Jackson Browne - C or D?

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

I wonder why the song ends when/where it does?

It seems that his son was born a few weeks after For Everyman was released, so since it's presumably autobiographical or was taken that way by his audience, I guess it's hard to come to any conclusions about life with an as-yet unborn baby.

Interesting, I guess I didn't think it could potentially be autobiographical.

"H-A-T-R-E-D" by Tonio K

I know i'm acting immature
i'm acting like a child
i should display some self-control
instead of going wild like this
and i do wish i could accept all this
as simply "life" which includes pain
and act upon the actual fact
that nobody's to blame ...
oh, yes i wish i was as mellow
as for instance jackson browne
but "fountain of sorrow" my ass
motherfucker
i hope you wind up in the ground

I kept thinking where someone like Randy Newman or Zevon would have taken the story

Newman describes sitting stoically in an empty baby's room without describing what happened to mother or child. Zevon goes on a bender, reconciles to the idea he's going to become a father, and comes back to find the woman has terminated the pregnancy in his absence.

From his official social media:

It is with deep sorrow that we share that on the morning of November 25, 2025, Ethan Browne, the son of Jackson Browne and Phyllis Major, was found unresponsive in his home and has passed away. We ask for privacy and respect for the family during this difficult time. No further details are available at this moment.

Oh no, that's horrible

Ugh

Handsome man too.