Jackson Browne’s 1976 album The Pretender was his first to reach the Top Ten on the albums chart (it made it to #5) and it scored his highest-charting hit since ‘Doctor My Eyes’ in ‘Here Come Those Tears Again.’
Browne’s wife, Phyllis Major, took her own life during the recording of this album, but that loss isn’t really reflected in the music. One track, ‘Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate,’ addresses the suicide, but the album is otherwise much more upbeat than its predecessor.
Doing this deep dive, I’ve been surprised to realize how few “hits” Jackson Browne has recorded. ‘Doctor My Eyes’ and ‘Somebody’s Baby’ are the only two to reach the top ten, with ‘Running on Empty’ a little ways behind. But that’s about it, in terms of Jackson Browne songs your average music fan can name off the top of her head.
You can throw ‘Take it Easy’ into the mix, but that was a hit for the Eagles, not Browne himself. Even his ‘These Days’ is better known as a Nico recording.
Jackson Browne brought out the big guns for his sophomore album, 1973’s For Everyman, enlisting a star-studded cast of musical peers. Elton John, David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bonnie Raitt all make appearances on this collection, a more confident and resonant album than his debut.
Browne also delivered his own versions of two of his most celebrated early compositions. The album starts off with ‘Take It Easy,’ which Browne co-wrote with Glenn Frey, whose Eagles made it a Top 40 hit. And he offers up a plaintive version of ‘These Days,’ previously released by both Nico and Gregg Allman.
It is finally here! Call this Meet Me in Montauk’s version of “Infrastructure Week” during the Trump administration. Come one, come all, to my Jackson Browne deep dive!
Over the next three weeks, I’ll feature a song from each of Browne’s 14 studio albums, then finish off with my personal ranking of his discography.
I didn’t know what to expect when I embarked on this monthlong exploration of Joni Mitchell’s discography.
I knew no more than a handful of her songs very well and had zero knowledge of the ebbs and flows of her 40+ year career. I understood that she is an iconic singer-songwriter who inspired a generation of artists, but I didn’t know exactly how or why.
After dozens of hours listening to every one of Mitchell’s studio albums, I now have a pretty well-formed picture of her wild path. But I still don’t know exactly what to make of it. It is certainly a far more unpredictable and uneven journey than I imagined.
Meet Me In Montauk 