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 like doing the Decades series because it exposes me to new music I’ve missed over the years, but that’s just half the appeal. I’m equally happy to revisit albums I haven’t listened to in ages and remember how much I love them.
Jackson Browne’s I’m Alive has climbed up my 1993 list to #5, after starting toward the bottom half of the top ten when I first started planning these posts. All it took was for me to listen to the damn thing again.
When the Random iTunes Fairy first served up ‘Shaky Town,’ from Jackson Browne’s 1977 classic Running On Empty, I had no idea what it was. I figured it was a track on that album that I’d somehow always skipped, because the title seemed completely new to me.
Once the first verse started, though, I knew it very well. Guess I just never looked at the tracklist.
Meet Me In Montauk 