Customer Reviews

For Everyman

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Another step in the maturation of the young JB, "For Everyman" is a musical leap forward. The opening medley of "Take It Easy" and "Our Lady of the Well" is a quiet tapestry of sound textures. Though the lyrics to "Take It Easy" are Glenn frey's, Jackson sings the song with far more subtlety, and with an appropriate road-weariness that the Eagles' version lacked. Jackson's own poetry is, of course, evocative: "It is a dance we do in silence/far below the morning sun/you in your life, me in mine we have begun/Here we stand and without speaking/draw the water from the well/and stare beyond the plains to where the mountains lie so still". "Colors of the Sun" rounds out what I've aways referred to as the "Desert Trilogy". I cannot hear these songs without thinking of the seemingly endless drives through northern Arizona to which they'd once provided a soundtrack. . .

"For Everyman" continues Jackson's fascination with the end of the world as we know it ("They've seen the end coming 'round long enough to believe they've heard their last warning"), and deals as well with the struggle of day to day existence--"But don't think too badly of one who's left holding sand/he's just another dreamer dreamin' 'bout everyman".

Other highlights: the moving, erotic duet with Bonnie Raitt, "The Times You've Come"; the rollicking "Redneck Friend", with an uncredited Elton John on the ivories; and the deeply tender "Thought I Was a Child"

Just lovely music. But nothing here could possibly prepare the listener for the monumental achievement of the following year--LATE FOR THE SKY is simply one of the ten greatest albums of all time--right up there, in my estimation, with BLONDE ON BLONDE, REVOLVER, PET SOUNDS, MOONDANCE, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, BLUE RIVER, WARREN ZEVON, FOR THE ROSES and EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE.

The remainder of Jackson's recorded output pales--just a little--in comparison.

This is an album for `everyman", the definitive statement by Jackson Browne of his disturbing and apocalyptic view of contemporary society, and his hopes and fears for its future. It is also a lovely, stirring, and evocative song cycle that illuminates Jackson Browne's unique vocal and instrumental arrangements, and sends one running for the door to buy more of the albums of the early "JB" variety. My personal favorites on this wonderful album are "Our Lady of the Well", a interesting and fetching suggestion of Browne's social and political concerns blended with a celebration of the common rural peasantry of Latin America, "Take It Easy" written with Glenn Frye of the Eagles and recorded by both Browne and the Eagles, "These Times You've Come" about an old pair of lovers who still see each other romantically after parting, and of course, the combination song cycle of "Sing My Songs" and "For Everyman", which like "The Deluge" on another album, sets out Browne's fear of a pending eco-disaster and apocalypse. Browne is still around, still creative, and still as socially and politically outspoken, but this is one of his best early albums, when he was one of the most talented and creative young folk-rock luminaries on the popular scene, a superstar a long time in the making. This is a `must-have' album for any real fan of Browne's music and for anyone just interested in top-shelf folk-rock music by one of the seventies and eighties greatest popular artists.

Before I met a man online in 1996, I had never listened to Jackson Browne. He loved his words and music. We sat for hours chatting online listening simultaneously with headphones to For Everyman. He once said about the song Our Lady of the Well; "that has to be the most beautiful 16 lines of verse I've ever heard." He was right. There is a verse that say's: "Oh it's so far the other way my life has gone." Very poignant words.

"These days I sit on corner stones, and count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend. Don't confront me with my failures I had not forgotten them" (from "These Days"). I have quoted this verse on my pages within my websites countless times.

The guitar, piano and sage words of Jackson Browne make For Everyman his best album. All too often we shy away from an artists earlier work. To not hear For Everyman would truly be a loss. The Empire thanks RomDog for giving me the best music of my life - Jackson Browne. "Long ago I heard someone say something about Everyman."

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes Browne with 5 stars.

This has always been my favorite release by Jackson Browne, possibly because it was the first entire J.B. album that I listened to, but I believe it is because of the organization of the tracks. It begins with a familiar tune that everyone recalls from 70's radio,"Take It Easy", and blends into a series of introspective songs. The mellow mood is interupted in the middle with two songs,"Red Neck Friend" and "Ready or Not" which are considerably more upbeat. Some say these two songs don't really fit the mood of the album, but I find them refreshing from the somberness. The disc ends with two more easy to listen to songs,"Sing my Songs to Me" and the title track,"For Everyman"."Sing my Songs to Me" has been recorded by more artists than any other song I can think of which should say something about the song itself. This is in my opinion Browne's best and should be in anybody's collection if they like classic rock(not metal, disco, R&B, etc.). I consider this an "old faithful", something to listen to when nothing else is appealling.I have only three "old faithfuls".

With his second album, Jackson Browne hit his creative stride. There is not a bad song in the mix, but particularly strong are "Our Lady of the Well," "These Days," "Redneck Friend" and the lengthy title track. This is an album that you can listen to repeatedly but will never get stale. The first song, co-written with Eagle Glen Fry, became a big hit for that band, but Browne's version is better. Overall, one of the best American rock albums of the 1970s.

I first heard this album in the Spring of 1974, a friend of mine had just returned from serving in the U.S. Army in Germany. We were listening to his stereo and he put Everyman on the Dual turntable. I was blown away, the next day I went out and bought a copy of the album myself. I copied it to cassette so I could listen to it in my car. Over the years I played that original tape until it broke, I then made another copy of the plastic. A few years back I finally started converting to CD's, one of the first I looked for was Everyman, it has not faded one bit in the last 30 years. It is still one of Jackson Browne's greatest releases, with every song a classic.

He was young and just getting started back when this album hit So Cal by storm. In '74 I first heard this album and still to this day it can stop me in my tracks. "Red Neck Friend" still incredibly rocks. The steel guitar work on "Take it Easy" makes it all worth it--my favorite version of the song anywhere--it crushes the Eagle's version. By the way, I saw Browne perform this song with Frey and Henley in '75 at Angel's stadium....amazing, simply amazing.

I've had this album for probably about 25 years now, and I just realized something today about the song "Colors Of The Sun" that somehow had not occurred to me previously: The short, minor-key verses (which lead into the more majestic, major-key choruses) are exact haikus, following the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. A rather ingenius songwriting adaptation. I'd always been impressed by the way the verses contrasted with the choruses on this song -- they made the choruses really jump out, as if the sun was emerging from behind the clouds ("Suddenly, A Summer Night" from David Mead's excellent new disc *Tangerine* has this same quality) -- but I had no idea till just now that Browne wrote them specifically as haikus. Nice to have little things in old favorite albums that can still be revealing themselves half a lifetime later....

Many Jackson Browne fans consider Late For The Sky his best album but I'm no so sure as I'm certain an arguement can be made for this one. Actually, I feel his first three albums make for a trifecta of some of the greatest singer/songwriter music ever made...something that has not been duplicated since. As for Everyman though, tracks Colors Of The Sun, These Days, The Times You have Come, Sing My Songs to Me, and the title track make this album special. So I guess there will always be a debate as to which of Browne's first three album was the best but here is no debating the brilliance of each one.

If you're looking for an introduction to recent hall of fame inductee Jackson Browne, this is where to start. After the success of his debut lp titled JACKSON BROWNE and the single DOCTOR MY EYES, JB had the creative control over the making of his next record that every artist hopes for and he didn't disappoint. It kicks off with his marvelous version of TAKE IT EASY which he cowrote with Glenn Frey of the Eagles. Many of the songs here; FOR EVERYMAN, OUR LADY OF THE WELL, I THOUGHT I WAS A CHILD and SING MY SONGS TO ME are so relative to the early 70's when it was becoming clear that the optimism of a better world rooted in the 60's generation was crumbling and there is a feeling of disullusion to them. Along with TAKE IT EASY, Browne breaks the mood with the hilarious rocker, REDNECK FRIEND that even today could slip by the FCC sensors. READY OR NOT is a fine description of how life can change drastically when you least expect. Also included is the beautiful THESE DAYS which Gregg Allman, Browne's old roomate from their days of struggling unknowns in LA, had previously put out on his first solo record.
Not only was this recording the beginning of JB's partnership with the talented David Lindley (Guitars, Fiddle), it also features the backing vocals of Frey, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt and David Crosby, as well as a who's who of emerging studio players who would be found on numerous hit records over the years. This record flows beautifully and although JB's next record LATE FOR THE SKY is often cited as his highwater mark, I prefer FOR EVERYMAN. It has a less somber tone and Browne's singing is superior. This recording along with a handful of others represents the finest of the singer/songwriters who emerged in Southern California in the early 70's