Jackson Browne

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 hes still challenging himself and his listeners to keep building is no small feat.