Tag Archives: Jackson Browne

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Song of the Day #6,491: ‘The Road’ – Jackson Browne

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1977…

#4 – Running on Empty – Jackson Browne

I did a Jackson Browne deep dive five years ago that gave me a strong appreciation for the man’s work. But even after digging into 14 studio albums, it was hard to find anything that compares to the one I already loved: Running on Empty.

This is a concept album about life on the road that was recorded on the road — in front of live audiences, on a tour bus, in hotel rooms and backstage rehearsal spaces. It captures the lazy haze of that vagabond existence and drips with the sweat of hard-working musicians and their supporting crews.

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Song of the Day #6,120: ‘The Fuse’ – Jackson Browne

Continuing my look at the albums of 1976…

Before I get to nine albums I gave my first real listen for this series, I want to run through a handful of 1976 albums I have written about already as part of artist deep dives.

My favorite of the bunch is Jackson Browne’s The Pretender, which ended up as my fifth favorite of his 14 albums. Recorded in the backdrop of his wife’s death by suicide, the album is a lot more upbeat than you’d expect.

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Song of the Day #4,805: ‘Late for the Sky’ – Jackson Browne

This week I’m kicking off the latest installment of my ‘Decades’ series, wherein I feature songs from renowned albums from a single year across four decades. So far I have covered the first four years of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. That brings me back around to 1974.

Normally, I count down my own favorite albums from the given year before moving on to albums with which I’m not familiar. This year, though, proves to be a bit of a blindspot for me. While I have passing familiarity with the first five or six albums I’ll feature, I don’t know them well enough to rank them.

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Song of the Day #4,728: ‘My Cleveland Heart’ – Jackson Browne

It’s been exactly a month since I wrapped up my deep dive into the albums of Jackson Browne, and now he’s back with the first single from his upcoming release.

Browne’s 15th studio album, Downhill From Everywhere, is due out next month, seven years after what I suspected might be his last effort, 2014’s Standing in the Breach.

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Song of the Day #4,697: ‘I’ll Do Anything’ – Jackson Browne

Well, that went fast. Three weeks to explore the nearly 50-year career of Jackson Browne, a great 70s singer-songwriter who managed to stay relevant and interesting well into the new millennium.

Unlike my last deep dive subject, Browne’s friend and collaborator Joni Mitchell, his music did not fall off a cliff in the 80s. While I struggled with a couple of Browne’s albums due to their didactic political lyrics, the music was almost always spot on. He expertly evolved his sound without losing the earnest romanticism that made his work special out of the gate.

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