Jackson Browne

Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, Browne had his first successes writing songs for others. He wrote "These Days" as a 16-year-old; the song became a minor hit for the German singer and Andy Warhol protégé Nico in 1967. He also wrote several songs for fellow Southern California bands the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (of which he was briefly a member in 1966) and Eagles, the latter of whom had their first Billboard Top 40 hit in 1972 with the Browne co-written song "Take It Easy". In the early 1970s, Browne lived in a small apartment in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. He started writing "Take It Easy" for his first album, but did not know how to finish it. His upstairs neighbor Glenn Frey came to visit and was able to help complete the composition. Frey recalled hearing Browne's persistent songwriting process, including the sound of his teapot and piano, from which he learned about the creative effort involved in finishing a song. Browne gave the completed song to Frey, who recorded it with his new band Eagles, taking the song onto the Billboard Top 40. Encouraged by his successes writing songs for others, Browne released his self-titled debut album in 1972, which included two Top 40 hits of his own, "Doctor, My Eyes" and "Rock Me on the Water". For his debut album, as well as the next several albums and concert tours, Browne started to work closely with the Section, a prolific session band which also worked with a number of other prominent singer-songwriters of the era. His second album, For Everyman, was released in 1973. His third album, Late for the Sky (1974), was his most successful to that point, peaking at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart. His fourth album, The Pretender (1976), continued the pattern of each album topping the previous by peaking at number 5 on the album chart, and included the hit singles "Here Come Those Tears Again" and "The Pretender". Browne's 1977 album Running on Empty, however, is his signature work; it rose to number 3 on the album chart and remained there for over a year. Both a live and concept album, it explores in its songs the themes of life as a touring musician. The album was recorded both on stage and in places touring musicians spend time when not playing, such as hotel rooms, backstage, and in one case on a moving tour bus. The album produced two Top 40 singles, "Running on Empty" and "The Load-Out"/"Stay", and many of the other tracks became popular radio hits on the album-oriented rock format. Browne had successful albums through the 1980s, including the 1980 album Hold Out, which was his only number 1 album; the non-album single "Somebody's Baby", which was used in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and 1983's Lawyers in Love, which included the hit single "Tender Is the Night". In 1986, he released Lives in the Balance, which had several radio hits and included the introspective "In the Shape of a Heart", which was inspired by the suicide of his first wife a decade prior. His string of hit albums came to an end at that point, as his next several albums failed to produce a gold or platinum RIAA rating. He released two compilation albums, The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne in 1997, and The Very Best of Jackson Browne, released in conjunction with his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2004. His most recent studio album is 2021's Downhill from Everywhere, the follow-up to 2014's Standing in the Breach, which included the first fully realized version of his song "The Birds of St. Marks", a song he had written at age 18. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked him as 37th in its list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time".