Spitball Army

The music of Jackson Browne has been with me almost as long as I can remember loving music. That all may have started when I appropriated my sister’s copy of Saturate Before Using and proceeded to play the vinyl so often that the needle eventually burned through to the other side.* The rest, as they say, is history. But there is one big reason – other than that Jackson Browne is one hell of a songwriter – that his music stays with me: he records his songs in a register that I can sing along with. You have been warned.

Here’s a healthy handful of my favorite songs by Jackson Browne. Ask me tomorrow what my favorite Jackson Browne songs are and the selection will be different. Guaranteed.

(photo: Henry Diltz, 1974)

Approximate playing time: 78 minutes.

1. “Something Fine”  (1972)
2. “The Barricades of Heaven”  (1996; this is a live recording from 2005)
3. “About My Imagination”  (2001)
4. “In the Shape of a Heart”  (1986)
5. “Your Bright Baby Blues”  (1976)
6. “Farther On”  (1974)
7. “Linda Paloma”  (1976)
8. “My Personal Revenge”  (1989)
9. “Of Missing Persons”  (1979)
10. “Song for Adam”  (1972)
11. “The Times You’ve Come”  (1973)
12. “Alive in the World”  (1996)
13. “Sky Blue and Black”  (1993)
14. “These Days”  (1973)
15. “The Late Show”  (1974)

*That didn’t really happen.