Learning about life through music, the Jackson Browne method.

I posted so much during our mission trip I needed a blog vacation.  Consider it over!  :)  I've always had a passion for a well written lyric.  Growing up I played music by Carole King, James Taylor, Paul McCartney and Harry Chapin over and over.  I'm not here to judge music as it's written today and I'm certain there are still great lyricists out there, but for some reason the 70's gave birth to an amazing collection of song writers.  Maybe it was the influence of Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, John Denver and others in the 60's.  The 70's were a special era of artists who wrote with meaning. 

I would spend hours listening to America, Carole King's Tapesty, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper and any James Taylor album.  And when I went off to college I took this well worn vinyl collection with me.  You couldn't be around me long without learning I listened to music all day.  When I ate, studied and even slept.  And it was during my first year in college I discovered Dan Fogelberg and Harry Chapin.  A close friend of mine who witnessed my obsession with song writers suggested I give Jackson Browne a try.  This was perhaps the single most influential suggestion anyone has given me in my life. 


I can't even imagine how many hours I have spent listening to Jackson Browne music in my life.  Certainly it is in the 1000's of hours.  Not that I'm obsessed with it mind you.  But, when I need a lift, or need to think, I put his music on my ipod.  And no matter how many times I hear the songs, I get new things out of the lyrics.  His music has helped me through a lot of  rough times in my life.  He says it best, his songs  "start with despair and offer glimpses of hope or are hopeful and end in despair."  I love that analysis!  But they are much more than that.  He crafts words like Michalangelo paints.  Every syllable, every word, every thought has a purpose.  I imagine him endlessly rewriting songs to that the exact meaning he wants to send is there. 

But enough of my words, let me share some of his best. 

Jackson on finding a life while hating your job: (The Pretender)
I'm gonna be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
where true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender.
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

Jackson on finding purpose in life:  (Bright Baby Blues)
I'm sitting down by the highway
Down by that highway side
Everybody's going somewhere
Riding just as fast as they can ride
I guess they've got a lot to do
Before they can rest assured
Their lives are justified
Pray to God for me baby
He can let me slide


'Cause I've been up and down this highway
Far as my eyes can see
No matter how fast I run
I can never seem to get away from me
No matter where I am
I can't help feeling I'm just a day away
From where I want to be
Now I'm running home baby
Like a river to the sea


Jackson on dealing with death:  (For a Dancer)
I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't sing
I can't help listening
I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away

And probably my favorite song of all time due to it's layers of meaning and imagination:

Jackson on lost love"  (Sky Blue and Black)
I hear the sound of the world where we played
And the far too simple beauty
Of the promises we made


If you ever need holding
Call my name, I'll be there
If you ever need holding
And no holding back, I'll see you through
Sky blue and black


Where the touch of the lover ends
And the soul of the friend begins
There's a need to be separate and a need to be one
And a struggle neither wins
Where you gave me the world I was in
And a place I could make a stand
I could never see how you doubted me
When I'd let go of your hand


Yeah, and I was much younger then
And I must have thought that I would know
If things were going to end


And the heavens were rolling
Like a wheel on a track
And our sky was unfolding
And it'll never fold back
Sky blue and black


And I'd have fought the world for you
If I thought that you wanted me to
Or put aside what was true or untrue
If I'd known that's what you needed
What you needed me to do


But the moment has passed by me now
To have put away my pride
And just come through for you somehow


If you ever need holding
Call my name, I'll be there
If you ever need holding
And no holding back, I'll see you through


You're the color of the sky
Reflected in each store-front window pane
You're the whispering and the sighing
Of my tires in the rain
You're the hidden cost and the thing that's lost
In everything I do
Yeah and I'll never stop looking for you
In the sunlight and the shadows
And the faces on the avenue
That's the way love is
That's the way love is
That's the way love is
Sky blue and black

When I hear this line "You're the whispering and the sighing of my tires in the rain" I just listen in wonder at how Browne came up with it.  But, that's what I love about his music, he makes me dream and imagine things I've never dreamed or imagined before

Thanks Rob, for suggesting I listen to his albums.  It's truly an act of kindness that changed my life in many ways.