Jackson Browne has proven himself time and again in the singer/songwriter realm with albums that helped to define the times in which they arrived. Of course, it doesn’t hurt Browne has always shown a knack for choosing just the right song to close those records out.
You’ll note that the songs on this list generally coincide with albums that are undisputed classics. Here are the songs that sent off Jackson Browne albums in the most memorable fashion.
5. “Black and White” from Lives in the Balance (1986)
Lives in the Balance is an album where Browne largely devoted himself to writing about the issues of the day. But for the closing track, he steps back from all that to deliver a piercing character sketch of someone who has lost their way. It’s in keeping with a theme to which he has returned often in his career, the idea that it can be difficult to reconcile the ideals of youth with the settling that growing up inevitably causes. In this case, he evokes an undeniable sense of urgency, with the ticking rhythm and the refrain of Time running out making us ever-aware of the cosmic clock counting all our moments.
4. “The Load-Out/Stay” from Running on Empty (1977)
Browne gave his career a jolt of energy with the clever idea to record an album of new material all on the road. What better way to close it out than with a song that calls out to the folks in the audience one more time before the lights go out on the show. Even though they’re technically two separate songs, most radio programmers have long played both together. Browne sequenced the songs just right, with “The Load Out” dwelling in the sorrow of something coming to an end, and “Stay” sending everyone out dancing, happy, and satisfied.
3. “My Opening Farewell” from Jackson Browne (1972)
Right off the bat, Browne delivered a masterpiece with his self-titled debut. The songs aren’t quite as expansive as they would become, but that’s in no way a flaw here. Instead, it just shows Browne had the pop craftsmanship down pat, allowing him to stretch it out from there on future records. On “My Opening Farewell,” he captures the devastating moment right before a breakup is made official. The narrator decides not to wallow in that limbo any longer, even as he knows how awful the break is going to be once he sets it in motion.
2. “The Pretender” from The Pretender (1976)
Folks don’t rate The Pretender on the same level as some of his other works, perhaps because it’s largely a downbeat record. Browne finds himself searching for answers throughout, even as he knows they’re not likely to be forthcoming, which leads to an air of disappointment and disillusion hanging over everything. “The Pretender” is one song where it feels less like he’s writing from his own perspective than he is looking at others around him, specifically those who have lost the will to fight their own apathy and inertia, instead relaxing into a kind of unhappy comfort.
1. “Before the Deluge” from Late for the Sky (1974)
It makes sense that Browne’s finest album gets his finest closer. The music of “Before the Deluge” is particularly stirring, a kind of multi-section epic that peaks with longtime Browne collaborator David Lindley’s restless fiddling. In the lyrics, Browne manages to combine concerns about the environment (at a time well before that was a hot-button issue) with the struggles of his generation to live up to promises they made to the world and to each other at a younger age. The apocalypse that takes place in the song clearly didn’t feel like too much of an exaggeration to him.
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