Speaking to the UK 'Uncut' magazine in 2013, Jackson Browne told Bud Scoppa, "Music has an impact because a lot of people experience it at the same time, and that can’t happen exactly the same way again. But people want to hear that artist do that thing over and over. It’s great when an artist can continually grow, and the audience accepts that … In my songs, the subjects pick me; and I try to represent them."
Michael Gallucci from the Ultimate Classic Rock website reported in 2012, "More than any of his peers, contemporaries, musical ancestors and followers, Jackson Browne was the consummate 1970s Los Angeles singer-songwriter. He was sensitive, boyish-looking and wrote incredibly melodic songs about the politics of the heart. Plus, he filled his records with L.A.'s greatest studio musicians.
"As the '70s wound down and Browne started to explore issues outside of his own head and heart, his albums reflected this shift, as they became increasingly more political, and less melodic, throughout the '80s. 'Running on Empty' is one of the most revolutionary live concept albums ever made. Fittingly, most of the songs are about touring. What better way to end it than with this two-song medley ('The Load-Out'/'Stay') that pays tribute to the roadies and fans?"
In 1985, Jackson Browne and Clarence Clemons did a duet with the song, 'You're A Friend Of Mine' written by Jeffrey Cohen and Narada Michael Walden (who also produced the track). The song spent 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 18 in January 1986. Daryl Hannah provided backing vocals. Jackson Browne told 'Rolling Stone' magazine in 2011, "Doing 'You're A Friend Of Mine' was such a thrill for me to be asked. It probably wasn't a song that was appropriate to have Bruce (Springsteen) on. Maybe that would've been too obvious. But I was happy to be on that record."
In an interview with 'The UK Telegraph' in 2014, Jackson Browne, then 66, told Martin Chilton, "It's not surprising that political issues find their way into songs. I think that is true of every singer and every band, because everyone has got something that they feel that strongly about. Bruce Cockburn, who is one of my favorite singers, is able to condense ideas and get to the heart of a political question in a song, but it is not easy. There is a limited audience for that compared to more universal or general subjects such as love.
"And I try to write about everything that goes on in life. Music can immerse you in a subject or it can, like the blues, provide a form of expressing resilience. And music is also a good way to escape … I don't think I was able to get what I wanted to say politically into a song until I was about 30 or 35 and it is not an easy thing to do. It's daunting given that the audience is not clamouring for political songs. The first time I wrote a political song, I woke up the next day and looked at what I had been writing and thought, 'Oh no, I can't be singing about politics, this is what I read about and what I am interested in but how can I expect it to come out in songs?"
Of his 1975 song, 'The Pretender', Jackson Browne explained, "I’m a big fan of ambiguity and its bountiful rewards, and ‘The Pretender’ is two things at once. It’s that person in all of us that has a higher ideal, and the part that has settled for compromise – like Truffaut (French film director François Roland Truffaut) says, there’s the movie you set out to make, and there’s the one you settle for.
"But in a more serious way, 'The Pretender' is about '60s idealism, the idea of life being about love and brotherhood, justice, social change and enlightenment, those concepts we were flooded with as our generation hit its stride; and how, later, we settled for something quite different. So when I say 'Say a prayer for The Pretender', I'm talking about those people who are trying to convince themselves that there really was nothing to that idealism."
In an interview with 'Rolling Stone' magazine in August 1980 to promote his sixth album in eight years, 'Hold Out', Jackson Browne made the point to Paul Nelson, "It’s very difficult for me to do this (interview) because I’d love to tell you what I think. But I believe that it’s wrong for me to explain my songs. It’s unnecessary and it’s also dogmatic in that it limits another person’s interpretation. And I really don’t think that the songs need to be explained. I believe that, given enough time and listening, they’ll mean what they’re supposed to mean."
Jackson Browne's fifth album was performed live (recorded onstage, in various motel rooms and "on a bus somewhere in New Jersey"). Released in 1977, 'Running On Empty' remained his best-selling album, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. In the album, the double-sided hit 'The Load Out'/'Stay', spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at No. 20 in August 1978.
'The Load-Out' described the life of a touring musician in considerable detail which then shifted to a cover of 'Stay' which referred to the crowd remaining while the band played a final song. Jackson Browne told 'Uncut', "That album was about a shared common experience that we all had touring, that we all knew pretty well. Most of those ideas came from us touring with different people. Stagehands to this day (in 2013) come up and say, 'The Load-Out is our anthem.'"
As noted, "The phrase 'Oh won't you stay, just a little bit longer' is reprised three times, while each successive time it is sung in a higher pitch. The first time it is sung by Jackson Browne, the second by Rosemary Butler, and the third time guitarist David Lindley sings it in falsetto. Clearly, this medley would be a terrific way to end a concert."
'Stay' was originally written by Maurice Williams in 1953. The song which talked about dating in those days, topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1960. As reported, "In 1987, the song received another bump in sales, after it was featured on the soundtrack of the 'Dirty Dancing' movie. In fact, after the release of 'Dirty Dancing', the song sold more records than during its original release. Over time, 'Stay' has sold more than 9 million records."
As mentioned, "Over the years 'Stay' was a Top 20 hit for the Four Seasons, Rufus & Chaka Khan, the Hollies, and it's still sung regularly on Friday nights by many thousands of drunken fraternity boys on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line." The lyrics of Jackson Browne's 'Stay' opened with, "People stay just a little bit longer; We want to play just a little bit longer; Now the promoter don’t mind; And the union don’t mind; If we take a little time; And we leave it all behind and sing; One more song; I want you stay just a little bit longer; Please, please, please; Say you will, say you will."
In 1985, Jackson Browne and Clarence Clemons did a duet with the song, 'You're A Friend Of Mine' written by Jeffrey Cohen and Narada Michael Walden (who also produced the track). The song spent 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 18 in January 1986. Daryl Hannah provided backing vocals. Jackson Browne told 'Rolling Stone' magazine in 2011, "Doing 'You're A Friend Of Mine' was such a thrill for me to be asked. It probably wasn't a song that was appropriate to have Bruce (Springsteen) on. Maybe that would've been too obvious. But I was happy to be on that record."
In an interview with 'The UK Telegraph' in 2014, Jackson Browne, then 66, told Martin Chilton, "It's not surprising that political issues find their way into songs. I think that is true of every singer and every band, because everyone has got something that they feel that strongly about. Bruce Cockburn, who is one of my favorite singers, is able to condense ideas and get to the heart of a political question in a song, but it is not easy. There is a limited audience for that compared to more universal or general subjects such as love.
"And I try to write about everything that goes on in life. Music can immerse you in a subject or it can, like the blues, provide a form of expressing resilience. And music is also a good way to escape … I don't think I was able to get what I wanted to say politically into a song until I was about 30 or 35 and it is not an easy thing to do. It's daunting given that the audience is not clamouring for political songs. The first time I wrote a political song, I woke up the next day and looked at what I had been writing and thought, 'Oh no, I can't be singing about politics, this is what I read about and what I am interested in but how can I expect it to come out in songs?"
Of his 1975 song, 'The Pretender', Jackson Browne explained, "I’m a big fan of ambiguity and its bountiful rewards, and ‘The Pretender’ is two things at once. It’s that person in all of us that has a higher ideal, and the part that has settled for compromise – like Truffaut (French film director François Roland Truffaut) says, there’s the movie you set out to make, and there’s the one you settle for.
"But in a more serious way, 'The Pretender' is about '60s idealism, the idea of life being about love and brotherhood, justice, social change and enlightenment, those concepts we were flooded with as our generation hit its stride; and how, later, we settled for something quite different. So when I say 'Say a prayer for The Pretender', I'm talking about those people who are trying to convince themselves that there really was nothing to that idealism."
In an interview with 'Rolling Stone' magazine in August 1980 to promote his sixth album in eight years, 'Hold Out', Jackson Browne made the point to Paul Nelson, "It’s very difficult for me to do this (interview) because I’d love to tell you what I think. But I believe that it’s wrong for me to explain my songs. It’s unnecessary and it’s also dogmatic in that it limits another person’s interpretation. And I really don’t think that the songs need to be explained. I believe that, given enough time and listening, they’ll mean what they’re supposed to mean."
Jackson Browne's fifth album was performed live (recorded onstage, in various motel rooms and "on a bus somewhere in New Jersey"). Released in 1977, 'Running On Empty' remained his best-selling album, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. In the album, the double-sided hit 'The Load Out'/'Stay', spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at No. 20 in August 1978.
'The Load-Out' described the life of a touring musician in considerable detail which then shifted to a cover of 'Stay' which referred to the crowd remaining while the band played a final song. Jackson Browne told 'Uncut', "That album was about a shared common experience that we all had touring, that we all knew pretty well. Most of those ideas came from us touring with different people. Stagehands to this day (in 2013) come up and say, 'The Load-Out is our anthem.'"
As noted, "The phrase 'Oh won't you stay, just a little bit longer' is reprised three times, while each successive time it is sung in a higher pitch. The first time it is sung by Jackson Browne, the second by Rosemary Butler, and the third time guitarist David Lindley sings it in falsetto. Clearly, this medley would be a terrific way to end a concert."
'Stay' was originally written by Maurice Williams in 1953. The song which talked about dating in those days, topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1960. As reported, "In 1987, the song received another bump in sales, after it was featured on the soundtrack of the 'Dirty Dancing' movie. In fact, after the release of 'Dirty Dancing', the song sold more records than during its original release. Over time, 'Stay' has sold more than 9 million records."
As mentioned, "Over the years 'Stay' was a Top 20 hit for the Four Seasons, Rufus & Chaka Khan, the Hollies, and it's still sung regularly on Friday nights by many thousands of drunken fraternity boys on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line." The lyrics of Jackson Browne's 'Stay' opened with, "People stay just a little bit longer; We want to play just a little bit longer; Now the promoter don’t mind; And the union don’t mind; If we take a little time; And we leave it all behind and sing; One more song; I want you stay just a little bit longer; Please, please, please; Say you will, say you will."
