However, Springsteen's Tunnel of Love is his only album to approach the delicate filigrees of "In the Shape of a Heart."
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 22 October 2006 23:20 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 23 October 2006 00:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 October 2006 00:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 23 October 2006 01:06 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 October 2006 01:14 (seventeen years ago) link
this isn't true btw
once again however generally speaking I gotta agree to disagree with you Alfred
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 23 October 2006 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link
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
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 23 October 2006 12:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Monday, 23 October 2006 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 October 2006 14:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 23 October 2006 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 October 2006 14:29 (seventeen years ago) link
Is anyone still wondering about this? I'll explimacate it if necessary, but one hates to kill the magic and all.
― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Monday, 23 October 2006 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link
"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.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 08:49 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link
"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
― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 18:31 (fourteen years ago) link
me too.
― banjoboy, Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:48 (fourteen years ago) link
anyone?
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 30 March 2010 10:16 (fourteen years ago) link
funny "Running on Empty" (the song) came up last night - strange how much I wanted to like this stuff 5 years ago.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 30 March 2010 10:47 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― aerosmith: live at gunpoint (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 19 September 2010 03:43 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― aerosmith: live at gunpoint (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 19 September 2010 03:49 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― mars bonfire (m coleman), Sunday, 19 September 2010 12:08 (fourteen years ago) link
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?
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 21 September 2010 21:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Somebody's Baby describes my defeatist attitude towards approaching women to a T -- circa 2008.
― turn in yer badge (San Te), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 16:25 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 16:28 (thirteen years ago) link
This is really great:http://www.indierockreviews.com/2011/02/a-tribute-to-jackson-browne-by-grails/
― reallysmoothmusic (Jamie_ATP), Friday, 18 February 2011 23:29 (thirteen years ago) link
fav cover of one of his songs i think
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MHdPKCOB2A
― buzza, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 07:20 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqYiHkx7ils
kills me.
― Jamie_ATP, Saturday, 10 November 2012 11:44 (eleven years ago) link
"Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capitolThe Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians willNow we've got all this room, we've even got the moonAnd I hear the U.S.S.R. will be open soonAs 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)
― theStalePrince, Saturday, 10 November 2012 18:38 (eleven years ago) link
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
― Mule, Monday, 14 October 2013 13:04 (ten years ago) link
One more - 9 minutes of 'Before the Deluge':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8y45mAGJRA
― Mule, Monday, 14 October 2013 13:16 (ten years ago) link
side one is just unfathomably perfect. The Road and the Sky however - fucking hell what a terrible terrible way to start side 2.
― Jamie_ATP, Monday, 14 October 2013 14:40 (ten years ago) link
Otm on both accounts. That tune sure sticks out like a sore thumb.
― Mule, Monday, 14 October 2013 15:53 (ten years ago) link
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
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Thursday, 26 February 2015 07:49 (nine years ago) link
indeed - and they played for 2½ hours when I saw them friday!
― niels, Monday, 22 June 2015 08:45 (nine years ago) link
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'.
― Feeding My Whole Family With A Pack Of Taco Shells (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 June 2015 12:11 (nine years ago) link
― 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
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 19 July 2016 20:42 (eight years ago) link
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 dangerAnd your perfect lover just looks like a perfect foolSo you go running off in search of a perfect strangerWhile the loneliness seems to spring from your lifeLike a fountain from a pool
― veggie sticks potato snacks (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 21:14 (eight years ago) link
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."
― dow, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 21:29 (eight years ago) link
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!
― dow, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 21:38 (eight years ago) link
But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
I'm surprised this fusspot didn't write "therein."
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 21:39 (eight years ago) link
ha, alfred, your take on Jackson itt completely baffles me!
― veggie sticks potato snacks (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 21:42 (eight years ago) link
It baffles me too.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 21:49 (eight years ago) link
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
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 22:57 (eight years ago) link
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
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 23:00 (eight years ago) link
People speak of love don't know what they're thinking of
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 23:08 (eight years ago) link
xxp they are good songs, but I'd take the first 4 albums over them
― veggie sticks potato snacks (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 23:21 (eight years ago) link
gotta do what you can to keep your love alive
― brimstead, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 23:26 (eight years ago) link
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 (eight years ago) link
The '67 demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtZ04BxrYf0
― timellison, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 05:01 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzCD8YzDFD4
― timellison, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 05:32 (eight years ago) link