From "The Song That Connects Jackson Browne, Nico and Margot Tenenbaum/Browne wrote 'These Days' at 16. Now 75, he and some famous admirers reflect on his unexpected mainstay: 'If a song is worth anything, it’s about the life of the listener.'" (NYT).
Here's that scene from "The Royal Tenenbaums":
The song, written when Browne was 16, seems to be from the point of view of someone who's lived through many phases of life. It ends: "Please don’t confront me with my failures/I had not forgotten them."
The article quotes Jimmie Fadden, "a co-founder of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band — which Browne briefly joined": "I don’t know what his failures were at that time — maybe it was his report card, or school credits or the authorities at Sunny Hills coming down hard on him. All these years later, it’s a perfect song for any of us in our 70s.”
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Never watched that movie. Is it any good?
Love Jackson Browne. Saw him at Red Rocks many decades ago - and he and his band were perfect.
I saw Browne live, with David Lindley and other great musicians. Excellent show.
Didn't watch much of the Tenenbaum show, and probably wouldn't have known the song was Browne's.
Flughafenbegrussungsfreude
[Airport-Greeting-Joy]
"The specific sort of happiness you feel when someone picks you up at the airport." The Germans have a word for that.
One of the great songs by one of the very best songwriters of our generation. I did not know he wrote that at 16. Jeez. Such depth for a teenager.
"The Royal Tenenbaums" was one of those Wes Anderson movies that was more quirky than good. I've not seen all of his movies, but of those I've seen, they've been either major disappointments or very good. Those that disappointed just never seemed to come together for me and more or less banked on their quirkiness. That said, I'm nonetheless drawn to his style of moviemaking. It is very much a signature style.
Gene Hackman excelled in that movie.
It's worth it to see the movie just to see Gene Hackman's performance
Still on my guitar playlist and a favorite around the campfire. But at this point it's the Greg Allman arrangement - Greg and Jackson were LA roomies and Greg gave the song it's definitive arrangement. The song is particularly adaptable to being played in different keys of which some bring out even more pathos than the original or Greg Allman version. Especially now that we are in our 70's.
He really did. He played it similarly to the character in Woody’s “Another Woman”. Captured that enthusiasm of a man enraptured.
That's the only movie in which I love Paltrow.
David Lindley's slide solo on that song should be carved in granite on Mount Rushmore. Like almost everything else he played. RIP.
My dad was friends with David Lindley in the folk scene in Southern California in the early 60s. I grew up hearing David Lindley stories, and listening to him on records with Browne and many, many others, as well as with his own band, El Rayo-X. Later as a teenager and adult musician I tried to emulate him in many ways.
I still do.
Loved Royal Tenembaums, hated Life Aquatic for being too quirky
Gregg and Jackson:
https://youtu.be/cRCQRTLjsgE?si=EdSdG-lMUNpDb-uu
👍
Loved JB since I was 14. Saw him in concert in Eugene Oregon around 1980-81. I still play him a lot today. Amazing how you still love the same music after 50 years. There is a set of videos made in L.A. by some EU journalists around 1975 focusing on Warren Zevon and also JB. JB comes off as really shy and awkward which is kind of endearing. Also, JB grew up in an incredible house.
It is a Wes Anderson movie. If you like his style, it is a great movie. Lots of visual humor and the dialog is stylized, but it can hit home emotionally. All his characters have flaws, but the mother characters usually have the flaw of "loving their husband even though they are flawed" flaw, but not always.
As far as filling a frame is concerned, Wes Anderson is just amazing.
Here is is - a Dutch documentary of LA made around 1977 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXTHOMlrd4Q
Saw him at the Troubadour in LA back in the day. Really cool voice and sensibility.
It was only a movie(?) I guess I remembered it as a show because I watched it on TV. Obviously it didn't make that great an impression.
Nico … Beautiful.
Jackson Browne is considered one of the greats, yet still somehow underrated. Kind of like the Kinks. Never at the top of the list when the greats are discussed, but if someone brings them up, everyone in the discussion seems to agree that they belong there.
One of my favorite movies. I especially like the last line, which is written, not spoken.
Great cast. Gene Hackman and Angelica Huston at their best. Oddball stuff, of course.
I thought it was more about the style, tone, and setting than the actual characters and plot, but it wasn't bad.
A buddy of mine in college always said that JB's songs were depressing because he his first wife committed suicide. I believed him. But if he wrote "These Days" at age 16, he always had it in him.
The guy also wrote "Take It Easy" which puts him in the All Timers category.
And Wikipedia says his real first name is "Clyde".
The stuff you learn.
From the (sometimes annoyingly) pop-culture-obsessed show "Gilmore Girls," when cool-teen Lane was starting a band and decided to compile all her rock influences.
Lorelai: "What's with Jackson Browne making the list?"
Lane: "Ah, see, cool people know that he's more than a mellow hippie-dippy folkie... that he actually wrote some of Nico's best songs and was in fact her lover before he bored us with 'Doctor My Eyes.' That will separate the poseurs from the non-poseurs."
Love both versions of the song. Coincidentally, Nico has popped up in the news this week as a former lover of Alain Delon, who just died.
I prefer the Tom Rush version but they all are good. This topic also reminds me that I will be very glad when the politics ease up after the election (I hope) so Ann brings in more like this.
I love Redneck Friend because of course I do.
I've seen JB several times live. I always tried to catch his show if in the area. His earlier albums really appealed to me. A great performer.
Amen! That guy was a fantastic talent. I have a decades-old special memory of “Mercury Blues” coming on our tape deck in a houseboat on Lake Powell and reviving me first thing in the morning after a night of debauchery.
Anyone at any age has failures to look back on, regrets, things they wish they had said or done differently. It's no fun to have your brain bring those up at 2am and start replaying your Greatest Self-Hits.
To each his or her own. I hate Allman’s version and I am a longtime Allman Bros fan.
I saw Browne at Orange Coast College (Phoebe Snow opened) way back in ‘75 and saw him open for Tom Petty in Sacramento in 2006. He always had a top notch band backing him.
If you liked Mercury Blues, check out David's playing on Warren Zevon's "Detox Mountain!"
One of my all time favorite songs, even though I was first introduced to it via a very respectable cover by Fountains of Wayne. Still can’t believe he wrote it at 16.
Will do, thx!
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