Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne (Official Website): "Over the course of more than three decades, Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music. With classic albums including Late For The Sky, The Pretender, Running On Empty, and For Everyman, and songs like "Doctor My Eyes," "Rock Me On The Water," and "Lives In The Balance," he has defined a genre of songwriting that is charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. Along the way, he has touched the hearts and minds of countless fans worldwide."

Jackson Browne Fan Site: Jackson Browne's musical career of more than thirty years has reached the hearts and souls of millions of fans around the globe. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jackson Browne's songs were recorded by artists such as Nico, Tom Rush, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, The Byrds and Gregg Allman. As a singer-songwriter in the early 1970s, Jackson's music and lyrics reached a more personal level than any of his peers while selling millions of albums and performing endless tours. Hit singles like "Doctor My Eyes", "Rock Me On The Water", "The Pretender" and "Running On Empty" are still staples of rock and roll radio. Jackson Browne started the 1980s with a #1 album in Hold Out and the hit singles "Boulevard" and "That Girl Could Sing" and followed up with the Top 10 Hit "Somebody's Baby". As his political activism and social agenda seeped into his music, Jackson Browne quickly took on a leadership role as the social and moral consciousness of his generation. In the 1990s Jackson Browne continued to release music that reached his fans at a deeply emotional level -- with songs like "Sky Blue and Black" and "Everywhere I Go" -- while still responding to a value system that shows true caring for the world around him -- with songs such as the hits "Some Bridges" and "Alive In The World". In March 2004 Jackson Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by his good friend, Bruce Springsteen..

Jackson Browne: He was born in Heidelberg, Germany (his father was an American serviceman stationed in Germany), but moved to the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, California at an early age and began singing folk music locally. In 1966, his career began by joining the The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. A precociously talented songwriter, Browne signed a publishing contract with Nina Music, and his songs were performed by Tom Rush, Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds and Steve Noonan, among others. After moving to Greenwich Village, New York, Browne worked, for a brief period, in Tim Buckley's back-up band and on Nico's Chelsea Girl. After leaving New York City, Browne formed a folk band with Ned Doheney and Jack Wilce. In 1971, Browne signed with Asylum Records and released Jackson Browne (1972), which included "Doctor My Eyes", a major hit. He didn't sustain pop success, though, and his next album, For Everyman (1973), while considered of high quality, was a commercial failure.

Jackson Browne (Wikipedia): "In 1971, Browne signed with Asylum Records and released Jackson Browne (1972), which included the piano-driven "Doctor My Eyes", a Top 10 hit in the US singles chart. "Rock Me On The Water", from the same album, also gained considerable radio airplay, while "Jamaica Say You Will" and "Song For Adam" helped establish Browne's reputation as a versatile and original writer with a deep thinking, sometimes downbeat, but always romantic flair. His next album, For Everyman (1973) — while considered of high quality — was less successful than his debut album, although it still sold a million copies. The upbeat "Take It Easy," co-written with The Eagles' Glenn Frey, had already been a big hit for that group, while "These Days" captured the essence of Browne's youthful, morose angst, and the title track was the first of Browne's studies of personal exploration, soul-searching, and despair set against the backdrop of a decaying society. Late for the Sky (1974) consolidated Browne's following, with some fans drawn in purely by the record's intriguing, Magritte-inspired cover. Highlights included the searching, heartbreaking title song, the elegiac "For a Dancer" and the apocalyptic "Before the Deluge". The arrangements featured the evocative violin and guitar of David Lindley, Jai Winding's outstanding piano, and the stellar harmonies of Doug Haywood. The title track was also featured in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver. Around this time, Browne began his fractious but lifelong professional relationship with the brilliant but less successful singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, mentoring Zevon's first two Asylum albums through the studio as a producer after browbeating Asylum head David Geffen into giving Zevon a recording contract."

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: "Jackson Browne has been both an introspective, cerebral songwriter and a politically attuned voice of conscience. He emerged in the early Seventies as a soul-baring young folksinger whose songs dealt with riddles of romance and existence. In his middle period he became a more extroverted rock and roller. Later work grew more topical in nature as Browne sang of political and social realities within and beyond our borders. “In a way, I don’t choose what I write about - my subjects kind of choose me,” this vanguard singer/songwriter explained in 1993. “It’s a healing thing, a way of confronting what’s important in my life at the time.”