I’ve had a long relationship with Jackson Browne and his music. It started back in the Sixties when my favorite song on Nico’s Chelsea Girl album was “These Days” by teenager, Jackson Browne (you can read my review of Chelsea Girl here). Later, I bought Jackson Browne’s albums, read about his breakup with Joni Mitchell, and enjoyed his collaborations with The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.
In the 1980s, musical tastes changed and Jackson Browne pretty much fell off the grid. Just by serendipity, I found this 4-CD box set of Jackson Browne’s performances from 1972 (Disc One), 1986 (Disc Two), and 1994 (Disc Three and Disc Four). The quality of the live FM broadcasts vary, but I found them listenable. Are you a Jackson Browne fan? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACKLIST:
| 1-1 | Take It Easy Written-By – Frey*, Browne* | 3:34 | |
| 1-2 | Jamaica Say You Will | 4:16 | |
| 1-3 | Jesus In 3/4 Time Written-By – Souther | 4:08 | |
| 1-4 | Song For Adam | 5:58 | |
| 1-5 | These Days | 3:17 | |
| 1-6 | Colors Of The Sun | 4:48 | |
| 1-7 | Redneck Friend/Sweet Little Sixteen Written-By – Berry*, Browne | 5:49 | |
| 1-8 | Corrina Corrina Arranged By – Browne*Written-By – Trad | 4:24 | |
| 1-9 | My Opening Farewell | 9:21 | |
| 1-10 | For Everyman | 7:43 | |
| 1-11 | Rock Me On The Water | 5:47 | |
| 1-12 | Looking Into You | 6:43 | |
| 1-13 | Talk | 2:35 | |
| 1-14 | Something Fine | 4:04 | |
| 2-1 | Boulevard | 4:16 | |
| 2-2 | Tender Is The Night Written-By – Kortchmar*, Browne*, Kunkel | 4:40 | |
| 2-3 | In The Shape Of A Heart | 6:20 | |
| 2-4 | Candy Written By – Copeland*Written-By – Stocker | 4:49 | |
| 2-5 | Downtown | 4:39 | |
| 2-6 | For Everyman | 7:15 | |
| 2-7 | Lawyers In Love | 4:59 | |
| 2-8 | Soldiers Of Plenty | 5:01 | |
| 2-9 | Black And White | 5:31 | |
| 2-10 | Late For The Sky | 5:34 | |
| 2-11 | Lives In The Balance | 4:50 | |
| 2-12 | Lawless Avenue Written By – Browne*Written-By – Calderón | 6:50 | |
| 2-13 | For America | 5:12 | |
| 2-14 | Running On Empty | 5:22 | |
| 2-15 | Doctor My Eyes | 3:50 | |
| 2-16 | For A Rocker | 3:59 | |
| 3-1 | Two Of Me, Two Of You | 3:06 | |
| 3-2 | Doctor My Eyes | 4:50 | |
| 3-3 | I’m Alive | 5:16 | |
| 3-4 | World In Motion Written-By – Doerge*, Browne | 5:02 | |
| 3-5 | Everywhere I Go | 6:39 | |
| 3-6 | My Problem Is You | 5:06 | |
| 3-7 | In The Shape Of A Heart | 6:24 | |
| 3-8 | Late For The Sky | 5:59 | |
| 3-9 | Your Bright Baby Blues | 6:29 | |
| 3-10 | Miles Away | 4:27 | |
| 4-1 | Too Many Angels | 7:57 | |
| 4-2 | For Everyman | 7:14 | |
| 4-3 | Boulevard | 3:51 | |
| 4-4 | That Girl Could Sing | 5:50 | |
| 4-5 | Sky Blue And Black | 6:21 | |
| 4-6 | Band Intro | 1:34 | |
| 4-7 | The Pretender | 7:00 | |
| 4-8 | Running On Empty | 5:01 | |
| 4-9 | The Load Out/Stay Written-By – Garofalo*, Browne* | 9:47 | |
| 4-10 | Linda Paloma | 4:59 | |
| 4-11 | 1994 Interview | 4:36 |
Notes
Disc 1 – From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded at the State University Of New York, Stony Brook, NY, 24th January 1972.
Disc 2 – From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded at the Rockaplast Festival Grugahalle, Essen, Germany 15th March 1986.
Discs 3 and 4 – From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded at the Hult Centre For The Performing Arts, Eugene, OR, 1st March 1994.
All Songs Written By Jackson Browne Except Where Noted.
He did several good albums in the early seventies but came less interesting over the years. A lot of good songs here.
Steve, you’re right about the arc of Jackson Browne’s career. James Taylor and Jackson Browne are touring right now. They came to Buffalo, but Diane and I didn’t go to see them.
Another recently issued good live recording is Live at Carnegie Hall from Neil Young. It’s a 2-cd set recorded in 1970. It’s an acoustic set..
Steve, I’ll have to check to see if I have Neil Young’s LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL. I think I have a couple of Young’s live CDs.
It only came out last fall.
Steve, I found JACKSON BROWNE: THE BROADCAST ARCHIVE in a Salvation Army thrift store a couple weeks ago. I paid a buck for it.
I liked his first album (produced by David Crosby), “Saturate Before Using,” and some of his other 1970s work, but he was never one of my go-to singers. My favorite song by him is the gospel-infused “Rock Me on the Water.” His break-up with Joni Mitchell inspired her to write “Car on the Hill,” which is on her Court and Spark album.
Deb, I don’t know if the breakup story in ROCK ME ON THE WATER: 1974–THE YEAR LOS ANGLES TRANSFORMED MOVIES, MUSIC, TELEVISION, AND POLITICS by Ronald Brownstein is true, but Brownstein says Jackson Browne was living with Joni Michell and he would work on writing a song for weeks. But, Joni Mitchell would come down to the kitchen in the morning, have a cup of coffee, and write a song in 20 minutes! It drove Jackson Browne crazy! http://georgekelley.org/rock-me-on-the-water-1974-the-year-los-angeles-transformed-movies-music-television-and-politics-by-ronald-brownstein/
His LATE FOR THE SKY album was a huge favorite of mine for years, but he did just seem to fade away. Sirius XM still plays a lot of his early stuff, and I’m always happy to hear it, and I still pop LATE FOR THE SKY into the CD player now and then. My favorite of his songs is FOR A DANCER.
Michael, you’re right about Sirus/XM Radio playing a lot of Jackson Browne’s early songs. I just hear them play “Running on Empty” yesterday when I was running errands.
Have liked his work well enough over the decades, but could barely hum any of them, and have never been moved to buy an album, even the NO NUKES concert work.
Todd, I was wowed by Jackson Brown’s RUNNING ON EMPTY live album in 1977. It was the first album I’d ever heard where all the songs were original material.
Except “Stay,” of course, though he did his own adaptation of that. RUNNING ON EMTY is my favorite of his too. We’ve seen him live in concert both solo and with other people, at the Beacon (a friendly size, about 3,000 seats) and the bigger (14,000 seats) outdoor venue at Jones Beach (with other people). We do have tickets for several concerts this year – Doobie Brothers 50th Anniversary Tour (with Michael McDonald), Bonnie Raitt (who we haven’t seen in too long), Steely Dan (with guest Aimee Mann), Dion (still rocking at 82!), Jimmy Buffett, Santana + Earth, Wind & Fire, and The Mavericks. No Jackson Browne.
Jeff, James Taylor and Jackson Browne performed at the Key Bank Center on December 13, 2021. It was sold out. I’d be tempted to go see Steely Dan with Aimee Mann but the closest they’re coming to us is Syracuse June 22, 2022.
Late for the Sky, absolutely. I love that album.
Rick, I love LATE FOR THE SKY, too!
Whenever I hit the record stores I’m amazed at how many live radio recordings like this have been released on CD, most on small labels (boots?) I’ve never heard of. “Running on Empty” was one of the first albums I ever bought. It was all over the air at the time. I picked up “Saturate Before Using” shortly after and called it a day but I did catch Browne in concert in the early 80s, right around the time Daryl Hannah beat the crap out of him. The most Browne I’ve listened to in awhile is The Golden Palomino’s groove-based cover of ‘These Days’ which is surprisingly effective.
Byron, I suspect Bob Dylan started this trend of releasing concert, radio, and alternate versions of songs with his BOOTLEG SERIES. And, some of these older artists might be looking for a new money stream as they age. I’ll have to check out The Gold Palomin’s version of “These Days.” Thanks for the suggestion!
A lot of British artists such as David Bowie have had their live BBC sessions released over the years. Most of them are pretty good.
Steve, I sent Cap’n Bob a set of BBC sessions, but never heard whether they sounded good or bad.
A lot of people think you need a comma before a person’s name in a sentence! You don’t, unless the sentence is structured a certain way! Jackson Brown is okay but that’s all I have to say about that!
Bob, good to know!
I think I liked Rock me on the water, but can’t place it for sure. I really liked running on empty and doctor my eyes . There are probably more, but don’t recognize them by name
Maggie, maybe you’ll find a copy of THE BEST OF JACKSON BROWNE at one of those Library Sales. If I find a copy, I’ll mail it to you.
thanks i haven’t seen a best of big set like you find. My best was a single disc best of lynard skynard
Maggie, timing is everything! I once walked into our local Salvation Army thrift store and someone had just donated over a hundred music CDs! You never know what you’re going to find.