"The Very Best Of Jackson Browne" by JACKSON BROWNE - 32-Track 2CD JB-Produced Compilation of LP Tracks from his 1972 debut album "Jackson Browne" to 2002's "The Naked Ride Home" – Guests Include David Crosby, Graham Nash of CSNY, Lowell George, Bill Payne, Fred Tackett of Little Feat, Glenn Frey and Don Henley of Eagles, Jesse Ed Davis, David Lindley, Danny Kortchmar, Doug Haywood, Craig Doerge, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Jai Winding, Scott Thurston, David Paich of Toto, Dan Fogelberg, Elton John, Terry Reid, J.D. Souther, Bonnie Raitt, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, Roy Bittan of The Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and more (March 2004 UK Elektra/Rhino/WSM JB-Produced 32-Track 2CD Compilation of LP Tracks from 1972 to 2002 with Doug Sax and Robert Hadley Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…Sky Blue And Black…"

"I wasn't sure there was a name for the life I sought...I don't know how I believed some of the things I thought...". 

Jackson Browne's songs (and to some degree his life) are one big confessional - themes to longing, loss and blagging second chances - melodies and words that for many of us olden-types shimmer with a hurt all too painfully recognisable. 

It's a rare artist remains this relevant and our tasty little twofer being reviewed here is already 20 years old in March 2024 (the lyrics quoted above are from the 2002 song that ends CD2 called "The Night Inside Me"). Lazy-assed title aside - you get solid track choices, muscular Remastered sound, a booklet full of those words and rhymes JB makes look so easy - what's not to Gaga. Let's saturate those details... 

UK released March 2004 - "The Very Best Of Jackson Browne" by JACKSON BROWNE on Elektra/Rhino 8122 78091-2 (Barcode 081227809126) is a 32-Track 2CD JB-Produced Remastered Compilation (no Unreleased) of LP Tracks from his 1972 debut album "Jackson Browne" to 2002's "The Naked Ride Home". It plays out as follows:

CD1 (77:28 minutes):
1. Doctor My Eyes
2. Jamaica Say You Will
3. Rock Me On The Water
4. Take It Easy
5. These Days
6. Redneck Friend
7. For Everyman
8. For A Dancer
9. Fountain Of Sorrow
10. Late For The Sky
11. Before The Deluge
12. Your Bright Baby Blues
13. The Pretender
14. Here Come Those Tears Again
15. The Load-Out
16. Stay
NOTES ON CD1:
Tracks 1 to 3 from his debut album "Jackson Browne" [mistakenly aka "Saturate Before Using" because of wording on the front cover artwork] (January 1972)
Tracks 4 to 7 from his second studio album "For Everyman" (October 1973)
Tracks 8 to 11 from his third studio album "Late For The Sky (September 1974)
Tracks 12 to 14 from his fourth studio album "The Pretender" (November 1976)
Tracks 15 and 16 from his fifth release and first live album "Running On Empty" (December 1977)

CD2 (78:14 minutes):
1. Running On Empty
2. You Love The Thunder
3. Boulevard
4. Somebody's Baby
5. Tender Is The Night
6. Lawyers In Love
7. In The Shape Of A Heart
8. Lawless Avenues
9. Lives In The Balance
10. I Am A Patriot
11. Sky Blue And Back
12. I'm Alive
13. The Barricades Of Heaven
14. Looking East
15. The Naked Ride Home
16. The Night Inside Me
NOTES ON CD2:
Tracks 1 and 2 from his fifth release and first live album "Running On Empty" (December 1977)
Track 3 from his sixth album "Hold Out" (June 1980)
Track 4 from the Motion Picture Soundtrack to "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (August 1982)
Tracks 5 and 6 from his seventh album "Lawyers In Love" (August 1983)
Tracks 7 to 9 are from his eight album "Lives In The Balance" (February 1986)
Track 10 from the his ninth album "World In Motion" (June 1989)
Tracks 11 and 12 from his tenth album "I'm Alive" (October 1993)
Tracks 13 and 14 from his eleventh album "Looking East" (February 1996)
Tracks 15 and 16 from his twelth album "The Naked Ride Home" (Sept 2002)

Looking at total playing times of 77:28 and 78:14 minutes – you cannot accuse this twofer of not being value for money. You add in truly excellent DOUG SAX and ROBERT HADLEY Remasters from original tapes on material that has had precious little of it (especially the Seventies and Eighties stuff) and a Musician Guest List that is staggering (more of that later) and you must say that despite its stupefyingly dull moniker ("The Very Best Of…" for Gawd sake) – this is a compilation winner. And more often than not, it is on loads of auction sites for under a fiver – cheap as a hairpain in a pound shop. The 28-page booklet has a few lead-in paragraphs on JB by one-time Springsteen biographer DAVE MARSH (Bruce gave the speech as JB was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and gives all lyrics and musician credits for every song while then rear brings up the reissue credits. All very substantial actually even if it is lacking on any photo material. 

And as mentioned earlier, along with his core band and regular players across 30-years - David Lindley, Danny Kortchmar, Doug Haywood, Craig Doerge, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Jai Winding, Scott Thurston, Kevin McCormack and Mark Goldenberg – there are those big hitter guests. Included are David Crosby and Graham Nash of CSNY, Lowell George, Bill Payne, Fred Tackett of Little Feat, Glenn Frey and Don Henley of Eagles, guitarists Jesse Ed Davis and Rick Vito, Organist Michael Utley, Drummer Jeff Porcaro of Toto, Singers Dan Fogelberg, Elton John, Terry Reid, J.D. Souther with John Hall (of Orleans). Other flash-name regulars include Guitars, Keyboards and Drums from Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Piano from Roy Bittan of The Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Backing Vocals from Rosemary Butler, Bonnie Raitt, Lori Williams, Valerie Carter and Vonda Sheppard, as well as many other world-class collaborators (each track has a detailed list).

The singer-songwriter music may be melancholic, but it is incredibly moving, lyrically savvy in ways that are almost at times uncomfortable, and there is just a general decency (for the want of a better word) about everything that Jackson Browne records. His big Seventies LP moments - "Late For The Sky" (1974) and "The Pretender" (1976) get their fair shakes on CD1 – beauties like "For A Dancer" and "Your Bright Baby Blues" shimmer on this set. In absolute honesty and despite its supposed popularity in somehow having caught the wasted drug-barren hinterland zeitgeist of 1977 and 1978 America, I never did like much of the on-the-road and world-weary live concept album "Running On Empty". Released December 1977, it dominated much of 1978 (peaked at No. 3 on the Stateside Rock LP charts) and was a critics fave too, but truthfully, I only liked the title track for which Browne got a Grammy Nomination (benefits hugely from the muscle of the Remaster – an oomph it never seemed to have on orginal vinyl). The cover of the Maurice Williams 60ts hit "Stay" makes me want to puke like genuinely evil such as "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" or "The Birdie Song". 

Going backwards, his 1971 version of "Take It Easy" (a co-write with Eagle Glenn Frey that they made famous on their 1972 debut LP), the underratted "For Everyman" second album cuts (we get four) and "Before The Deluge" from the seriously beautiful and accomplished "Late For The Sky" LP (see my review for the 2014 Inside Recordings CD Remaster of it with JB’s involevment) are all early 70ts gems that still stand up after 50 years. Sure, the 80ts stuff has too much guitar bombast and JB seems uneasy with it (I liked "Boulevard" back in the day, but it feels dated now) while "Somebody's Baby" from the Ridgemont High Soundtrack is nice to have on a compilation even if it feels like sub-Huey Lewis & The News – JB trying for (God forbid) a slap-bass hit. Better is the roar of the approaching night – souls looking for another somebody - "Tender Is The Night" always a fave of mine. And his politics and outrage at mean-government America (never far from the surface) surfaces in the strangled cries of "Lawyers In Love". 

The "Lives In The Balance" and "World In Motion" albums played out the Eighties with sad keyboard songs about longing for love and catechism sisters being drowned in economics when all they really wanted to do is go Dancing In The Dark with a handsome beau (or two) on those "Lawless Avenues" (both sides of the coast). His uses of the Pan Pipes and Panama Rhythms in the lyrically brilliant "Lives In The Balance" so works – a charged song where the blacked ink of the media equates to bodies in the dirt in some country far away. But, once into the Nineties and Twenties songs like the gorgeous "Sky Blue And Black", the upbeat positivity despite crushed dreams in "I'm Alive ", the calming guitar-and-keyboard loveliness of "The Barricades Of Heaven" (trying to find his voice in L.A.) and "The Naked Ride Home" hammer home why fans love his melodies – hooky and touching – like Don Henley or The Boss at their best. Immigrant desperation and anger sufface in "Looking East" – a trio of great guitar players riffing up its God-sized rage (Mark Goldenstein, Scott Thurston and Waddy Watchell with Benmont Tench of The Heartbreakers providing Hammond Organ while Vonda Shepard duest on vocals with JB). In fact, those steeped and immersed in Seventies Jackson Browne may be taken aback by how much they dig the final three tracks – an artist still vibrant and kicking. 

Shame "The Very Best Of" doesn’t have his fantastic "Solo Acoustic Vol.2" live version of "My Stunning Mystery Companion" complete with girlfriend preamble crowd chat from 2008 – but that is something else to seek out after this.

Like so many of my childhood and teenage heroes, Jackson Browne and his touching musical turns have been in my life for over fifty-two years now and show no sign of abating as the grey hairs march relentlessly on. Running On Plenty if you ask me and much of its better stuff is here. Driving down five lanes and no-one notices the defiant look in her eyes or her nakedness – two bodies in a car - but one of those heart beats alone. Buy this and find out why…