Konly Benzner: Jackson Browne, your first record, your very first record came out in 1972, more than 40 years ago now…
Jackson Browne: Yes, that’s right, my first record was also the first time I played with other musicians. I was pretty lucky because I met Russ Kunkel, the drummer, and Lee Sklar, the bassist, for example, who were already working with James Taylor at the time. I would have gone anywhere I could find work – but I didn’t know anything about recording, I didn’t know how to make a record, but I knew I needed someone to make it for me. I knew you needed a big name producer, some musicians, and those two…
Then with the second album came David Lindley, who I knew before my first LP, so it was important for me that people were familiar to me. I mean, I can call someone and ask if they want to play my LP, my CD, but generally I like it like a band.
Benzner: They were a part, what should I call them, a part of the Los Angeles music scene, Warren Zevon, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Eagles, James Taylor and so on. Living in Central Europe, listening to this music, the pictures of them in front of our eyes, like you, long hair, great cars, wonderful weather, beautiful women too – it must have been a kind of dream … with our view of California from the outside
Browne: What do you mean exactly?
“I had no idea how to sing about politics”
Benzner: That kind of music, yours and the others, was like a…
Browne: Yes, all right, I see what you mean. Well, Los Angeles is one of those places where people gather, where people meet. They either came and are from a small town somewhere in the USA to become an actor or actress. And they come because they wanted to be musicians, or they were already musicians and came because the record companies were there. Others are still trying to become movie stars today. Los Angeles is full of it, and it has it all: A large Latino population, a large African American population, a Korean population, a Vietnamese, it’s an interesting mix – and the place of dark black literature. Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, these incredible writers. When I started out in music, I came to LA because, like I said, the record companies were there, the clubs where you could play and progress with your music. I guess I didn’t have that sense of the difference between Los Angeles and other places. I didn’t think, oh, Los Angeles is different. I just went into town. After years, after many years, I had kind of a band and a producer, and little by little friendships formed and I was like, boy, I want Lowell George on my LP. You asked friends. This is no different to this day. Only: I’m now attracted to younger musicians, so a contemporary version of what it was like when I was young. You find out about cultural differences when you travel, when I come to Europe, I realize that it’s very different from where I come from. And I find that here you have a complete picture of what California must be like.
Benzner: When did you start, in your songwriting, I mean, when did you start reflecting on political and social issues?
Browne: I grew up during the Civil Rights Movement. I was in high school and my friends wrote songs about civil rights. One, Greg Copeland, had written the song “The Fairest of The Seasons,” the song that debuts on Nico’s Chelsea Girl LP, he had written songs about Rosa Parks, about discrimination. Actually Copeland was very neat, he wore blazers to school, he dressed like an adult – and he was head boy. He’s the biggest freak I know and he became a poet. Anyway, when we were at school, a lot happened, there was the Free Speech Movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the civil rights movement, Vietnam…
At that time people were thinking politically – I had no idea how to sing about it, only my friends seemed to me to be able to do that. Bob Dylan was very political in his early recordings, nothing unusual though. He had great songs, “A Pawn In Their Game” or “With God On Our Side”, we learned to sing them and appreciated such music, folk music. Folk music came from that time, “Which Side Are You On” was a union song from the 20’s – I knew it as a civil rights song from the 60’s. In the meantime I have my own version of this song, not the same song musically, but this question: Which side are you on does “Which Side” deal with on my new CD, which side do you identify with? And, to finally answer your question: Even before I could write songs, I had a political view.
“Trains are a very American thing”
Benzner: A connection to your new CD: You wrote the song “Take It Easy” in 1971, actually for your own LP, Glen Frey from the Eagles co-wrote it. “Take It Easy” was a song about youth, promiscuity, the easy life, a country song – the Eagles’ early hit then, with the line: “Standing at the corner in Winslow, Arizona” ; The new CD contains a song entitled Leaving Winslow. A song about getting older, about time passing, right?
Browne: Yes, you could put it that way, an interesting observation. In the song, I mean, the song isn’t about me, I wrote it from the point of view of an old man I used to meet on the train tracks. Where I lived in Los Angeles was a railroad track, a railroad bridge that went over a park, a highway and a riverbed – we used to play there when we were teenagers. There were people there then who were called hobos, migrant workers, some called them boom, bums – they jumped on the freight trains and went from town to town, old men, looking for work, maybe avoiding work. And one of them was my dad’s friend, he came and went, Woody Guthrie sang about those who jumped on the train without a ticket, so did Cisco Huston, and Leadbelly. Trains are in folk songs, in blues songs, in bluegrass songs, trains are a very American thing, they accompanied the discovery of the whole country. And my song part sounds like a train.
Benzner: Please don’t get me wrong, are you married?
Browne: Not really, we’ve been together for 20 years.
Benzner: Okay, back to the actual question, and don’t get me wrong, you’ve always been with extraordinary women, famous women.
Browne: No, really not. Very famous? Once or twice, but I don’t think that’s an important aspect of a relationship like this. I’ve been with the one I love now for 25 years and she’s anything but famous. And the relationship you’re aiming for, she wasn’t famous when the relationship started, so that’s not something to think about.
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