Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A WORK OF PROFOUND BEAUTY, AND A PRECURSOR TO A MASTERPIECE, June 9, 1999
By A Customer
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.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Terrific, Definitive Early Dose of Jackson Browne's Music!, July 11, 2000
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.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Everyman - A Browne Classic!, June 17, 2000
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.
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