Forty Years of Jackson Browne
While I enjoy the music of Jackson Browne, I wouldn’t say he is one of my top 10 favorite recording artists. Remarkably, over the past 40 years (of his remarkable 50+ year career), I have seen him in concert three times, each show spaced 20 years apart (1982, 2002, 2022). And I was so disappointed by the second performance that I almost bailed on the opportunity to revisit his talent in person last week.
As you can see from the photo at the top of the story, when the No Nukes concert program started, Jackson Browne was probably a bigger national name than Bruce Springsteen.
If you look closely, the picture was clearly taken before Bruce Springsteen undertook an arduous regimen with a personal trainer to bulk up his body. The rigors of doing three hours-plus concerts every night led to issues with stamina.
Meanwhile, at age 33, Browne was an elite A-list player. His albums were big sellers and his concerts packed in fans. The 1977 album “Running on Empty,” went seven times platinum and the 1980 release “Hold On” reached number one on the U.S. charts.
Browne also navigated through the suicide of his first wife, model Phyllis Major. Her 1976 death at age 30 left him a single father raising a three-year-old son.
It was out of respect for his fellow artists (and from management negotiations) that…
