SLS: Songs To Make You Think

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Play a philosophical song: that was Jim’s invitation for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, as his post tells us. I had a pretty good idea what is meant by this but looked it up, just to be sure, and found that such songs ‘explore deep questions about life, existence, and meaning, and are often found in various genres and eras, including classic rock, folk, and international music.’ Roughly what I thought, then. I knew immediately whose music I would be playing today: one of the best singer-songwriters of all time, who has given us so many meaningful songs with intelligent lyrics that make us think, going right back to his first album in 1971 – and he’s still going strong! The problem was which of them to play, as there are loads of them!

I’ve settled on just two, from the pen of the great Jackson Browne, starting with this one:

That was For Everyman, and here are the lyrics:

 

Everybody I talk to is ready to leave
With the light of the morning
They’ve seen the end coming down long enough to believe
That they’ve heard their last warning
Standing alone
Each has his own ticket in his hand
And as the evening descends
I sit thinking ’bout Everyman

Seems like I’ve always been looking for some other place
To get it together
Where with a few of my friends I could give up the race
And maybe find something better
But all my fine dreams
Well thought out schemes to gain the motherland
Have all eventually come down to waiting for Everyman

Waiting here for Everyman
Make it on your own if you think you can
If you see somewhere to go I understand
Waiting here for Everyman
Don’t ask me if he’ll show
Baby I don’t know

Make it on your own if you think you can
Somewhere later on you’ll have to take a stand
Then you’re gonna need a hand

Everybody’s just waiting to hear from the one
Who can give them the answers
And lead them back to that place in the warmth of the sun
Where sweet childhood still dances
Who’ll come along
And hold out that strong but gentle father’s hand?
Long ago I heard someone say something ’bout Everyman

Waiting here for Everyman
Make it on your own, make it if you think you can
If you see somewhere to go I understand
I’m not trying to tell you that I’ve seen the plan
Turn and walk away if you think I am
But don’t think too badly of one who’s left holding sand
He’s just another dreamer, dreaming ’bout Everyman

Lyrics: Genius.com

Songwriter: Jackson Browne

For Everyman was the title track of Jackson Browne’s second album, released in October 1973 and peaking at #43 in the US, though it did make #450 in Rolling Stone‘s 2012 version of its 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list. It closed the album, and was written as a kind of response to the song Wooden Ships, which had been on the debut album by Crosby Stills & Nash. That song envisaged a kind of hippie escape from a world that was verging on the apocalypse, but Jackson’s response was ‘what about the rest of us?’ David Crosby, who co-wrote the CS&N song, agreed with him to the extent that he provided harmony vocals for Jackson’s recording. Jackson wrote it after hanging around with some people who had a vision of sailing away from their lives. As he said: “having spent some time with some people who were planning to sail away… I mean, and they had the boats to do it in, they knew what they were doing, they kinda had it all planned… Well, I won’t say that they knew what they were doing, but they had a plan.” He then asks about what life means, and how we can relate to it and make sense of it. The song’s title comes from the name of a boat that had sailed to the South Pacific to protest the testing of nuclear weapons in the early 1960s. 

 

 

The second song I’m playing today is a follow up to the first one, as it develops his theme further. It is from Jackson’s next album, Late For The Sky, which was released in September 1974 and reached #14 in the US. This is still my all time favourite of his songs, which I have played before but is making its SLS debut today. Again, it was the track that closed the album, and it also asks some of the big existential questions about what we think we are doing with the planet. This is the utterly fantastic Before The Deluge:

No doubt you will have noticed that this was a much later performance, from June 2010, when Jackson and his long time friend and collaborator David Lindley were on tour supporting a live album they had released together. This show was actually three days before the time I got to fulfil a bucket list wish and see Jackson in concert, and guess what – they didn’t play this! It was still one of the best shows I’ve ever been to, though, an evening of wonderful music which brought on a tear at times. Sadly, we lost David in March 2023, but his music lives on.

Rather than waffle on about what I think the song means I’m borrowing from the americansongwriter.com site, which says:

While “Before the Deluge” undoubtedly focuses on the fragility of the environment at a time when few songwriters were dealing with it, Browne also touches on the theme of how easily ideals can be compromised. That’s why it’s both a cautionary tale and a call to action. He’s suggesting that the individual has to make the choice before any kind of grand-scale change can be enacted. The second verse is a stunner, as Browne recounts how these people encountered resistance and took the easy way out instead of fighting for their Utopia. In the final verse, [he] depicts the aftermath, as the people essentially try to close that metaphorical barn door as their horses go galloping. The men who learned how to forge her beauty into power have taken hold, and only doom remains when the Earth fights back.

Philosophical, dealing with the biggest issues? Absolutely. And it is scary to think how prophetic this was fifty years ago, and how we are still wrestling with those big issues now – just look at what Trump is doing to the US if you don’t believe me. I guess it depends what ‘grand scale change’ you might be wanting to see, but I don’t think we are heading in a good direction: damage is being done to the Earth’s long time prospects, and those in the song who thought they had survived may yet be proven wrong.

And on that cheery note I’ll take my leave for today. Enjoy your day and the music, and I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes. Take care 😊

 

44 thoughts on “SLS: Songs To Make You Think”

  2. Pingback: My August | Take It Easy

  3. I bought both of these albums Clive when I was a teenager very much drawn to West Coast artists, none more than Jackson. If I hear these songs I am very much taken back to that time, and the magic and feeling never dims.

    ‘And on the brave and crazy wings of youth’….that line has always captivated me. I’m just about to finish a book called There Are Rivers in The Sky by Elif Shafak, a novel with flooding very much at its theme, and I coincidentally began reading it in Cockermouth in Cumbria, a town very much hit by destructive floodwaters in recent times. And as you allude to, Jackson very much warned us of such all those years ago.

    Thanks for reminding me of these albums, which I still have.

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    • My collection was a bit like that too. Byrds, CS&N, Jackson, and a Poco album as well. All long since gone, sadly – I stream everything these days.

      This is songwriting at its very best, profound and prophetic.

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  5. Hi Clive
    How fun you got to checkoff the bucket list wish to see Jackson in concert – and glad it as amzing even if they did not do Before The Deluge – and it seems like Brown was writing about the environment way ahead of his time

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  11. I saw Jackson Browne live last year at the Beacon Theater in New York…played almost 3 hours, a great mix of hits and classic album tracks….for those unaware, the brilliant 1975 film “Taxi Driver” uses the song “Late For The Sky” as Travis Bickle is watching American Bandstand while pointing his gun at the people slow dancing on the set…

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    • He played for nearly 3 hours when I saw him too. He gives you full value!

      It’s so long since I watched Taxi Driver that I’d forgotten about that. A good accompaniment to the scene.

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  13. Great choice, Clive as For Everyman wrestles with fundamental questions about human purpose, social responsibility, and the search for meaning in a complex and often disappointing world. Before The Deluge is one of my favorite Jackson Browne songs as it discussed how people hope to learn the secrets of nature even when the light is lost within them.  Thanks for sharing your wonderful music again.

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  17. Both solid choices. I thought I had heard everyman before as the name was familiar, but it didn’t ring a bell when I listened to it. The Deluge I knew I hadn’t heard. He is a very comfortable sound- and I can see the attraction.

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