Browne Notes – An Intro
But not pretending to be a great songwriter.
Poor Jackson Browne. He gets little respect these days. In the pantheon of songwriting greatness, everyone talks about Dylan, Springsteen, and Young ad nauseum but no one talks about Jackson Browne. On Paste Magazine’s list of the 100 greatest living songwriters, he lags behind all of those names by about fifty spots, and he’s been superseded by guys that have been at it for a lot less time than he: Beck, Ryan Adams, and the boys of REM. Furthermore, his name is almost a derogatory term these days, representing a thankfully bygone era of mellow 70’s California rock. He’s got Pitchfork Media describing the aforementioned Beck’s Sea Change as his “bland Jackson Browne woe” phase*, and he’s even got Randy Newman cynically jabbing in the song, “A Piece of the Pie.” ”The rich are getting richer/I should know” he writes, “And no one gives a shit but Jackson Browne/Jackson Brown/Jackson/JACKSON.”
But Jackson Browne is so much more.
Yes, he is guilty of including a large amount of politics in many of his later albums, songs based in extrospection where his great srength is his keen inner eye. When he utilizes his introspective nature, his songs are earnest over sexy, something probably true about the man himself judging from the dowdy white t-shirt he sports on the cover of 1976’s The Pretender to the greying beard displayed on the cover of 2008’s Time the Conqueror. On each of these covers is a man whose appearance is remarkable for nothing but overwhelming plainness. He has none of the tough-guy looks of Springsteen’s tight jeans, none of the quirkiness of Dylan’s frizzled head, and none of the awkward ugliness of Van Morrison’s ill-advised facial hair. Eschewing visual frippery, he choses instead to dress his intensely personal lyrics in sinewy melodies that seem never to exactly repeat. They are songs based on his struggles, bearing all. Woe? Tons of it, but by no means bland.
So in honor of Jackson Browne, we’ll take Randy’s lyrics and flip it and reverse it. We (Edward and I) will give a shit about Jackson Browne, to the tune of offering reviews and tracks from our favorite Jackson Browne albums. I’ll be writing up his latest Solo Acoustic Albums and Running on Empty, while Edward will handle Late for the Sky, and in this post, I’ll include some of his popular songs that won’t make the cut in any of the other posts. For the most part, I know the effort will go largely ignored, bequeathing bandwidth to the most current top-5 most-hyped artists on Hype-Machine–a white t-shirt in a crowd of dressed up indie rockers. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a change for Browne.
Ultimately though, I love Jackson Browne’s music. So should you.
Jackson Browne – Jamaica Say You Will (YSI)
Jackson Browne – Song For Adam (YSI)
Jackson Browne – Doctor My Eyes (YSI)
Jackson Browne – Somebody’s Baby (YSI)
*In a review of Faces Down by Sondre Lerche, Rob Mitchum, 12/11/02. Link.
I decided to check out Jackson after reading Nick Hornby’s “Songbook”. Turns out that his first three albums are fairly common in the dollar bin, so I paid three bucks for “Jackson Browne (Saturate Before Using)” “For Everyman” and “Late For The Sky”. I listened to them over and over (the first two, anyway) and would play “These Days” for anyone who would listen.
Here’s something awesome I stumbled upon the other day, hidden away in archive.org. It’s listed as a Warren Zevon in-studio session, but actually it is Warren and Jackson, playing solo and together. The version of “These Days” is heartbreaking.
http://www.archive.org/details/wz1976-12-08.sbeok.flac16
It’s funny that you should say that about Jackson’s frequent inclusion in the dollar bin: Dave introduced me to “Late for the Sky” after we were out vinyl-shopping one day and found it in a dollar bin. It’s definitely become one of my all-time favorite albums.
And thanks for the archive.org link. Can’t wait to listen to it!
i like the animal pictures on this blog. that crocodile one is new, i think.
Thanks for the link, Fitz! That’s really an awesome recording of These Days, and Cocaine and Something Fine are great, too. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest you check out the solo acoustic recordings of his songs. Of course, you’ll likely get that chance here tomorrow…
I’d forgotten that Hornby had written about Jackson Browne in Songbook. After you mentioned it, I looked back in my copy of Hornby’s Songbook and read his write up. Pretty spot on. Yeah, there are some annoyances, but the beauty is among the most beautiful out there. Besides, all of the great songwriters have their warts. For a huge dollop of Dylan’s, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF27zQsbgX4. Yeah, it’s for hunger charities, but there’s gotta be a better way…
1) Thank you for posting about Jackson Browne.
2) Thank you for talking about Nick Hornby.
3) “Browne notes”– really?
Haha . . . I saw Browne perform in 2002 or 2003 when he was opening for Tom Petty (who was touring to promote the Last DJ) and I swear to God he actually forgot the words in the middle of Runnin On Empty. He adlibbed a line about how he should remember the lyrics to that one. I will never forget that.
He did the same thing in the concert I went to! He forgot the words and music to “Sky Blue and Black,” and said he’d come back to it and try to remember. He came back after the intermission and hopped right into it, though. “Running on Empty” is certainly a huge enough hit that you’d think you could never forget the lyrics, but I think that the honesty to his performance is charming anyways.