From 1983, Jackson Browne goes Nuevo Wavo...
I must confess, I loved this song at the time and I still do. For one thing, unlike a lot of Browne's stuff, it doesn't suffer from (in Robert Christgau's immortal phrase) "Jackson Browne Syndrome, i.e. it's kinda boring." For another, the jump to wordless falsetto after the line "the mating cries of lawyers in love" completely cracks me up (as does the sight of the guy paddling the car). Plus, the "sha-la-las" in the middle add a nice Brill Building/doo-wop period touch, and the Procol Harum-ish piano/organ buildup just before the last verse is wonderful.
And of course, the whole thing about Russia being turned into vacationland for the titular LILs is frankly more than a tad prescient.
Oh hell, let's just cop to the fact that it's a very cool song and the vid stands up nicely.
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4 comments:
And, you know, the young Jackson Browne, had he even been able to shuffle the cards awkwardly . . . .
He is a cutie, isn't he?
I've always hoped the stories about him beating up Darryl Hannah weren't true.
A
I think she could take him. Seriously.
Jackson is OK, but my best Jackson Brown moment is when Tonio K. sang "I wish I were as mellow, as for instance Jackson Brown. But "Fountain of Sorrow" my ass motherfucker I hope you end up in the ground."
I love that.
Trey
Tmink:
You and me both --- god, I love that song and album.
Although Tonio said later that he really regretted the line -- apparently, when it got back to Jackson he didn't have much of a sense of humor about it, and his circle pretty much cut Tonio dead as a result. Tonio felt like he had hurt the guy unnecessarily for a cheap laugh.
IIRC, I think they later reconciled...
It's still a great line, though...
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