JACKSON BROWNE: The Third Album

Original released on LP Asylum SD 7E-1017

(US 1974, September 13)

On his third album, Jackson Browne returned to the themes of his debut record (love, loss, identity, apocalypse) and, amazingly, delved even deeper into them. "For a Dancer," a meditation on death like the first album's "Song for Adam," is a more eloquent eulogy; "Farther On" extends the "moving on" point of "Looking Into You"; "Before the Deluge" is a glimpse beyond the apocalypse evoked on "My Opening Farewell" and the second album's "For Everyman." If Browne had seemed to question everything in his first records, here he even questioned himself. «For me some words come easy, but I know that they don't mean that much,» he sang on the opening track, "Late for the Sky," and added in "Farther On," «I'm not sure what I'm trying to say.» Yet his seeming uncertainty and self-doubt reflected the size and complexity of the problems he was addressing in these songs, and few had ever explored such territory, much less mapped it so well. "The Late Show," the album's thematic center, doubted but ultimately affirmed the nature of relationships, while by the end, "After the Deluge," if "only a few survived," the human race continued nonetheless. It was a lot to put into a pop music album, but Browne stretched the limits of what could be found in what he called "the beauty in songs," just as Bob Dylan had a decade before. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

JACKSON BROWNE: The Second Album

Original released on LP Asylum SD 5067

(US 1973, October 15)

Jackson Browne faced the nearly insurmountable task of following a masterpiece in making his second album. Having cherry-picked years of songwriting the first time around, he turned to some of his secondary older material, which was still better than most people's best and, ironically, more accessible - notably such songs as "These Days," which had been covered six times already, dating back to Nico's "Chelsea Girl" album in 1967, and "Take It Easy," a co-composition with the Eagles' Glenn Frey that had been a Top 40 hit for the group in 1972. Browne unsuccessfully looked for another hit single with the up-tempo "Red Neck Friend," reminisced about meeting his wife and starting a family in the coy "Ready or Not," and, at the end, finally came up with a new song to rank with those on the first album in the philosophical title track, which reportedly was his more positive reply to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Wooden Ships." (David Crosby sang harmony.) Musically, the album was still restrained, but not as austere as Jackson Browne, as the singer had hooked up with multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, who would introduce interesting textures to his music on a variety of stringed instruments for the next several years. All of which is to say that "For Everyman" was a less consistent collection than Browne's debut album. But Browne's songwriting ability remained impressive. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

JACKSON BROWNE Debut Album

Original released on LP Asylum SD 5051

(US 1972, January 2)

One of the reasons that Jackson Browne's first album is among the most auspicious debuts in pop music history is that it doesn't sound like a debut. Although only 23, Browne had kicked around the music business for several years, writing and performing as a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and as Nico's backup guitarist, among other gigs, while many artists recorded his material. So, if this doesn't sound like someone's first batch of songs, it's not. Browne had developed an unusual use of language, studiedly casual yet full of striking imagery, and a post-apocalyptic viewpoint to go with it. He sang with a calm certainty over spare, discretely placed backup - piano, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, congas, violin, harmony vocals - that highlighted the songs and always seemed about to disappear. In song after song, Browne described the world as a desert in need of moisture, and this wet/dry dichotomy carried over into much of the imagery. In "Doctor My Eyes," the album's most propulsive song and a Top Ten hit, he sang, «Doctor, my eyes/Cannot see the sky/Is this the prize/For having learned how not to cry?» If Browne's outlook was cautious, its expression was original. His conditional optimism seemed to reflect hard experience, and in the early '70s, the aftermath of the '60s, a lot of his listeners shared that perspective. Like any great artist, Browne articulated the tenor of his times. But the album has long since come to seem a timeless collection of reflective ballads touching on still-difficult subjects - suicide (explicitly), depression and drug use (probably), spiritual uncertainty and desperate hope - all in calm, reasoned tones, and all with an amazingly eloquent sense of language. Jackson Browne's greater triumph is that, having perfectly expressed its times, it transcended those times as well. (The album features a cover depicting Browne's face on a water bag - an appropriate reference to its desert/water imagery - containing the words "saturate before using." Inevitably, many people began to refer to the self-titled album by that phrase, and when it was released on CD, it nearly became official - both the disc and the spine of the jewel box read "Saturate Before Using".) (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

THE CHIEFTAINS & DUBLIN FRIENDS

Original released on CD RCA Victor RD 60824

(UK, 1991)

“The Bells of Dublin” features The Chieftains with guest vocalists – Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, Nanci Griffith, Rickie Lee Jones and Kate & Anna McGarrigle. And The Penguin does some narration! (that is Burgess Meredith). But the album is very much about The Chieftains who were – at the time – Derek Bell, Martin Fay, Sean Keane, Kevin Conneff, Matt Molloy and of course Paddy Moloney. Sadly, Derek Bell and Martin Fay are no longer with us but I see from Wikipedia that the others are still working and long may they continue. “The Bells of Dublin” features traditional Christmas tunes and more contemporary songs. For example the excellent “St Stephen’s Day Murders” sung by Elvis Costello was written by him & Paddy Moloney while Marianne Faithfull sings “I Saw Three Ships A-Sailing” and very well. The McGarrigles sing, wonderfully, of course, “Il Est Né/ Ca Berger” and there is also “Once In Royal David’s City”, “Ding Dong Merrily On High” & “O Come All You Faithful” among many traditional carols. And I see that the great Kathryn Tickell appears on the track “Brafferton Village/ Walsh’s Hornpipe” – she would have been in her early twenties then. Far too many highlights and wonderful performances to mention here – although Nanci Griffith sings “The Wexford Carol" beautifully. The album runs for about 63 minutes and every second is terrific. It is, I think, a “proper” Christmas album and stands alongside “The Holly Bears The Crown” by The Collins sisters and The Young Tradition as one of the great Folk Music Christmas albums. (in RateYourMusic)