He played "Free Bird".<\/p>\n
I could have missed it.\u00c2\u00a0 Too many gigs with Jackson and his band playing the same arrangements of too many lame new songs had my desire flagging.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that Jackson is unable to do anything good new, just listen to "Never Stop" from "The Naked Ride Home".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that when he works with the band it ends up being too much about the music and not enough about the lyrics, and what makes Jackson so great is what he has to say.<\/p>\n
And he’s been focusing on that recently.\u00c2\u00a0 Doing acoustic shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Alone.\u00c2\u00a0 And with his old sidekick David Lindley.<\/p>\n
And that’s how I first saw him.\u00c2\u00a0 In December 1970, solo, opening for David Geffen’s other management client, Laura Nyro, and then with Lindley at the Bitter End eighteen months later, after his debut solo album had finally been released, before "Doctor My Eyes" became a radio staple, when he was still a cult item.\u00c2\u00a0 We went down early, to sit in the second row, and were mesmerized.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve seen Jackson in every incarnation since.<\/p>\n
But Friday night was something special.\u00c2\u00a0 Unanticipated.\u00c2\u00a0 What music is about.\u00c2\u00a0 It rekindled my belief in…LIFE!<\/p>\n
We got there early because it was Rena’s birthday. We had to celebrate.\u00c2\u00a0 And unlike so many shows, she insisted we get to our seats early, she didn’t want to miss a note.<\/p>\n Now rock and roll was meant for nighttime.\u00c2\u00a0 Headliners won’t go out on stage before the sun goes down.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask Kanye (is he rock and roll?)\u00c2\u00a0 But it being the middle of summer, Jackson and David took the stage in the fading daylight, the sun was behind the hills, but it was still bright.\u00c2\u00a0 And they sat down with their guitars and played.<\/p>\n First a Zevon cover.\u00c2\u00a0 Then one by Springsteen.<\/p>\n And then they played "Looking East".<\/p>\n The return to form was 1993’s "I’m Alive".\u00c2\u00a0 In the wake of the Daryl Hannah escapade, Jackson stripped down his sound and spoke from the heart.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a bookend to his seventies masterpieces.\u00c2\u00a0 Seek it out.\u00c2\u00a0 Age hasn’t hurt it, it works.<\/p>\n But with the relative failure of that opus, Jackson went back to the band sound and cut 1996’s "Looking East", which had even less impact.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, this was better than "World In Motion"…\u00c2\u00a0 "Looking East" could compete with "Hold Out" and the other rock albums.\u00c2\u00a0 "The Barricades Of Heaven", I’m The Cat", "Some Bridges", check them out.\u00c2\u00a0 But my favorite cut starts the album.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, the title track, "Looking East".<\/p>\n It rocks.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got that "Running On Empty" feel.\u00c2\u00a0 The guitars wail, the chorus is catchy, the bridge hooks you and whenever Jackson drops down and sings "looking east" at the end of the verses, you’re enraptured, you’re willing to stop the mail, put your belongings in a rucksack and hit the road.<\/p>\n And then, ten years later Jackson goes out on the road and sings this same song in a slowed-down, rearranged version, and turns it into a masterpiece which can be heard on "Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1".<\/p>\n Instead of driving headlong west on the 10, out to the Santa Monica Pier and on into the stratosphere, this reworked acoustic version looks in the other direction, towards the mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, stripped down, the song has majesty.\u00c2\u00a0 You envision looking down upon the landscape from a perch high atop the metropolis.\u00c2\u00a0 In the electric take, we’re all in it together.\u00c2\u00a0 In the acoustic, you’re alone.\u00c2\u00a0 Just you and the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Contemplating.<\/p>\n And it’s this acoustic rearrangement that Jackson and David played Friday night.<\/p>\n They have a funny way of starting songs.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like an orchestra tuning up, they’re trying to lock into the groove.<\/p>\n But then they do…<\/p>\n Standing in the ocean with the sun burning low in the west<\/span><\/p>\n I know we live in one giant melting pot, that modern communication unites us in one big behemoth.<\/p>\n Only it doesn’t.<\/p>\n You don’t know what it’s like to live in SoCal unless you do.<\/p>\n You can’t get it if you visit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a shitty tourist town.\u00c2\u00a0 You can go to the museums, eat some great Mexican food, but still…you’ve got to live here to understand it.<\/p>\n Maybe you were born here and it’s all you know.<\/p>\n Still others packed up and came, because they knew instinctively, it was the only place they could call home.\u00c2\u00a0 Where your CV is irrelevant, who your parents are, what school you went to don’t count, it’s just about who you are.\u00c2\u00a0 Right now.<\/p>\n And SoCal has its patron saints.\u00c2\u00a0 Brian Wilson, of course.\u00c2\u00a0 And transplants Don Henley and Glenn Frey.\u00c2\u00a0 And Jackson Browne.<\/p>\n But unlike the Eagles, Jackson grew up here.\u00c2\u00a0 Started in Orange County.\u00c2\u00a0 Went to Silver Lake.\u00c2\u00a0 Moved out west, and informed us Friday night he’d come back…to midtown.<\/p>\n We know what he’s talking about.\u00c2\u00a0 Every neighborhood is different, there is no center.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all part of this undulating mass, testing limits while enjoying the lifestyle.<\/p>\n And to sit in the fading sunlight listening to one of our poets singing our story was beyond mesmerizing, it was UTTERLYFUCKINGFANTASTIC!<\/p>\n Jackson’s laying down the melody, David’s dancing all over the tune and we’re sitting there thinking THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE! OUT ON A SUMMER NIGHT LISTENING TO MUSIC!<\/p>\n It wasn’t a show.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no backdrop.\u00c2\u00a0 No dancing.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a combination of something you felt and you heard.\u00c2\u00a0 It touched you in the head and heart.\u00c2\u00a0 It snuck up and surprised you, tugged on your sleeve like your heart’s desire in a bar.<\/p>\n I wish the whole show had just been Jackson and David.<\/p>\n But after doing "Looking East", Jackson walked off and left the stage to his cohort.\u00c2\u00a0 Who broke down the wall between performer and audience, talked to us like we were in a room together, as if we could respond, and ultimately played the outrageous "Cat Food Sandwiches".<\/p>\n Yes, there’s a recorded version.\u00c2\u00a0 Even one you can see on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 But this was not a rendition of what had come before, it was like Lindley was performing it for the very first time.\u00c2\u00a0 It unfolded chapter by chapter, it was like listening to Spalding Gray, if he performed in your living room instead of on a stage, and he was still alive.<\/p>\n Even those who had no idea who this muttonchopped polyester-clad chap was were ultimately hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so sad when the boomers talk.\u00c2\u00a0 But they do.\u00c2\u00a0 As if paying the fare allows you to disrespect the performer.\u00c2\u00a0 But Lindley soldiered on until he had everybody in the grasp of his hand.<\/p>\n And he didn’t squeeze them.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather he twisted and turned them, jumbled them up like jacks.\u00c2\u00a0 Singing about a backstage concoction so foul it was funny.\u00c2\u00a0 Telling us that he couldn’t get the image out of his brain, and now we couldn’t either.<\/p>\n The second half started off inauspiciously.\u00c2\u00a0 The entire band playing "Time The Conqueror"…I’d seen this show just eighteen months ago. It was such a let down after the opening segment.<\/p>\n And then came "Your Bright Baby Blues"… There you have it.\u00c2\u00a0 The difference between the seventies and now.\u00c2\u00a0 The difference between classic rock and today’s music.<\/p>\n Today it’s about being in the mainstream, tying in with corporations, showing us that you’re a winner…\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas musicians used to be outsiders, reflecting on the rat race.<\/p>\n Not that the rockers of yore didn’t have desires… This is what kept me going.\u00c2\u00a0 Jackson put words to my feelings, my hopes, my heart’s desire.<\/p>\n I’ve been trying.\u00c2\u00a0 And sometimes it’s hard to keep going, you feel like you’re spinning your wheels.\u00c2\u00a0 But you know…in a moment, the door could open, you could get pulled through.<\/p>\n Now on the original, Lowell George plays the slide.\u00c2\u00a0 But after the perfunctory band numbers, David Lindley sat atop the riser and added this part.\u00c2\u00a0 And those he was on originally.<\/p>\n I’ve got so much shit wrong with me it freaks me out.<\/p>\n But then I look around and see it’s typical of my generation.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve reached that age…where so many are no longer with us, we’ve all got foibles, but we keep on keepin’ on. Ain’t that the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Our parents mold us.<\/p>\n Then they die.<\/p>\n We thought they’d live forever.\u00c2\u00a0 And now we’re on the bubble.<\/p>\n We didn’t run from the womb, we were pushed.\u00c2\u00a0 And then we got married.\u00c2\u00a0 And divorced.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a wake of disarray behind us.\u00c2\u00a0 But we can’t stop, we can’t cry, we’ve got to keep moving forward.<\/p>\n Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around<\/span> And that’s what Jackson was doing.\u00c2\u00a0 With Lindley playing the fiddle part he made famous, the story was sad, but the sound was joyous. We’d survived.\u00c2\u00a0 We couldn’t forget the past, but the music made us smile.<\/p>\n THE PRETENDER<\/span><\/p>\n I’m going to rent myself a house in the shade of the freeway<\/span><\/p>\n Actually, I had a hard time finding my first apartment in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n I just couldn’t afford the rent.<\/p>\n My budget was x.\u00c2\u00a0 The price was y.<\/p>\n I ended up in a single.\u00c2\u00a0 Downstairs in West L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 The sun never shined into my single room, but my domicile had one feature that made my life survivable.\u00c2\u00a0 The stereo.<\/p>\n And one of the fist records I bought after I moved in was "The Pretender".\u00c2\u00a0 And then, during the Thanksgiving break, I went to the Shrine to see Jackson Browne.<\/p>\n How lonely can it get?<\/p>\n Have you ever been alone during the holidays?\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t wait until they’re over, when everybody goes back to work, you need routine. And until you get it, you’re on the edge.<\/p>\n That was decades ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Literally the last century.\u00c2\u00a0 That was before I had my first live-in girlfriend, never mind the ones who followed.<\/p>\n I thought about that long ago gig on Friday night.<\/p>\n You see that’s what connects us.\u00c2\u00a0 The music.\u00c2\u00a0 We all listened.\u00c2\u00a0 Our experiences may be different, but with the music, they’re the same. We went to the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 And connected.<\/p>\n And it was just like that Friday night.<\/p>\n This was no paint-by-number dream.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t have tolerated rote renditions of the studio takes.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too creepy.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve moved on.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t the performers too?<\/p>\n Does everybody have to get plastic surgery?<\/p>\n You may look young.<\/p>\n But we’re old.<\/p>\n But we lived through the Renaissance.\u00c2\u00a0 When music was everything, when it drove the culture.\u00c2\u00a0 And too often I won’t go to see the old acts, because they’re about recreating then as opposed to living in the now.\u00c2\u00a0 Give Bob Dylan credit.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s younger than yesterday, he knows once you start looking back, you’re done.<\/p>\n Oh, Jackson played this.\u00c2\u00a0 And "Doctor My Eyes" too.\u00c2\u00a0 And although I always liked these cuts, they were never my favorites.\u00c2\u00a0 But "Doctor My Eyes" was a revelation Friday night.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like we threaded a needle back from 2010 to 1972, and laughed about how much we’d changed, but how we were still the same, still loved to go to the gig and lose ourselves in the music.<\/p>\n And "Rock Me On The Water" was just as good.<\/p>\n But "Running On Empty" resonated in a way it never did.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve seen Jackson perform it many times before.\u00c2\u00a0 But this time it wasn’t a snapshot of who we were, but a warning, that we can’t become complacent, that we’ve got to buckle down, get up off the couch and embrace life.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, it doesn’t last long. Your car might come with Nav, it might not be held together with chewing gum, but it’ll still take you to the edge.\u00c2\u00a0 The sixties seem like a century ago, like they’re sealed in amber.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t have to go to Bonnaroo to look hip.\u00c2\u00a0 But leave the highway, explore some dirt roads, feel alive.<\/p>\n Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels<\/span> I’d like to tell you I can make sense of it all.\u00c2\u00a0 That not only do I know where the music business is going, but music too.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, I’m overwhelmed.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m criticized, told to step aside and get out of the way.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m just trying to figure it out.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if you’re confident, if you’re sure where you’re going, what’s happening, I just know you haven’t lived enough.<\/p>\n I’d love to stick around but I’m running behind<\/span> I used to believe it was about leaving your mark.<\/p>\n Then I realized no one would be remembered.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 But a couple of thousand years from now, will anybody even know Michelangelo?<\/p>\n Then I thought it was about family.\u00c2\u00a0 Building your own little cult.\u00c2\u00a0 Viewing life through the eyes of your progeny.<\/p>\n But that ship seems to have sailed.\u00c2\u00a0 I was married once, but by time I was done living my own life to the fullest, by time I was ready to truly settle down and have kids, she was gone, in pursuit of her own dream.<\/p>\n And now…<\/p>\n It’s both the best of times and the worst of times.\u00c2\u00a0 That loneliness has been lessened by the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 But modern media leaves me overwhelmed.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m ready to run, but where?<\/p>\n FREE BIRD<\/span> Fans were imploring Jackson to play their favorites.\u00c2\u00a0 And then, some dude down front yelled out this 70’s chestnut.\u00c2\u00a0 But rather than be insulted, Jackson realized it was yelled out in humor.\u00c2\u00a0 So he played "Free Bird".<\/p>\n When rock and roll is done right, it’s not inert.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a bond between performer and fan, between player and audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why all the excitement is now at the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 Live is where you can feel the humanity.\u00c2\u00a0 When the band plays, takes chances, makes mistakes.<\/p>\n And that’s what life is about…\u00c2\u00a0 Playing, taking chances, making mistakes.<\/p>\n I’m trying every day not to be scared.\u00c2\u00a0 As the sun sets on my time on this planet.\u00c2\u00a0 Could be forty years, could be tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 There are so many places I want to see, I don’t want to die with any regrets.<\/p>\n And I want to follow the news, go skiing, eat some fabulous food…\u00c2\u00a0 But Friday night I realized music was number one.\u00c2\u00a0 Only music can soothe me, poke me, have me asking so many questions and smiling at the same time.<\/p>\n Friday night was not a show.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not a performance.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a celebration.\u00c2\u00a0 Of who we were and who we still can be.<\/p>\n Rip those songs to your iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 Put on those headphones.\u00c2\u00a0 Then put one foot in front of the other.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re the star of your own movie. Doesn’t matter if anybody else ever sees it.\u00c2\u00a0 Just matters that you enjoy it, that you’re fulfilled.<\/p>\n Go.\u00c2\u00a0 Really.\u00c2\u00a0 Start with baby steps.\u00c2\u00a0 Know that we’re behind you.\u00c2\u00a0 That you’ve got a music support network that will keep you buoyant in times of stress, depression and jubilation.<\/p>\n Sure, address the bigger issues.\u00c2\u00a0 Global warming.\u00c2\u00a0 Poverty.\u00c2\u00a0 The national debt.\u00c2\u00a0 But don’t give up your personal journey.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t get calcified.\u00c2\u00a0 If Jackson Browne and David Lindley can stay invigorated, can keep reinventing themselves, can keep on keepin’ on, so can you.<\/p>\n
LOOKING EAST<\/span><\/p>\n
CAT FOOD SANDWICHES<\/span><\/p>\n
YOUR BRIGHT BABY BLUES<\/span><\/p>\n
I’m sitting down by the highway<\/span>
Down by that highway side<\/span>
Everybody’s going somewhere<\/span>
Riding just as fast as they can ride<\/span>
I guess they’ve got a lot to do<\/span>
Before they can rest assured<\/span>
Their lives are justified<\/span><\/p>\n
No matter where I am<\/span>
I can’t help feeling I’m just a day away<\/span>
From where I want to be<\/span><\/p>\n
FOR A DANCER<\/span>
Keep a fire burnin’ in your eye<\/span>
Pay attention to the open sky<\/span>
You never know what will be comin’ down<\/span><\/p>\n
Just do the steps that you’ve been shown<\/span>
By everyone you’ve ever known<\/span>
Until the dance becomes your very own<\/span>
No matter how close to yours<\/span>
Another’s steps have grown<\/span>
In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone<\/span><\/p>\n
(The world keeps turning around and around)<\/span>
Go on and make a joyful sound<\/span><\/p>\n
RUNNING ON EMPTY<\/span><\/p>\n
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels<\/span>
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields<\/span>
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-o-one<\/span>
I don’t know where I’m running now, I’m just running on<\/span><\/p>\n
I don’t know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels<\/span>
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through<\/span>
Looking into their eyes I see them running too<\/span><\/p>\n
You know I don’t even know what I’m hoping to find<\/span>
Running into the sun but I’m running behind<\/span><\/p>\n
If I leave here tomorrow<\/span>
Would you still remember me<\/span>
For I must be traveling on now<\/span>
"Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see<\/span><\/p>\n\n