Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos

Jackson Browne - The Pretender

Jackson Browne - The Pretender Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Pretender
Released: 1976

The Pretender Lyrics

I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
Gonna pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen.
Say it again
Amen.

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening?
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it's the wink of an eye
When the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again
Amen.

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender.
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls The Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight

I'm gonna find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams
And then we'll put our dark glasses on
And we'll make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
We'll get up and do it again
Get it up again

I'm gonna be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender.
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender.

Say a prayer for the pretender
Are you there for the pretender?
Say a prayer for the pretender
Are you there for the pretender?
Are you prepared for the pretender?

Writer/s: JACKSON BROWNE
Publisher: Jackson Browne/Swallow Turn Music/Night Kitchen Music/Open Window Music
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Pretender

This song is about a man who gives up his dreams and lives a life of routine monotony in order to accumulate money. He is the pretender.

In a 1997 interview with Mojo magazine, Browne said of this song: "I'm a big fan of ambiguity and its bountiful rewards, and 'The Pretender' is two things at once. It's that person in all of us that has a higher ideal, and the part that has settled for compromise - like Truffaut says, there's the movie you set out to make, and there's the one you settle for. But in a more serious way, 'The Pretender' is about '60s idealism, the idea of life being about love and brotherhood, justice, social change and enlightenment, those concepts we were flooded with as our generation hit its stride; and how, later, we settled for something quite different. So when I say 'Say a prayer for The Pretender,' I'm talking about those people who are trying to convince themselves that there really was nothing to that idealism."

Browne's first wife, Phyllis, committed suicide in the spring of 1976, but in the wake of the tragedy he recorded his commercial breakthrough album, The Pretender. The record climbed into the Top 10 upon its fall 1976 release, going platinum in the spring of 1977.

This appears on the soundtrack of the movie Mr. Holland's Opus.

Browne said in Rolling Stone, October 16, 2008: "'The Pretender' took a long time. It's not that I worked on it every day; I was reluctant to finish it before I had gotten all there was out of it. Songwriting is a search. Most of my songs set up a bunch of questions, and it takes a while to answer them."

Jackson Browne told Mojo magazine in 2015: "It's grappling with the question of whether the life you're living is the life you thought you were heading for. 'The Pretender' is an open question: Do you find life's best qualities by having children and a job, or in tearing those things down?"

Jackson Browne - The Road

Jackson Browne - The Road Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Running on Empty
Released: 1977

The Road Lyrics

When we come to place where The Road and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
They told me I was going to have to work for a living
But all I want to do is ride
I don't care where we're going from here
Honey, you decide

Well I spend my time at the bottom of a wishing well
And I can hear my dreams singing clear as a bell
I used to know where they ended and the world began
But now it's getting hard to tell
I could be just around the corner from heaven or a mile from hell

I'm just rolling away from yesterday
Behind a wheel of a stolen Chevrolet
I'm going to get a little higher
And see if I can hot-wire reality

Now can you see those dark clouds gathering up ahead?
They're going to wash this planet clean like the bible said
Now you can hold on steady and try to be ready
But everybody's gonna get wet
Don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet

I'm just rolling away from yesterday
Behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet
I'm going to get a little higher
And see if I can hot-wire reality

Writer/s: BROWNE, JACKSON
Publisher: Jackson Browne/Swallow Turn Music/Night Kitchen Music/Open Window Music
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Road

The Running on Empty album is a tale of life on the road and the struggles of an itinerant musician. Jackson Brown didn't write "The Road," but the song fit very well on the set as it described the comfortless lifestyle filled with motels and strangers.

The song's writer is Danny O'Keefe, who had a hit in 1972 with "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues." And while "The Road" sounds like it was written after that hit, it was actually composed earlier. The song foreshadowed O'Keefe's fate, as he found himself living the song when he toured to promote his hit. In our interview with Danny O'Keefe , he said: "For me the road was basically go out for six weeks and after six weeks you were usually sick of the road and sort of beat to death and poor, because unless you stay out there for a long period of time it's very hard to recoup those expenses that you have when you're carrying a band."

Jackson Browne - Sky Blue And Black

Jackson Browne - Sky Blue And Black Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: I'm Alive
Released: 1993

Sky Blue And Black Lyrics

In the calling out to one another
Of the lovers up and down the strand
In the sound of the waves and the cries
Of the seagulls circling the sand

In the fragments of the songs
Carried down the wind from some radio
In the murmuring of the city in the distance
Ominous and low

I hear the sound of the world where we played
And the far too simple beauty of the promises we made

If you ever need holding
Call my name, and I'll be there
If you ever need holding
And no holding back, I'll see you through
Sky Blue And Black

Where the touch of the lover ends
And the soul of the friend begins
There's a need to be separate and a need to be one
And a struggle neither wins

But you gave me the world I was in
And a place I could make a stand
I could never see how you doubted me
When I'd let go of your hand

Yeah, and I was much younger then
And I must have thought that I would know
If things were going to end

And the heavens were rolling
Like a wheel on a track
And our sky was unfolding
And it'll never fold back
Sky blue and black

And I'd have fought the world for you
(I'd have fought the world for you)
If I thought that you wanted me to
Or put aside what was true or untrue (true or untrue)
If I'd know that's what you needed
What you needed me to do

But the moment has passed by me now
You have put away my pride
And just come through for you somehow

If you ever need holding
Call my name, I'll be there
If you ever need holding
And no holding back, I'll see you through

You're the color of the sky
Reflected in each store-front window pane
You're the whispering and the sighing of my tires in the rain

You're the hidden cost and the thing that's lost
In everything I do
Yeah and I'll never stop looking for you
In the sunlight and the shadows

And the faces on the avenue
That's the way love is
That's the way love is
That's the way love is
Sky, sky blue and black

Writer/s: BROWNE, JACKSON
Publisher: Jackson Browne/Swallow Turn Music/Night Kitchen Music/Open Window Music
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sky Blue And Black

Browne wrote this about his relationship and breakup with actress Daryl Hannah.

This was the first album Browne released after a 6 year break. (thanks, Peter - Montrose, DC, for above 2)

Jackson Browne - Redneck Friend

Jackson Browne - Redneck Friend Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: For Everyman
Released: 1973

Redneck Friend Lyrics

Pretty little one
How has it all begun?
They're teaching you how to walk
But you're already on the run
Little one...
What you gonna do?
Little one...
Honey, it's all up to you

Now your daddy's in the den shootin' up the evening news
Mama's with a friend, lately she's been so confused
Little one...
Come on and take my hand
I may not have the answer but I believe I got a plan

Honey you shake and I'll rattle and we'll roll on down the line
And see if we can't get in touch with a very close friend of mine
But let me clue you in, it ain't like him
To argue or pretend...
Honey let me introduce you to my Redneck Friend

Well they've got a little list of all those things of which they don't approve
They've got to keep their eyes on you or you might make your move
Little one...
I really wish you would
Little one...
I think the damage would do you good

Honey you shake and I'll rattle and we'll roll on down the line
We're going to forget all about the battle
It's gonna feel so fine
'Cause he's the missing link, the kitchen sink
Eleven on a scale of ten
Honey let me introduce you to my redneck friend

Honey you shake and I'll rattle and we'll roll on down the line
I'm going to try to swing you up into my saddle
And then we'll run but you'll think we're flyin'
Now honey don't just stand there
Lookin' like this dream will never end
Honey let me introduce you to my redneck friend

Writer/s: BROWNE, JACKSON
Publisher: Jackson Browne/Swallow Turn Music/Night Kitchen Music/Open Window Music
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Redneck Friend Song Chart

In this song Jackson Browne sings about letting loose his fun-loving, country side in an effort to improve relations with his lady. This alter ego was based on his real "Redneck Friend" - Gregg Allman. Browne was a huge fan of The Allman Brothers Band.

Elton John played piano on this track. He didn't have a US work permit at the time so he was credited as "Rockaday Johnny." Other musicians on the song were Doug Haywood on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, David Lindley on slide guitar, and Glenn Frey on harmony vocals. The previous year, Brown gave Frey the song that became the first single for the Eagles: "Take It Easy."

A track from Jackson Browne's second album, this was his third single.

Jackson Browne - The Long Way Around

Jackson Browne - The Long Way Around Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Standing In The Breach
Released: 2014

The Long Way Around Lyrics

The Long Way Around Song Chart

This song begins with Browne crooning, "I don't know what to say about these days," and continues with a couple of introspective verses. The third verse, however, is more direct, a stark statement about guns: "It's never been that hard to buy a gun. Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone."

"I admit that the gun reference arrives quite suddenly," Browne told The Independent. "But it was a very brief opportunity to say something about it."