| Jackson Browne – The Pretender Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I've heard the theory -or speculation more likely- that this song follows a pattern of the Protagonist (sometimes Antagonist) who narrate the theme of the album. Of most of the albums. The Pursuit of Everyman. One of his realizations is The Pretender. This is an interesting and entertaining topic. I would enjoy some banter regarding this idea. |
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| Jackson Browne – Off of Wonderland Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Geography 101, if you know LA at all, you will recognize Off of Wonderland is about the Laurel Canyon days. The lyrics refer to an innocent time. Waiting for the realization of Everyman. It was during the bliss of really productive songwriting and Free Love. The innocence and hope and too much fun, before the Viet Nam war and the Tate LaBianca murders. The curtain ripped open, and the residents of the winding roads up those canyon roads suddenly locked their doors at night, and stayed alert. But for awhile it was fun and cool. |
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| Jackson Browne – The Barricades of Heaven Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I agree with that youthful nostalgia, Dreamgirl. I grew up in the same part of So Cal as JB. I remember those clubs, even tho' I am younger ("In '65 I was 17..." but 7!) The Golden Bear in Huntington Beach across from the pier on PCH was hallowed ground. Summer nights in high school, piled into someone's car or van, driving up the 405 to Westwood and Santa Monica and West Hollywood. One thing. When the resources are there to write these lyrics correctly, to see Jimi Hendrix spelled as "Jimmy" is unacceptable. A couple titles are wrong as well. |
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| Jackson Browne – Too Many Angels Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Talk about loaded songs...when your dysfunctional relationship affects the kids, and you can't fix it, despite you dreams to the contrary, you've got a decision to make. | |
| Jackson Browne – The Night Inside Me Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is a tidy bit of writing. Jackson? You are *so* cool. Each quatrain with a pure rhyme scheme (A-A-A-A) with a stressed (masculine) ending. Refrain/Chorus (what you call it depends on whether your background is in classical or popular music) is five lines of pure rhyme, but a feminine ending (nonstressed). Please don't get hung up on the masculine/feminine stresses if this is new to you. Just standard poetic terms. I think this is just a brilliant lyric,and the tune carries it well. |
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| Jackson Browne – The Naked Ride Home Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Lovely job, OldSouth. Methinks you know of word-smithing. Don't you find deconstructing Jackson's lyrics a pleasure and an education? Along with examining the language, I have included musical construction in some of my comments. If interested persons were to undertake a study of Jackson 101 from both aspects, we would birth some new songwriters. It's all there. To borrow from an old medical school reference (God, no. I am classical musician by act of Fate and Indoctrination), See one. Write one. Teach one |
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| Jackson Browne – Sky Blue and Black Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Another thing. I enjoy the harmonic structure of this piece. It is so simple and unfusty, and in turns, lends a purity to the music to underline the resigned gentle voice of the narrative. I-VI-II-V on the verses and VI-IV-I-V on the refrain. Written originally in C, these days I think he sings it down a whole step or more, but uses the transposer on the keyboard, cuz both B and Bb are a bitch to play in. The key of A is way freundlich, so maybe that one. |
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| Jackson Browne – Sky Blue and Black Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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In a live interview (God, I think it was audio...possibly a print interview If Jackson can forget some words on occasion, then the general rule must apply to all, right?) I heard Jackson discussing this song. He had been addressing the fact that people bring their own experience to the narrative. Of Sky Blue, he commented that he's been told of a couple who used it for their wedding. What he thought was a transparent break-up song used as a wedding anthem kinda amused him, and he noted the irony of writing a song, and then sending it out to the public. At that point it becomes everyone's song, and he has no control over how people understand it's meaning. Which is, after all, the point. |
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| Jackson Browne – Of Missing Persons Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is so special. Such a detailed and articulate tribute to one of our best. When I listen to it, I feel this amazement at how Jackson was able to write this while grieving his brother. Then I am reminded of the other songs of loss Jackson has written over the years, and the many he has not. There have been too many gifted artists hit the checkout line. I'm spooked. As I write this, Pandora is playing For a Dancer from the Nicolette Larsen Tribute live album. He sounds a bit strained, and it is also heartfelt. My, my. |
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| Jackson Browne – Love Needs a Heart Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| God bless Lowell George. His touch is so present in this tune. | |
| Jackson Browne – Miles Away Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Jackson knows how to lay out anguish. This song is personally painful to me. It was rather like an anthem for a period when I had to make a decision after sitting atop a precipice for a long while. I compulsively played this tune. Somehow the words became a prayer, and I found the courage I needed. The thing was already inextricably broken, and had been for years. It's a daunting crossroads, but not unique. Somehow we find the music that fits the situation. The wonder of a skilled poet and a musical treatment that carries the words so artfully is something that helps us to manage the journey. |
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| Jackson Browne – For Taking the Trouble Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This song has always fascinated me. We've got what looks like a serious situation juxtaposed with a chill reggae treatment. As with so many of JB's songs, it can be interpreted through one's own lens. I think there is an assumption out there of who this song is really about, but unless the man himself comments on it, I will never offer my opinion. When I hear it, I have a clear picture of someone in my life and their experience of a failed relationship with a crazy woman. A few times the heat were dispatched when the neighbors were concerned over the volume of the "discussions." I don't know if the subject, being in 2nd person voice is the storyteller. Is he talking to himself or a buddy? In either case, there is the recognition that you did your best, but the odds were against the thing ever working out. You tried to reason with her, stick it out and manage an impossible situation. You let go, work at moving on, and think about how you might do things differently in the future. At the end, there is some of this "Pull yourself together. You can't assume responsibility for another's behavior. You can't be with her and be your authentic self. Lick your wounds, but get on with it. When you get some distance, you will realize you are better off." I always hear a subtext in my mind. "Don't fuck up again." |
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| Jackson Browne – Late for the Sky Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Well put. I so admire JB's ability to structure his language. What a gift: lucky us! It is fun to deconstruct his lyrics. If one likes to craft lyrics, there is no better teacher than Jackson. | |
| Jackson Browne – Late for the Sky Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Kicks my ass, too. Kills me. It's got a simple chord structure in C that works on down the scale, and then the tag at the end from C to Bb, back and forth to the tonic. Re: the "sky" references, I heard him say, in concert, that his family/friends had put a ban on some of these words of which JB is so fond. Sky, angels, light-dark-night with their suffixes. LOL. Clearly I have too much time on my hands, but one day I took a couple of these words and made a tic sheet. Oh boy. It's hard when you have accessible words which are so versatile and are so nicely given to metaphor. |
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| Jackson Browne – I'm Alive Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I'm Alive and go naff off. The entire album,"I'm Alive" which I read as a song cycle after the classical form, with it's story of love, doubt, anger, rejection, acceptance and peace followed by some irony, is a great work of art. He starts us on this journey with the title track as if to say, it's been hell, but I've made it through, now here's the deal. He relates the story of falling into and out of love, in a a serious relationship, with such clarity. I had to get to midlife with 20+ years of my own relationship ending to understand all the nuances JB so acutely describes here. As we used to say, it's a sack of reds. But there is healing to be found, and what wonders come from someone else's expressional gifts. |
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| Jackson Browne – Two of Me, Two of You Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| This song kills me. Just fucking kills me. I often play this on the piano. | |
| Jackson Browne – Under The Falling Sky Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| That's our boy ;-) | |
| Jackson Browne – The Times You've Come Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Knowing Jackson's propensity for "double entendre," how can this not be mostly about sex? It's sweet and innocent. | |
| Jackson Browne – That Girl Could Sing Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Rumours ran round that this was about Valerie Carter. I don't know, but she is an incredible singer. |
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| Jackson Browne – Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I've always wondered if this was composed before or after his first wife's death. If before how ironic, and if after... Either way, I think this is a straight-forward expression of love's irony, both of past and future relationship's. Sounds as if he is somewhere between, reflecting on the past and speculating about the future. I love to play this one on my piano, and admire the harmonic interest. The word "gate" ending on Bm and resolving to D/C. Also, the Ab-m(b5)-D changes "...when we were *happy* were the times we never tried." which resolves to G. This is Bonnie Raitt's tuning, and I don't have JB's sheet music. He sings it in a different key, but the chord progressions are the same. Haunting combination of words and tonalities. |
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| Jackson Browne – Rock Me On The Water Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Sorry- "cite" not site. If I could cite the site we'd be in business! | |
| Jackson Browne – Rock Me On The Water Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I wish I could site the source. I think it may have been an off-hand remark at a concert or in a social setting. He was having fun with a double entendre ( gee...when doesn't he he use that device). He said that Rock Me On the Water was about sex on a water bed. Excellent! |
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| Joni Mitchell – Car On A Hill Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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No clue as to whom this one is about, but the theme of waiting for your lover is familiar and accessible. She describes herself often as shy, reserved, less comfortable in crowds. In the context of it's time, the music scene was given increasingly over to the substances and wealth that came with success. You had to work the deal out there, and she always seemed reticent. But it is clear that she is in her little house in Laurel Canyon while her boy is down partying somewhere in LA. |
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| Joni Mitchell – A Case Of You Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I'm enjoying the way all of you look at metaphors and speculation. Many good comments here. I've just one to add. Re: "cartoon coasters" "with you face sketched on it twice." I think she is describing the two-faced aspects of the man to whom she refers. Lovers bring out our best and our worst sides. And it is as much about him as it is about her dualities. It's the irony of relationships. Jackson Browne addressed this well in his song from the "I'm Alive" album. Look at "Two of Me, and Two of You." |
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