Time Travel Tuesday: Saturate Before Using
"You don't know what you got till it's gone..." Joni Mitchell was so right. Something I used to take for granted was having the time to play an album over and over until I knew every word and note better than my own face in the mirror. These days I'm lucky to listen to one twice, zip out a review, and say, "OK, what's next?"
Jackson Browne's first three albums are a good example of some that just about became part of my skin. Part of the reason was that I was living in a remote desert town in the early 70's, far from a decent radio station or record store. I had a few albums, and I played them nearly to death. I bought Browne's debut album, popularly known as (but not officially named) Saturate Before Using, three times: twice as a vinyl and once as a CD. The LPs are very worn and scratched from being played so much.
I was so charmed by the beauty and simplicity of these songs, and David Crosby's backup vocals, as exemplified so well on "Jamaica Say You Will" and "Something Fine," only made them more irresistible, since the other stuff that I played endlessly belonged to the whole Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young crowd and their extended family of musicians. It was incredible to me that a young man about the same age as I was could write such introspective and beautiful songs. "Doctor My Eyes" was the sort-of radio hit of the album, but it was always my least favorite. The other "hit" was "Rock Me On the Water," which was covered by Linda Ronstadt on her 1971 self-titled album.
I remained a dedicated Browne fan for almost two decades until I was finally exposed to punk and alternative. I still have great respect for his talents, so that I was blown away when he appeared onstage as a surprise guest at Aimee Mann's 2nd Annual Christmas Show last November.
"My Opening Farewell," the last track, is a song that turns a sad goodbye into a gift of endless possibilities:
There's a train everyday
Leaving either way
There's world, you know
You got a way to go"
From Jackson Browne, AKA Saturate Before Using (1972)
Something Fine
Rock Me On the Water
My Opening Farewell
Jackson Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Some other Tuesday I'll go into For Everyman (1973) and Late For the Sky (1974).
Official Website | Label: Elektra/Asylum Records | Buy | iTunes
Buy Jackson Browne's latest Solo Acoustic CD, Vol 2
4 comments:
hey - thanks for these. I've been all over the 60s/70s Laurel Canyon scene for the last year or so and had yet to get to any Jackson Browne. To be honest I was really hesitant to give him a try. But "Something Fine" is really beautiful.
Hey, Scott, I'm glad you liked these. Try also "I Thought I Was a Child."
"I thought I was a child
Until you turned and smiled
I thought that I was free but I'm
Just one more prisoner of time
Alone within the boundaries of my mind."
:)
oh my, this is one of the best albums ever. "something fine" is even more poignant to me now than it was then.
*sigh*
I'm just getting around to this post! Excellent take on JB. I loved him, too, back in the early career days, let him go for awhile, and returned to him with "Looking East." He's always a favorite of mine. He helped me "get over" the John Denver phase.
Post a Comment