For well over two decades, JACKSON
BROWNE has remained one of pop's defining voices. Whether through writing
songs about the forces that shape our lives, or the day to day musings he's
offered as sketches reflecting our own personal search for meaning, Browne has
described essentially what it is to be human.
And so it is on Looking East. "Most of my songs have used metaphors to tell a
story," says Browne. "Some have been about subjects that might take many
pages to describe in detail. But when I write, I'm really trying to access something
we already know." Through his poetic, short-hand style, Browne has always
made this mutual point of recognition one of the joys of his music. One of the
major themes of Looking East, that which Browne terms "an absence of light," is
conveyed masterfully in the title track. Browne asks the question "How long have
I left my mind to the powers that be,?" and then tears through a litany of treasures
that he feels possess power: "Power in the insect, Power in the sea, Power in the
snow falling silently, Power in the blossom, Power in the stone." says Jackson.
"I'm just trying to identify forces at play that are in everybody's lives."
Browne refers to the LP as "L.A.-centric. I'm not from middle America, I'm from
L.A.," Browne reflects. "I recognize that I don't have a middle American point of
view, even though this place has the same social struggles that go on in the rest of
the country. Now, the more serious problems that confront contemporary
America are all pervasive. There are Crips and Bloods in small towns in
Mississippi now."
Browne not only crafts socially conscious songs, but retains a sense of
playfulness in his writing as well. One of the album's pluckier cuts, "I'm The Cat,"
with its boisterous, strutting chorus, shows that Browne still knows how to have
fun. He can also punch out a penetrating rocker, such as the slinky "Culver
Moon." Backed by a hot rhythm section laced with funky guitar work and
swirling Hammond organ, Browne uses Culver City as a metaphor, satirizing our
own endless capacity to glamorize the mundane. "But," says Browne, "It is a love
song." And when he sings: "I'm going to love you 'til the stars come down, 'Til
they park their limos and walk to town," you know that he means forever.
One of the reasons for the vitality on Looking East is that Browne kept the same
band from his 1994 "I'm Alive" tour. "It's made it one of the most collaborative
albums I've done," he says. The musicians on Looking East include Scott
Thurston (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Kevin McCormick (bass), Mauricio
"Fritz" Lewak (drums), Luis Conte (percussion), Jeff Young (Hammond organ,
vocals), and Mark Goldenberg (guitar). Browne also pulled in some old friends
to round out the record, including Bonnie Raitt, long-time collaborator David
Lindley, Vonda Shepard and David Crosby. The legendary Ry Cooder, a
life-long hero of Browne's, makes his first on-record appearance with Jackson a
memorable one. "In the collaborative spirit of the record we included a number of
friends and influences to complete the landscape," he says.
In a career that is now well into its third decade, Browne's work can also be
described as a sure thing. The list of artists who have recorded material he's
penned includes the Byrds, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Natalie Merchant, Richie
Havens, the Velvet Underground's Nico, Bonnie Raitt, Third World, and Pop
Staples. His album debut as a performing artist, 1972's Jackson Browne, drew
critical acclaim, launching a new career as a singer/songwriter. Browne grew into
one of our most prolific artists during the '70s, producing albums by Warren
Zevon and old friend David Lindley, and releasing two classic albums, The
Pretender and Running On Empty. In the late '70's his activism surfaced, with
Browne becoming a passionate player in the fight against the proliferation of
nuclear power. He was co-founder and board member of MUSE (Musicians
United For Safe Energy) which included members Bonnie Raitt and Graham
Nash, among others. He helped organize the No Nukes concerts at Madison
Square Garden in September of 1979, which brought together such artists as
James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Chaka Kahn, The Doobie Brothers, Ry
Cooder, Tom Petty, and others.
The beginning of the Eighties saw the release of Hold Out, which hit number one
in its first week of release. Describing the title song from his 1983 album Lawyers
In Love, Browne comments, "It was meant to be funny. It was a satire. But I
think when it came out it baffled people. People think if you've written about
suicide you can't possibly have a sense of humor. Some people thought there
must be some secret meaning. A couple years later a few brave souls ventured a
guess that it was about the acscension of yuppies. The fact that it was so
misunderstood indicated to me that the problem I was addressing was more
pervasive than I thought."
Browne's narrative writing style and continuing social awareness has often led to
intense discussion over the interpretation of his songs. In 1986 he released the
globally conscious Lives In The Balance, an album which is included in Rolling
Stone's list of the 100 best albums of the decade. Browne was involved in the
1986 Amnesty International Conspiracy Of Hope Tour and in the 1988 tribute
concert to Nelson Mandela at Wembley stadium. It was there he first sang his
own tribute to Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr., "When The Stone Begins
To Turn."
1989's World in Motion continued Browne's exploration of peace from a
personal and social perspective. His first musical offering of the '90s, 1994's I'm
Alive shed light on Browne's own process of self discovery. Keeping that album's
extended family of players for Looking East not only loosened up his songwriting
approach, but led to at least one of the bandmembers being inspiration for some
of the songs. The song "Nino" is based on Browne's Cuban born percussionist
Luis Conte. "A lot of these songs were born out of spontaneous jamming and
soundchecking, when a musician would start playing something interesting while
he was checking his instrument," says Browne. "'Nino' is sort of a portrait of Luis,
a kid away from his family who was thinking about home, having been
transplanted into a completely unfamiliar environment." Browne adds that the
song amplifies another undercurrent that runs through Looking East. "For me the
song touches on a very simple and profound idea which is that we all carry the
means to make ourselves happy, and the means to get where we want to go in
life." The depth and range of subject matter on Looking East captures the spirit of
such a journey. "I've always believed that every aspect of life is worth writing
about," says Browne. Whether its the brutally caustic "Information Wars," in
which he skewers our zeal for diversion, or the tender "Some Bridges," inspired
in part by a California high school choir he worked with, (*the Hamilton High
School gospel choir in Los Angeles) both seem at home on the album.
"The songs on this record are meant to be different components of a whole
experience," he says. "No life is completely outward-looking and social in its
focus." Perhaps the best amalgam of different points of view is on the poignant
"Some Bridges." Kicked off by a barreling Lindley Lap-steel guitar lick, the song
packs both muscle and food for thought. "Take a look at the situation" Browne
sings, a nod to the fact that it just may be the smallest of gestures that keeps us
linked to each other, after all. "I began to work with this choir nearly a year ago,"
says Jackson. "They're starting out their lives in this school and they're
approaching a world that is more difficult to succeed in every day. The bridge
that I'm talking about is not only a bridge between people but a bridge between
people and where they want to go. The ladder by which some people can better
themselves is being dismantled. When I'm saying 'some bridges are falling down,
some bridges are still around,' I'm saying there's still an opportunity to make
contact; there's something very precious at stake and it's not all gone yet."
Making contact. It has always been the cornerstone of Browne's work. Even
standing at "the edge of my country" as he sings on "Looking East," with his
"back to the sea," Jackson Browne is still searching for the architecture of such
connections, great and small. "It's about turning and facing what assails you," he
says. Coming from him, someone who has built his share of bridges, the fact that
heνs still challenging himself and his listeners to keep building is no small feat.
*The Hamilton High School gospel choir performs with Jackson on a live version of "World
In Motion," recorded at a fund-raising benefit for a Los Angeles scholarship orginization,
The Fulfillment Fund. The song is made available as the B-side on the commercial cassette
single of "Some Bridges."
