whom was from Cali. seized control or some of it of the campus concert committee, so first East Coast shows of several Frisco bands and the Orange County Three, Buckley, Browne, and Steve Noonan---and Browne stayed around and hung out with Meltzer, Pearlman, and so on, eventually meeting Nico (I think that was it).

(They may have been advertised as the Orange County Three, but sep sets on the same bill, I believe.)

Oh yeah, here's the 1968 Cheetah Magazine consideration of thee so-called Orange County Three:
http://galacticramble.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-orange-county-three.html

Cover model Michael J. Pollard!

Second two-page spread of that piece eerily foreshadows Yacht Rock

birdistheword, I do find that attribute (that I might call plain-spokenness) in some of Browne's work, like The Only Child on The Pretender.

I've wanted to read the Paul Nelson compilation/biography, but haven't encountered it yet.

XP ...and the final paragraphs provide a harbinger of Browne's asshole friends.

Ah, okay, here's Noonan, and some stuff about the "Three"'s origins, in Unterberger's liner notes for reissue of s/t debut: he and their high school buddy Greg Copeland wrote "Buy For Me The Rain," Top 40 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hit. also, Noonan, very extensively quoted here, says that he and Browne wrote things first recorded by Tom Rush etc., attributed to JB only, and he mentions "The Fairest of the Seasons," which I know is on the Nico LP and I think is the one w typo, "Browne-Copland,"confusing me until I heard of Greg Copeland: with all them strings and the melodee, it had me wondering if based on something by Aaron C. Noonan mentions seeing boy Browne as accompanist for Nico and El Cohen (singing together, I hope): http://www.richieunterberger.com/noonan.html

Here is Xgau writeup on Paul Nelson- and Ellen Willis! https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bn/2011-11.php

Jackson Browne gets a back-handed swipe.

He was always kinda-sorta on Browne, going by his Consumer Guide takes over the decades. Would still kinda like to hear this, speaking again of Greg Copeland:
Revenge Will Come [Geffen, 1982]
Producer Jackson Browne has gone after absolutely predictable midtempo studio rock, but with a tough edge that's augmented by Copeland, who sounds like (of all things) Jackson Browne with a tough edge. Propitious--if Copeland can move his mentor's personalist millenarianism far enough left to write protest lyrics that surrender neither psychological dimension nor American mythos, I bet other young rock mainstreamers are thinking the same way. B- He also liked some of Browne's 80s protest lyrics, so Copeland did turn out to be a good influence maybe.

Maybe they wrote together again? When Browne eventually did get back into a lot of co-writing.

“Together Again”? Buck Owens?

I had to double check because I was pretty sure Christgau wasn't much of a fan of any Jackson Browne album (except maybe Running on Empty), but it looks like he does have some nice things to say about the '80s political albums. I have a lot of admiration for Browne's activism, but I don't think he's recorded a whole lot of good protest music. Off the top of my head, the best ones I've heard him do were covers, the multi-artist "Sun City" single and the "Lawyers in Love" single which feels a bit like an outlier for being a satire. Maybe it's not something that clicks with him musically, who knows.

Also, while looking him up in CG, I forgot about his great guitarist David Lindley. He actually put out an acclaimed album in 1981 called El Rayo-X (Christgau gave it a B+, Marcus put it on his top ten of the year.) Looks like a Ry Cooder-type project, with some interesting, humorous covers. Will have to check it out, but regardless Lindley is probably the most essential component of Browne's best recordings.

(I see Horace Mann mentioned this upthread way back in 2004: I'll give him props for producing David Lindley's awesome El Rayo-X and providing good back-ups thereon.)

O yeah mad love for David Lindley, the eclectic multi-instrumentalist sideman with the ridiculous hair and sideburns who plays with Jackson Browne.

Also for Mark Stewart, the eclectic multi-instrumentalist sideman with ridiculous hair and sideburns who plays with Paul Simon.

For a while I thought there was only one eclectic multi-instrumentalist sideman with ridiculous hair and sideburns who plays live with various well-known folk-rock singer-songwriters. Turns out there were, and are, at least two.

Also for Mark Stewart, the eclectic multi-instrumentalist sideman with ridiculous hair and sideburns who plays with Paul Simon.

LOL, I do not know the name, but I caught Simon's last show and know exactly who you're talking about.

(last tour stop that is)

This was kind of the hit or "hit" off that David Lindley album iirc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URm7Ze9a56o

Here is an almost ten minute long live version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAbbgSKUZB4

Lindley was also in the great (American vs. the British or Mexican) psyche band Kaleidoscope pre-Browne and solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbRcURfROJY

Oh yeah, almost forgot about that.

Yeahhh Kaleidoscope (US) vs Kaleidoscope (UK) vs Kaleidoscope (MX)

...and he's Linda Ronstadt's cousin!

Lindley is great, he put out some “official bootlegs” of live acoustic shows in the 90s that were fun

https://www.discogs.com/master/view/549049

https://www.discogs.com/master/view/549044

& Kaleidoscope were longtime uncredited backing band on Leonard Cohen's debut lp.
Think that only came out over last few years.

Oh yeah there's some pretty great footage of Lindley backing Terry Reid on the Glastonbury Fayre film.
Can't link to it while typing on my phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElzhsMCVlkQ
is the footage I'm familiar with from the Nicholas Roeg film

Chunks (maybe adding up to most/all) of Browne's Newport Folk 2012 set are on YouTube, and his Tiny Desk Concert is on npr.org.

What got me into him, killer cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HzeX_kh9lU

Also!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5NkGZr1iQ

not bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JfWYHAIp-g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qlPrrVnPbs

Bonnie Raitt's covers are usually great. (FWIW, her "My Opening Farewell" on the 1995 Road Tested is better sung than the studio version she did almost 20 years earlier.) But generally she's a much better interpreter than Linda Ronstadt. I love Heart Like a Wheel but a lot of times her covers seem completely misguided - even when arranged tastefully, she oversings them like a popped balloon that's been inflated too much.

Nico's "These Days" the earliest release and still my fave rave version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhr2MlQd7i0

Elton John getting his inner-Jerry Lee Lewis on in the background of "Red Neck Friend" is hitting all the spots this evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPi_ksFoczI

Oh yeah, used to hear that on Collegetown radio quite a bit, thanks.

Bonnie Raitt's covers are usually great. (FWIW, her "My Opening Farewell" on the 1995 Road Tested is better sung than the studio version she did almost 20 years earlier.)
Thanx 4 tip, birdistheword!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6AgpzsnHo8

Man, I just don't get this guy. Yeah, there are a handful of songs I enjoy, and Late for the Sky is a good mood piece. But he doesn't have the teeth of Warren Zevon, or the grand ambition of Springsteen, or even the gross cynicism/careerism of the Eagles. More than anything else, he just always sounds so bored of himself.

Like, this song was reportedly written for James Honeyman-Scott, but it's such a shameless Springsteen rip that gloms onto his most generic qualities (let alone as lazy tribute a guitarist as special as James Honeyman-Scott). In fact, at first I thought it was a parody, a la "Tweeter and the Monkey Man."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGxZplDXhQU

FWIW, when I think about what I like best about his work, it's rarely something I'd equate with any of those three. In fact, as you've pointed out with "For a Rocker," I'd say his work became much less distinctive when it seemed like he was under Springsteen's influence. (Also when I compare his version of "Take It Easy" with the Eagles', the subtle differences really emphasize what I don't like about the band and what I do like about Browne.)

Late for the Sky may be the only album I genuinely love (and without qualification), but there's probably 20, maybe even 30 tracks beyond that album that I do enjoy, mostly from the '70s.

The only two tracks I like from Lawyers in Love is the title track (at least I find it amusing) and "Tender Is the Night."

Actually, here's a homemade comp I have on the shelf (lots of overlap with his official The Very Best of but tweaked a bit for my own purposes) - I basically listen to this or Late for the Sky:

This Side Of Paradise • The Best Of Jackson Browne (1972-1989)

Disc One
1 Jamaica Say You Will 03:24
2 Song For Adam 05:23
3 Doctor My Eyes 03:15
4 Under The Falling Sky 04:09
5 Rock Me On The Water 04:13
6 My Opening Farewell 04:44
7 Take It Easy 03:35
8 I Thought I Was A Child 03:45
9 These Days 04:47
10 Redneck Friend 03:59
11 Ready Or Not 03:35
12 For Everyman 05:58
13 Late For The Sky 05:44
14 Fountain Of Sorrow 06:54
15 The Late Show 05:14
16 For A Dancer 04:49
17 Before The Deluge 06:21

Disc Two
1 Your Bright Baby Blues 06:06
2 Here Come Those Tears Again 03:40
3 The Pretender 05:53
4 Running On Empty 05:03
5 Rosie 03:41
6 You Love The Thunder 03:55
7 Cocaine 04:56
8 The Load Out 05:35
9 Stay 03:22
10 That Girl Could Sing 04:37
11 Boulevard 03:22
12 Call It A Loan 04:50
13 Somebody's Baby 04:23
14 Lawyers In Love 04:21
15 Tender Is The Night 04:55
16 In The Shape Of A Heart 05:40
17 I Am A Patriot 04:04

I'll have to check some of those songs out. Many of them I bet I've heard, but Jackson Browne just evaporates out of my brain.

I should add, if you like Bonnie Raitt, her covers are usually better than Browne's originals. Raitt's "Under the Falling Sky" completely smokes Browne's.

i don’t fw jackson browne much but late for the sky is so much more than a mood piece. the duet between browne’s vocal and lindley’s guitar is straight-up sublime.

those notes aren’t hard to play but I’ve been chasing the vibe for years, and not to get all TGP but if I could cop just one recorded gtr tone, that would be it.

Lindley is awesome in any context.

Lindley's El Rayo-X from 1981 is a good listen.

Yeah mang & "Taxim"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBaYJr_ux4g

It's interesting that you all say Browne is influenced by Springsteen, because as someone who has only heard Late for the Sky, I had assumed the influence was the other way around. "Thunder Road" in particular seems like it started out as Springsteen trying to do Late for the Sky lyrically, between the setting that's basically the last verse of "The Late Show" and the line about trading in wings that comes from "Before the Deluge" and doesn't really make much sense in TR. And that's not even a throwaway line, because the original title of the song was "Wings for Wheels."

I'm not doubting that Browne ended up being influenced by Springsteen, it's just odd that he ended up imitating someone who started out fairly blatantly imitating him.

Oho, interesting--dunno if there was that kind of back and forth with them, but it can happen. On The Million Dollar Quartet, Elvis keeps trying to tell his hopped-up friends about being struck by something in Vegas: how the fella with "Ward and The Dominos" (he means Billy Ward's lead singer, Jackie Wilson) did a takeoff on Elvis's version of "Don't Be Cruel," just slightly exaggerating or emphasizing certain thangs,like "telly-phone"--and I notice on some of Elvis's own live performances, a little later, he makes sure to sing "telly-phone" and so on (screws around likewise on a number of studio outtakes, like a long-ass vamp on "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," which the cats are playing fine, but he never lets go of the wasted first verse).

Also, Bobby Darin's hit version of "Mack The Knife" seemed
like an imitation of Frank Sinatra, who later recorded it in much the same manner, and Darin's Tim Hardiny original,
"Simple Song of Freedom," was covered by Hardin.

David Crosby based "Guinevere" on a bit of Sketches From Spain, and Miles covered The Croz song.

I thought Love and Theft sounded like the best Tom Waits album ever, and said it in the Voice, so if you think of Waits as influenced by Dylan(who sounded like Waits for quite a while after that, though smoother on My Rough and Rowdy Ways)---

I think Springsteen definitely was influenced by Browne, in some way, though I don't hear any musical similarities. They're peers, almost the same age, both released debut albums at 23 (and Jon Landau later produced "The Pretender"), and I think they met one another before Springsteen released his first album, but the two have pretty different backgrounds. Saw this:

https://estreetshuffle.com/index.php/2021/03/24/matr-jackson-browne-and-bruce-springsteen-running-on-empty/

And of course Bruce later inducted Browne in the rock and roll hall of fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YFyC6pnz-k

Bruce had a relationship with Zevon, too, of course. That's surely why he kept crossing paths with them both, showing up on stage/albums, etc, to pay his respects. But I don't hear any of that strain of LA singer/songwriter in Bruce at all, whereas for sure Brown and Zevon (and others) at times tried to recast themselves in Bruce's more (musically) muscular image. Iirc Springsteen is what made Zevon shift from piano to more guitar, and his live shows reportedly (in the oral history, I believe) tried to emulate the more energetic side of Springsteen as well.

Always loved this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACSeVC6umzg

(Gotta admit that Bruce's speech makes me want to give Browne yet another shot.)

I thought Springsteen's influence on Browne really manifested itself with The Pretender. (Probably helps that Jon Landau produced it.) I don't know Browne's history that well, but I got the impression he started off more as an aspiring songwriter whereas being a musician (specifically a guitarist) and a performer was always there from the very start with Springsteen. Years before Browne got the chance to record an album proper, he already had songs recorded by Nico and the Byrds, and of course the Eagles famously laid claim to one before it was even finished (and before they even made an official record of their own).

So with that in mind, it's no surprise that Browne's first three albums seemed to grow out of the Laurel Canyon sound. I wouldn't call them anonymous sounding records - Lindley alone made them distinctive - but they sounded pretty organic to that scene and Browne was very much a part of that. Then comes The Pretender and there's a tougher and lusher sound, more muscular and more polished, and more importantly his singing follows suit as well. Then he makes a bigger leap with Running on Empty where he's singing with more authority than he's ever had, and the band is tighter and more rocking too. With those two albums and the next one, I got the feeling he knew how Springsteen's records sounded and how great the E Street Band were, and he basically used them as a model to update his sound. When he became inspired by the way Springsteen made his sociopolitical conscience work in his music, that set him in another direction with his next three albums (starting with Lawyers in Love) - at least that's how it seems to me, I'm not sure if that's actual fact.

Truth be told, I think his songwriting was at its best on the first three albums. The Pretender was the best sounding record he made at that point, but it came with a weaker batch of songs. Running on Empty is his best work in terms of performance, but it's a much less interesting and original work than any of his first three albums, and I think it says a lot that it's heavy on co-writes with a few covers thrown in - it's as if he was shifting more focus to other things besides the songwriting. The politically-oriented albums are admirable, but what he makes of the subject matter is much less compelling than what he's done before. Except for "Lawyers in Love" (which may be helped by its humor), and two love songs picked as singles, the only other cut I enjoy from those albums is actually a cover, and it gets over more for performance than the lyrics.

FWIW his residency at the Beacon Theater in NYC (which starts tonight) has plenty of seats at every show and they’re much more affordable than they were when they first went on sale. Upper balcony is $35 plus fees and you can get a good seat somewhere in the middle of the orchestra for like $80 or $90.

This is so worth it. The show was nearly three hours with a brief intermission (felt like 5 minutes). He actually played 25 songs instead of the tour's usual 23. Four were from his new album, and they surprisingly held their own with one song sounding like a sequel to "These Days" (which he also played). Four were from Late for the Sky which made me really happy because the last time I saw him at the Beacon, he didn't do any songs from it, and they were amazing - the album was already a favorite, but I couldn't believe how gorgeous those songs can sound live, especially with the subtle additions he made to the arrangements. (IIRC two of them began as solo numbers that carefully built their arrangements up verse after verse.) The lead guitarist was great - David Lindley is a tough guy to replace because he's such a distinctive part of Browne's earlier works, but the guy managed to strike the right balance between being faithful to the original leads and adding his own spin on the solos. The one for "These Days" were just beautiful, I was floored. There was also a comic moment on "Stay" (the show's last number during the second and final encore) where he had to play traditional country licks for the "country & western" reference, and HE COULDN'T DO IT! Browne joked about that, which was fine, it was really the only time during the whole show where he had to go all-out country and that wasn't what he was playing before.

Really, really great, glad I went. It didn't occur to me to buy tickets at the box office - I wish I had tried that to see if that would avoid Ticketmaster fees as they had plenty of seats and weren't going to sell out, but it was still a cheap ticket. I paid probably 3x as much when I saw him in 2019 at the same venue and this show was better.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/jackson-browne/2022/beacon-theatre-new-york-ny-23b2c02b.html

*was just beautiful

Hah, shows what I know - the one that sounds like a "These Days" is actually from Standing in the Breach.

there were some good tunes on Standing in the Breach

saw him live 7 years ago and his band was one of the best I had ever heard, would buy tickets again any day

I think Standing In The Breech also includes a or the short version of "You Know The Night," originally on Note of Hope, where various artists put music to the words of Woody Guthrie. It's from a letter or journal entry about the night Woody met his future wife Marjorie, mother of Arlo and Joady and Nora, who instigates these words-to-music projects: JB's original, which he said came from taping Woody's pages up all over the room, was over 14 minutes long, and great; NoH also had a 4-minute radio edit, and I think that's the version he usually or always does live.

Here's the epic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgm1cCfFuOE

Concert version of the edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgm1cCfFuOE

Oops here's second one I meant to post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmWYcgjiE0c

Whoah nice! I totally missed Note of Hope. I forgot when they first did Mermaid Avenue, they mentioned they were going to continue creating music for Woody's unpublished words beyond having Bragg and Wilco do it.

Now that you mention it, I just checked, and here's a fairly mind-blogging list of Woody projects to date, in various media, with descriptions---I knew some of them, like the Klezmatics albums, with all songs completed by Woody, I think (got interested in Jewish life via Marjory and her fam)---also, the tribute concert issued in '72 is mentioned here, and I have that LP, with scorching set by Dylan & The Band etc---also have all three volumes of Mermaid Avenue, and some others--but maaan: https://www.woodyguthrie.org/norapress.htm

lol my cousin and her husband are suing Jackson Browne for access to their property.

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2816497086916/famed-songwriter-jackson-browne-wrestling-property-dispute-in-santa-cruz-superior-court

I hope they have lawyers...

in love

Something about this Jackson Browne song sounds like something from "Graceland" at half-speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1SCSOaTb4

Some weird comments on that video. Like the first one:

Time can't touch this tune,. Good memories cruising with friends, jamming, drag racing,. Anything was possible in the night, we were lucky to had them. I'm 52 now. But it's fresh as yesterday.

Which means the guy was, what, 15? In 1983 or so? The comment is written like some grandpa extolling the '60s, not the early '80s. This is an OK song, but not the sort of thing that would (or should) make a teen want to tear things up.

I like this track, but I can honestly say it's never made me thinking about driving, much less drag racing. It sounds like something out of comedy, where a guy revs up his car, cranks up this tape and the other passengers are like WTF.

Like, "Breaking the Law"? Sure. "Tender is the Night"? Nope.

I love that song so much. It made me want to grow up so that I could meaningfully stroke my chin and think baout things, such as being in a sadly doomed romance. Drag racing was not on the agenda. It felt more personal and intimate than its close companion, "Lawyers in Love," which was mixed up with all sorts of Reagan-era apocalypolitical stuff. Whoever made that comment is either deluded or just plan weird.

Josh --

That YouTube comment is fairly typical.

It's just the cultural version of false memory syndrome, where everything in the past blurs into a fuzz of vague meta-nostalgia.

"Yes, I was born in 1975. Whenever I listen to Billy Joel's 'Keeping the Faith' or Paul Simon's 'Late in the Evening,' I am reminded of how much we enjoyed Sen-Sen mints and the many street-corner doo-wop groups in my neighborhood, and how the cars all had big fins on them. Then we'd go down to the diner, to see if the Fonz was there. Man, that Cuban Missile Crisis sure was something, wasn't it?"

still not sure who started the fire tho

After all, it was you and me.

lol

I am reliably informed that you can't start a fire without a spark

he's very likeable in the eagles doc

taught glenn frey how to write songs (indirectly, frey was living in the apartment above browne, would wake up to the sound of browne's piano through the floor, listening to browne playing the same verse over and over, 20 times, until he had it down)

will i ever be able to hear "fountain of sorrow" without bursting into tears

you've had to hide sometimes, but now you're all right

thats a great song. lady of the well is the jb track that currently gets me.

you've had to hide sometimes, but now you're all right

gets me absolutely every time

It's a good song.

I can still be undone by "Rock Me on the Water," or even "Tender is the Night."