Jackson Browne - "Somebodys Baby" C/D

Dud for all other intents & purposes. I hated the song when it came out, and I'm sticking with my first impression.. don't try to convince me otherwise... my youthful impressions are worth more than logic...

Phantom Planet does a good cover.

Hm. This holds up rather well.

Lead synths carrying the initial melody are cheesy (if memory serves), but I'm not sure which instrument would have made a better replacement.

Alfred I don't know how to break this to you but almost the entire Jackson Browne catalog - like 90+% - is awesome & right up yr alley

I said on the main Browne thread that I love this, "In the Shape of a Heart," "Running on Empty," and "Lawyers in Love." He deserves an MVP for producing Zevon; but the voice and material deserve each other. That toneless plod afflicts even his most intelligent songs. He's interesting as a case study -- as one of the people he writes about.

"Toneless"? I love you but you are talking crazy here

His voice is Brand X to my ears.

srsly yo search out the live acoustic vol. 1 album from a couple of years ago & learn that you have underrated, severely, one of the best singers of his generation, no lie

It's immune to inflection, methinks. Zevon had a terrible voice too, but his sense of dynamics is a lot sharper than Browne's.

(xpost: ok, fair enough)

(who favors a very even treatment of his vox in studio - very conservative w/the mics - so I can see what you mean but really, the saturate before using album & the live stuff should persuade you: dude has chops & tone & technique to spare)

xpost there are few lengths to which I will not go to make a JB convert because I think he is all that plus

I said on the main Browne thread that I love this, "In the Shape of a Heart," "Running on Empty," and "Lawyers in Love."

I know he's an "intelligent lyricist," but the lyrics to Lawyers in Love are embarrasingly dumb. . . And yet endearing. And it's a great song, with that big, hokey chorus.

I don't know, guys. Even Glenn Frey had one or two good songs.

Name 'em.

THE HEAT IS MOTHERFUCKING ON

I know sarcasm doesn't always come through clearly in text, so . . . you're kidding, yes?

i don't know, that's the only song of his i can think of. i don't think it's any good, but i wouldn't be surprised if someone declared it the greastest thing ever.

I'd rather hear "You Belong to the City" three times in a row than have to endure "The Pretender" or "The Load-Out" or any duet with Clarence Clemons one more time.

I know I'm playing bait-and-switch with my argument here, forgetting about songs like "Doctor My Eyes" or "Somebody's Baby" or even "Tender is the Night" ("The benediction of the neon night" refuses to leave my head 25 years later), but seriously, the dude's just another West Coast soapy balladeer who's been given a completely undeserved pass to junk up the airwaves with his sensitive overrated dreck. It's dudes like him who make James Taylor look like an animal.

Tre in ARK

Since I haven't heard "You're a Friend of Mine" since 1985 yet hear "You Belong to the City" and "The Heat is On" every weekend on the eighties station, I'm prepared to hate Glenn Frey without inhibition.

and the lyrics of "Lawyers in Love" are just fine.

Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capitol
The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians will
Now we've got all this room, we've even got the moon
And I hear the U.S.S.R. will be open soon
As vacation land for lawyers in love

Uhhhhhhh . . . Still, as I say, I love this song. Can't bring myself to buy the album (which is at Spec's for 5 big dollars); I vaguely remember the album cuts being weak.

And -- with all his faults -- Jackson Browne so >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Glen Frey it isn't funny. Alfred's comment about Frey is OTMFM.

I don't really fuck with Glenn Frey but you cats in south Florida, if you were there in the 80s, really got a burst of the guy with the Miami Vice connection. When I was 10, "Smuggler's Blues" was pretty much what I thought it was like down there (I lived in the Tampa - St. Pete area)---much air guitar ensued to the politics of contraband.

"Smuggler's Blues" was pretty much what I thought it was like down there ... --- much air guitar ensued to the politics of contraband

Well, that's all true, but I still hate Glen Frey.

also "Somebody's Baby" is a great song, I have a crush on her too every time I hear the song, she's so fine.

I've been sitting on Jackson Browne cds for years that I haven't tried, maybe I finally will.

Seriously, that image is part of why I hate Glen Frey. That faux-cool, smug, self-satisfied, shallow tool, outfitted in a white suit and lime-green wifebeater, pretending to be engaged in shady business deals.

And Glen Frey was a symbol of everything that went wrong with Miami Vice after the first -- and still incredible -- season. BTW, remove the part about shady business dealings in the paragraph above, and you're left with the reasons I can't stand Jimmy Buffett.

(xp)

Those are terrific lyrics, Daniel!

How's the album, Alfred? I see it every time I'm in Specs (calling to me).

I don't own a single Browne album. If it's only $5, it's worth the risk.

Hmm, somehow I missed this thread revive and wish I hadn't. I decided only some months back, totally out of the blue, that I wanted to hear "Somebody's Baby". So I downloaded it and really enjoyed it which I found utterly baffling because I had absolutely zero interest in it back in the day. I also finally gave a listen to his first eponymous 1972 album the other day and thought it was pretty good. I don't think he's gonna be someone I'm gonna flip over, but he's alright. I tend to remember the songs he wrote for Nico's first album more than anything else, but then, I would. ;)

Glenn Frey can go suck great big cocks in the sky, btw.

search well-recorded live boots from 1972-73, when lindley was already in the band (with his incredibly satisfying amplified violin). he generally opened w/ a really nice version of "come all ye fair and tender ladies" with group harmonies that segues perfectly into "take it easy." browne does have a tendency to talk too much in between songs, but you can skip past that i suppose.

anyway he was pretty fucking great. and, based on those acoustic discs from a few years back, is still pretty fucking great--as a singer anyway.

sometimes the electric violin is over-amped so it feeds back and you've got a sort of 1968 velvet underground feel in the background. it's mild but it's there. basically lindley's violin serves the function an electric lead guitar would serve in most rock ensembles. it's a great sound and as noted browne is a really great singer.

You only need to revive one Jackson Browne thread, dude.

fuck off

I saw a poster for an upcoming JB concert yesterday. Should I go

tho lately I've been enjoying much more James Taylor who for some reason never seemed to get the (relatiove) hipster attention JB kinda did

i'm not a big jb fan altho i think his 60s era songwriting is a+
but somebody's baby just came on the radio as i was driving home and it totally brought back that early 80s teenage angst/romance vibe that i haven't felt in a while. nice song.

Glenn Frey can go suck great big cocks in the sky, btw.

― "But didn't MBV come from a nasty goth background?" (Bimble)

miss u : (