Sleep Songs Addendum
And the winner is… “Sleep Walk,” by Santo & Johnny!
My inbox is inundated with readers proffering this sleep song. Never thought of it, couldn’t even tell you who performed it, but obviously I’m out of the loop.
I was also reminded that I failed to include the Spotify link for the sleep playlist, so here it is: https://spoti.fi/3nW1QGP
And another sleep song everybody wrote in to remind me of was Jackson Browne’s “Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate” from Jackson Browne’s 1976 album, “The Pretender.” I was stunned to find out that “Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate” only has 1,055,792 streams on Spotify. For comparison, “Sleep Walk” has 83,506,841. Not that Jackson doesn’t have cuts with more streams, “Doctor My Eyes” and “Running on Empty” are in triple digit millions. But those were “hits.” The non-hits, which Jackson is famous for, are fading away.
Let’s start with Browne’s 2021 album “Downhill from Everywhere,” for which he did a ton of promotion…print, TV, podcast, online… Even the single, “Cleveland Heart,” doesn’t have a million streams. Only one cut on that album has gone into seven figures, “A Little Soon to Say,” with 2,273,064. Then again, I’m one of the few that didn’t rave about “Downhill from Everywhere.”
The previous LP, 2014’s “Standing in the Breach,” actually has two songs with two million streams, two with one million, and “The Long Way Around” has 8,861,517.
None of the songs on 2008’s “Time the Conqueror” even break a million, as a matter of fact, none break five hundred thousand, the biggest, the opening cut, has 387,211.
None of the tracks on 2002’s “The Naked Ride Home” breaks a million. My favorite song on the LP, track 5, “Never Stop,” only has 188,295.
“Never Stop” has an adult perspective as opposed to the teenage dreck that dominates the airwaves, it’s about Jackson’s long term relationship. It’s positive, do people only cotton to negative stuff? And it’s slow, but there’s a groove. If you’re a JB fan hang in there, because about three-quarters of the way through the number it completely changes, it’s a surprise, and it talks about surprise:
“Remember when you look into my eyes
I’m the one who took you by surprise
The time has come and gone and come back ’round again
And I’m still here to take you by surprise my friend”
That’s how it is. Have you been reading the obits for John Lydon’s wife, Nora Foster? She didn’t like Johnny Rotten at first, but he grew on her. That’s how it is with so many relationships, they don’t work on the surface, but women are intrigued by personality more than looks, and if you evidence more than a shiny outfit and car you’ve got a chance, as long as you stay with it.
Check out that Nora Foster obit. It’s pretty interesting: https://nyti.ms/3GwjS9b (That’s a free link, by the way.)
But also if you’re a Jackson fan listen to “Never Stop”:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/40ThoKd
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3KLn2YY
Now you’ve to listen to “Never Stop” like it’s the seventies, when you’d buy an album and play it over and over again until it revealed itself to you. Don’t listen for five seconds expecting a hit, but if you let it play a couple of times through it might get under your skin, it did mine.
1996’s “Looking East” only has one cut over a million, “The Barricades of Heaven,” which Jackson regularly plays live.
1993’s “I’m Alive,” Jackson’s comeback album, where he goes back to the early sound that made him famous, has two cuts in the millions.
But every cut on 1977’s “Running on Empty” is in the millions, the last two 40 and 64 million to be exact.Â
But Jackson’s best album, a classic, which everyone should own as a companion to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” 1974’s “Late for the Sky”…two cuts don’t even break a million. “For a Dancer,” the ultimate funeral song, only has 1,940,788.
Now, in truth, the older demo tends to subscribe to Apple Music or Amazon as opposed to Spotify. But they also don’t tend to stream much, certainly not over and over. So what I’m saying is that although these piss-poor numbers may be strengthened a bit when the entire streaming universe is considered, in truth some of Jackson Browne’s greatest work is in danger of falling off the map, potentially to be rediscovered, but I doubt it. But believe me, if today’s generation listened to “Late for the Sky,” they’d set aside both Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift. Then again, Jackson is not as good a self-promoter as those two. But couldn’t somebody promote the classics of yore for younger generations to discover? I mean you don’t have to buy them to hear them, you can even listen for free on YouTube. Then again, the record business, especially today’s record business, is focused on the new. But much of classic rock was inspired by Robert Johnson and the Delta blues players.
These tracks could take younger generations by surprise.
But as for classic acts making new music… It has to satiate them, because it has almost no impact in the marketplace. Sure, some physical copies are sold, but most are not listened to that much, to the point where if you play new music live the audience gets up and goes to the bathroom.
Then again, the old acts could learn that today it’s about the track, not the album. The album is too much. It’s only for the act and hard core fans at best. If that’s enough, more power to you. But if you’re expecting a market reaction, you need a track that’s a one listen smash, like “Running on Empty.”
And having skied so hard today, it was the last day of the season for Blue Sky Basin and we had to go off piste and ski the bumps, I forgot to include the final words of “Never Stop”:
“Show me your eyes, tell me again
Where you want to go
Now the night is glowing beneath your skin
And when you smile I’m the richest man I know”
You may be aged, but that does not mean you have to give up. Everywhere I go in L.A. my contemporaries are stunned I still ski. It’s too dangerous for them, but they’re the ones missing out, because skiing is like sex, you can only get that hit by doing it. And you need to do it, because there will come a time when you can’t. You might be physically compromised, you might even die.
But while you’re still here…
It’s the little moments that resonate, not the possessions and not even the trips, etc., the “experiences.” It’s that laugh you share with your significant other, that feeling you get when you look into their eyes. You’re old enough to know that’s what life is truly about. We look to our artists to point this out. In “Never Stop” Jackson Browne does.
