On The Pretender, Jackson Browne took a step back from the precipice so well defined on his first three albums, but doing so didn't seem to make him feel any better. Employing a real producer, Jon Landau, for the first time, Browne made what sounded like a real contemporary ock record, but this made his songs less effective; the ersatz Mexican arrangement of "Linda Paloma" and the bouncy second half of "Daddy's Tune," with its horn charts and guitar solo, undercut the lyrics. The man who had delved so deeply into life's abyss on his earlier albums was in search of escape this time around, whether by crying ("Here Come Those Tears Again"), sleeping ("Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate"), or making peace with estranged love ones ("The Only Child," "Daddy's Tune"). None of it worked, however, and when Browne came to the final track -- traditionally the place on his albums where he summed up his current philosophical stance -- he delivered "The Pretender," a cynical, sarcastic treatise on moneygrubbing and the shallow life of the suburbs. Primarily inner-directed, the song's defeatist tone demands rejection, but it is also a quintessential statement of its time, the post-Watergate '70s; dire as that might be, you had to admire that kind of honesty, even as it made you wince.
I saw Jackson Browne longer ago than I care to remember, his son, a young boy sat on top of the piano and sang along to every song like every one else in the crowd that night... including me...I found this video today it was only surfaced a month or so back... I have a rush of wonderful memories right now...A personal favourite... and singing along right now...It's coming from so far awayIt's h...
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these blues that i am still trying to shake have me digging through the songs of my childhood. this song reminds me of drives in my grandfather's mustang, my head leaning against the window watching the city go by as we drove into downtown los angeles. he would tell me stories of the los angeles he grew up in. the boy from mexico who sold newspapers and ice cream, and wrote poetry for the bapti...
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Although there are many musicians that have made a difference in my life, one in particular has been a voice that I've turned to since I was a teen.In honor of Father's Day tomorrow, wanted to post this tuneBut Daddy I want to let you know somehowThe things you said are so much clearer nowAnd I would turn the pages backBut time will not allowThe way these days just rip alongToo fast to last, to...
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Another one of Jackson's best songs. You could be 'The Pretender'?
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 The Fuse |
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| 2 Your Bright Baby Blues |
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| 3 Linda Paloma |
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| 4 Here Come Those Tears Again |
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| 5 The Only Child |
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| 6 Daddy's Tune |
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| 7 Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate |
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| 8 The Pretender |
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 "The Pretender")
