Jackson Browne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jackson Browne | ||
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 Jackson Browne at the 1988 Academy Awards
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Clyde Jackson Browne | |
| Born | October 9, 1948 (age 58) Heidelberg, Germany | |
| Genre(s) | Rock | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-Songwriter | |
| Years active | 1966—present | |
| Label(s) | Elektra Records | |
| Associated acts |
Warren Zevon, David Lindley, Waddy Wachtel, Bonnie Raitt, Clarence Clemons, The Eagles | |
| Website | jacksonbrowne.com | |
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist, whose introspective lyrics made him one of the standouts in Southern California's confessional singer-songwriter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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[edit] Biography
Browne was born in Heidelberg Germany, where his father, an American serviceman, was stationed. Jackson's mother, Beatrice Amanda Dahl, was a Minnesota native of Norwegian ancestry. [1]
Browne moved to the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, California at an early age and began singing folk music in local venues. In 1966, he joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
A precociously gifted songwriter, Browne signed a publishing contract with Nina Music, and his songs were performed by Joan Baez, Tom Rush, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds and Steve Noonan, among others.
After moving to Greenwich Village, New York, Browne worked briefly in Tim Buckley's back-up band and on Nico's Chelsea Girl. After leaving New York City, Browne formed a folk band with Ned Doheney and Jack Wilce.
In 1971, Browne signed with Asylum Records and released Jackson Browne (1972), which included the piano-driven "Doctor My Eyes", a Top 10 hit in the US singles chart. "Rock Me On The Water", from the same album, also gained considerable radio airplay, while "Jamaica Say You Will" and "Song For Adam" helped establish Browne's reputation as a versatile and original writer with a deep thinking, sometimes downbeat, but always romantic flair.
His next album, For Everyman (1973) — while considered of high quality — was a commercial failure. The upbeat "Take It Easy," co-written with The Eagles' Glenn Frey, had already been a big hit for that group, while "These Days" captured the essence of Browne's youthful, morose angst, and the title track was the first of Browne's studies of personal exploration, soul-searching, and despair set against the backdrop of a decaying society.
Late for the Sky (1974) consolidated Browne's following, with some fans drawn in purely by the record's intriguing, Magritte-inspired cover. Highlights included the searching, heartbreaking title song, the elegiac "For a Dancer" and the apocalyptic "Before the Deluge". The arrangements featured the evocative violin and guitar of David Lindley, Jai Winding's outstanding piano, and the stellar harmonies of Doug Haywood. The title track was also featured in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver. Around this time, Browne began his fractious but lifelong professional relationship with the brilliant but less successful singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, mentoring Zevon's first two Asylum albums through the studio as a producer after browbeating Asylum head David Geffen into giving Zevon a recording contract.
Browne's disaffected, wondering character struck out even more starkly in his next album, The Pretender, which is arguably his darkest. It was released in 1976, after the suicide of his wife, Phyllis. The album features stronger production by Jon Landau and a mixture of styles, ranging from the Mariachi-inspired peppiness of "Linda Paloma" to the country-driven "Your Bright Baby Blues" to the near-hopeless sadness and surrender of "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate". Title track "The Pretender" is Browne's magnum opus, a vivid account of romanticism losing the battle with the realities of day-to-day life.
By then, Browne's work had gained a reputation for its compelling melodies, clear, honest, and insightful lyrics, and a flair for composition rarely seen in the world of rock and roll. He was often referred to as "a thinking man's rock star."
Browne began recording his next LP while on tour, and Running on Empty (1977) became his biggest commercial success. Breaking the usual conventions for a live album, Browne used all new material and combined live concert performances with recordings made on buses, in hotel rooms, and back stage, creating the audio equivalent of a road movie. Running on Empty contains many renowned songs, such as the propulsive title track, "The Road", "Rosie", and "The Load-Out/Stay" (Browne's affectionate and knowing send-off to his concert audiences).
[edit] Turning political
Shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979, Browne joined with several musician-friends to found the anti-nuclear organization, Musicians United for Safe Energy.
His next album Hold Out (1980) was commercially successful — his only number 1 record on the U.S. pop albums chart. The following year he released the single "Somebody's Baby" from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, which became his biggest hit, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1983 Lawyers in Love followed, signaling a discernable change from the personal to the political in his lyrics.
Political protest came to the fore in Browne's music in the 1986 album, Lives in the Balance, an explicit condemnation of Reaganism and U.S. policy in Central America. Flavored with new instrumental textures, it was a huge success with Browne fans, though not with mainstream audiences. The title track, "Lives in the Balance", with its Andean pan pipes — and lines like, "There's a shadow on the faces / Of the men who fan the flames / Of the wars that are fought in places / Where we can't even say the names" — was a cri de coeur against U.S.-backed wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The song was used at several points in the award-winning 1987 PBS documentary, The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by journalist Bill Moyers.
During the 1980s, Browne frequently performed at benefit concerts for causes he believed in, including Farm Aid; Amnesty International (making several appearances on the 1986 A Conspiracy of Hope Tour); post-Somoza, revolutionary Nicaragua; and the Christic Institute. The album, World in Motion, released in 1989, was even more politically-oriented and polarizing.
Also during this period, Browne's romantic relationship with the actress Daryl Hannah ended amidst rumors in the tabloids that he had physically assaulted her. Neither party has issued any official statement regarding the alleged incident, and no charges were ever filed.
Four years after his previous album, Browne returned with I'm Alive, a critically acclaimed album with a more personal perspective that had no hits but still sold respectably — indeed, the ninth track from the album, Sky Blue and Black, was used during the pilot episode of the situation comedy Friends. He also sang a duet with Jann Arden, "Unloved", on her 1995 album Living Under June. Browne's Looking East (1996) was released soon after, but was not as successful commercially. The Naked Ride Home was released in 2002.
Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. In his induction speech, Bruce Springsteen noted that while the Eagles got to the Hall first, "You [Browne] wrote the songs they wished they had written". The previous year, three of Browne's albums — For Everyman, Late for the Sky, and The Pretender — had been selected by Rolling Stone magazine as among its choices for the 500 best albums of all time.
Browne appeared in several super rallies for presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 2000, singing "I Am A Patriot" and other songs. He participated in the Vote for Change tour in October 2004, playing a series of concerts in American swing states. These concerts were organized by MoveOn.org to mobilize people to vote for John Kerry in the presidential election. Browne appeared with Bonnie Raitt and Keb' Mo', and once with Bruce Springsteen. In late 2006, Browne performed with Michael Stanley and J. D. Souther at a fundraiser for Democratic candidates in Ohio.
Browne's most recent album, Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1, was released in 2005 on Inside Recordings. The album consists of live recordings of eleven previously released tracks and "The Birds of St. Marks", a song that does not appear on any of Browne's studio albums.
[edit] Trivia
Doctor My Eyes was a #8 hit single in 1972 for Jackson in the UK.
The cover For Browne's 1973 Album, For Everyman is a depiction of his childhood home "the Abbey."
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- 1972 Jackson Browne also known as Saturate Before Using US #53 (Pop Albums)
- 1973 For Everyman US #43 (Pop Albums)
- 1974 Late for the Sky US #14 (Pop Albums)
- 1976 The Pretender US #5 (Pop albums), UK #26
- 1977 Running on Empty US #3 (Pop albums), UK #28
- 1980 Hold Out US #1 (Pop Albums)
- 1983 Lawyers in Love US #8 (Pop Albums) #30 (Billboard 200), UK #26
- 1986 Lives in the Balance US #23 (Billboard 200), UK #36
- 1989 World in Motion US #45 (Billboard 200), UK #39
- 1993 I'm Alive US #40 (Billboard 200), UK #35
- 1996 Looking East US #36 (Billboard 200)
- 2002 The Naked Ride Home US #36 (Billboard 200)
- 2005 Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 US #55
[edit] Compilations
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
| Hot 100 | Mainstream Rock | Adult Contemporary | UK | |||
| 1972 | "Doctor My Eyes" | #8 | - | - | - | Jackson Browne |
| 1972 | "Rock Me On the Water" | #48 | - | - | - | Jackson Browne |
| 1973 | "Redneck Friend" | #85 | - | - | - | For Everyman |
| 1974 | "Late For The Sky" | - | - | - | - | Late for the Sky |
| 1977 | "Here Come Those Tears Again" | #23 | - | - | - | The Pretender |
| 1977 | "The Pretender" | #58 | - | - | - | The Pretender |
| 1978 | "Running on Empty" | #11 | - | - | - | Running on Empty |
| 1978 | "Stay" | #20 | - | - | #12 | Running on Empty |
| 1980 | "Boulevard" | #19 | - | - | - | Hold Out |
| 1980 | "That Girl Could Sing" | #22 | - | - | - | Hold Out |
| 1982 | "Somebody's Baby" | #7 | #4 | #14 | - | Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack |
| 1983 | "Lawyers in Love" | #13 | #4 | #24 | - | Lawyers in Love |
| 1983 | "Tender Is the Night" | #25 | #18 | #24 | - | Lawyers in Love |
| 1983 | "For a Rocker" | #45 | #7 | - | - | Lawyers in Love |
| 1984 | "Cut It Away" | - | #37 | - | - | Lawyers in Love |
| 1985 | "You're a Friend Of Mine" (w/ Clarence Clemons) | #18 | #16 | #21 | - | Hero |
| 1986 | "For America" | #30 | #3 | - | - | Lives in the Balance |
| 1986 | "In the Shape Of a Heart" | #70 | #15 | #10 | #66 | Lives in the Balance |
| 1989 | "World In Motion" | - | #4 | - | - | World in Motion |
| 1989 | "Chasing You Into the Light" | - | #9 | - | - | World in Motion |
| 1989 | "Anything Can Happen" | - | - | #23 | - | World in Motion |
| 1993 | "I'm Alive" | - | #18 | #28 | - | I'm Alive |
| 2002 | "The Night Inside Me" | - | - | #25 | - | The Naked Ride Home |
