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
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 23:29 (seven years ago) link
The '67 demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtZ04BxrYf0
― timellison, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 05:01 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzCD8YzDFD4
― timellison, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 05:32 (seven years ago) link
beautiful '67 demo
can't believe he came up with (most of?) it at age 16
― niels, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 09:38 (seven years ago) link
i think browne was a better melodist than a lyricist, actually
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 21 July 2016 00:59 (seven years ago) link
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.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 21 July 2016 01:00 (seven years ago) link
this song's pretty flawless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6pT_BDpnog
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 21 July 2016 01:01 (seven years ago) link
I love the electric strummin'.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 July 2016 01:12 (seven years ago) link
never heard the demo! nice
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Thursday, 21 July 2016 05:09 (seven years ago) link
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
― niels, Thursday, 21 July 2016 10:58 (seven years ago) link
highlight of the album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeM6pX2kCtc
― jamiesummerz, Thursday, 21 July 2016 13:58 (seven years ago) link
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?
― niels, Saturday, 21 January 2017 10:09 (seven years ago) link
well, I'm glad Jackson himself is well aware of the complexity of the songs protagonist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNKT_tfWx6w
― niels, Saturday, 21 January 2017 10:27 (seven years ago) link
It's a beautiful and complex song.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Saturday, 21 January 2017 10:32 (seven years ago) link
love these two dudes in the audience as Browne starts the piano riff:
https://media.giphy.com/media/pl9Y1c82F2wWQ/giphy.gif
― niels, Saturday, 21 January 2017 11:30 (seven years ago) link
also, thx MFB :)
in the intro to this one he 'dedicates' it to a session player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76uSiz6fQh0
― niels, Saturday, 21 January 2017 12:14 (seven years ago) link
(not a v good video apart from that, sry 4 embed)
― niels, Saturday, 21 January 2017 12:20 (seven years ago) link
it's a very complex song and you should probably change your view
― though she denies it to the press, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 21 January 2017 12:28 (seven years ago) link
with every listen
― niels, Saturday, 21 January 2017 12:36 (seven years ago) link
yuppies are very complex people!
― schrute dwyte (unregistered), Saturday, 21 January 2017 13:11 (seven years ago) link
He's poet laureate of yuppies, don't forget.
http://www.asburyrecords.com/public/cover/3137_1.jpg
― who even are those other cats (Eazy), Saturday, 21 January 2017 17:15 (seven years ago) link
Prescient!
Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capitalThe Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians willNow we've got all this roomWe've even got the moonAnd I hear the USSR will be open soonAs vacation land for lawyers in love
― who even are those other cats (Eazy), Saturday, 21 January 2017 17:20 (seven years ago) link
I was about to say!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 21 January 2017 17:31 (seven years ago) link
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.’ ”"
― Swag Heathen (theStalePrince), Sunday, 14 May 2017 13:14 (six years ago) link
Late For Class
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 14 May 2017 16:06 (six years ago) link
I'll never love him, but I came up with a decent list, I think.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2017 01:53 (six years ago) link
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
― calstars, Sunday, 9 June 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link
Lindley’s amazing on it tho
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 10 June 2019 04:21 (four years ago) link
Something Fine is a gorgeous wistful tune from his first disc.
― that's not my post, Monday, 10 June 2019 05:27 (four years ago) link
Working with musicians from Haiti for his new album, according to Afropop Worldwide!
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 10 June 2019 09:35 (four years ago) link
I do my best.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 31 July 2019 00:53 (four years ago) link
p sure “I’m Alive” was a single, no?
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 31 July 2019 02:33 (four years ago) link
Tested positive :(
― the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Wednesday, 25 March 2020 12:33 (four years ago) link
mild symptoms! he did a really wonderful interview with rolling stone
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 March 2020 12:34 (four years ago) link
Agreed. Rather charming and chipper.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 March 2020 12:43 (four years ago) link
FWIW:
https://t.co/evhB3Tm5aS pic.twitter.com/goLjDSvgpJ— Jackson Browne (@SongsofJBrowne) March 25, 2020
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 25 March 2020 13:02 (four years ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 26 March 2020 15:45 (four years ago) link
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
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 26 March 2020 17:10 (four years ago) link
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)
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 17:36 (three years ago) link
Before The Deluge is really something
― Mule, Saturday, 6 February 2021 10:43 (three years ago) link
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."
― I am not a psychic community (Lily Dale), Saturday, 6 February 2021 18:36 (three years ago) link
omg
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 6 February 2021 18:37 (three years ago) link
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.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 6 February 2021 18:47 (three years ago) link
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.
― baelien (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 6 February 2021 22:28 (three years ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 6 February 2021 22:52 (three years ago) link
I want to see this documentary:https://paulnelsonfilm.com/trailer
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 February 2021 23:08 (three years ago) link
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.)
― birdistheword, Saturday, 6 February 2021 23:13 (three years ago) link
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.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 6 February 2021 23:22 (three years ago) link
John Rockwell was the outlier on that front, iirc.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 February 2021 23:32 (three years ago) link