Band: Jackson Browne
Album: For Everyman
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Um...
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Jackson Browne was one of the leaders of the "California"
Best song: "These Days" is the best song on the album and the best song Browne has ever written.
Worst song: The rest of the album is basically dung.
Is it awesome?: Nope.
I am not really familiar with the rationale behind three Jackson Browne albums on this list. His songwriting, I guess, is sometimes interesting and I'll definitely give that to him.
This album has a few decently-written songs. "Our Lady of the Well" is a nice little religious thing and "These Days" is a well-manicured song. Of course, Browne's version of the song pales in compared to the original version, when he wrote the song as a teenager for Nico.
Still, the first song on the album is the song co-written with the hateable Glenn Frey, "Take it Easy." Probably my least favorite song in history, "Take it Easy" is ridiculous in its simple stupid message and laid-back quasi-philosophy.
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You know what's amazing? Jackson Browne has some seriously famous folks helping him on this record. Along with Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby and his friends the Eagles... Elton John (!) helped out on the album. That's pretty damned impressive.
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I can't stand the "California sound" and have made no real bones about that. There's a certain amount of boredom involved and the actual themes of the songs are remarkably boring.
5 comments:
I've always kinda liked Jackson Browne, but sometimes I think I should apologize for it, because I can't really say why I trust him amongst so many things like him that I can't stand.
That's a good way of putting it.
David Lindley is brilliant, though. He's worth putting up with the garbage for.
I am not a fan of Browne, but he did write that great Nico song.
Johnny Darrell's (very country, but light years better than Browne's own) version is great as well.
Almost too bad Browne wasn't just strictly a songwriter.
http://jadedvii500albums.blogspot.com/2011/12/no-457-for-everyman.html
I actually...um...like this record.
I love Jackson Browne's music (even though I'm not even 18 yet!), but I respect your own opinion, and can understand why you dislike him. For me, personally, I really like his strong songwriting abilities and his elegant and thoughtful balladry, but that's just my opinion.
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