One of the best lyrics ever in this song 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 when true love could have been a contender..... damn
Back in 1976, when this came out I was a pretty disillusioned young man, after a tough breakup with a girl and there were MANY Friday nights spent at other dude's places, drinking Strohs and commiserating about our lost loves and spinning Jackson Browne records, and most of them still make my eyes water. 👍👍👍👍👍
Russ Kunkel and Leland Sklar on Drums and Bass respectively ...it's absolutely impossible to fail or produce a bad record with such world class musicians holding it all together ! All as easy as ice cream on a hot , Summer's day ...brilliant musicianship . Magical.
Always loved this one. In the history of the Eagles, Glen Frey talked about living downstairs from Jackson and learning about the work that went into his songwriting... Hours getting a bridge right, then hours on a chorus. Very interesting take from Sifa on the respective points of view of Browne and Bob Seger. Seger lamented his lost youth but he was mostly celebrating it. Jackson may have sounded younger, but he could be plenty disillusioned. He was dealing with his wife's suicide when he recorded the Pretender and the whole album has a heavy emotional feel.
The issue of career vs. a love relationship is not any easier for a musician who's on the road more often than not. "In '69 I was 21 and called the road my own.'' Running On Empty.
With this song, you have just unlocked a memory. I’m recalling my Dad had a Jackson Brown CD he would listen to often and, by golly, I’ve heard this one before! Gosh, I really need to deep dive him and unlock more memories and music! Love his style! And his singing which is not really head or chest voice so it must be mixed voice which is just so pleasant. Wish I would’ve paid attention more as a young’n.😂
Sifa mentioned him finding his voice early. He was a fan of Dylan in his early teens, and began writing music and singing in high school. Look up a video for "These Days." He released it on his 2nd album, but by that time it had been covered by everyone from Nico to the Allman Brothers. He wrote that when he was 16 years old. He found his voice early but he is an old soul. The Pretender is a song of its own time. As someone below mentioned he's singing about the sensibilities of the late 60's/early 70's when a lot of young folk dreamed of making the world a better and a fairer place. In retrospect some call it silly, but we were young and energized. By the late 70's the bulk of the generation were in their first jobs and focused on buying homes and building families -- many gave up on their "youthful ideals" and bought into the same materialism that we had rejected earlier. That's the Love that he sings about, the love that will save humanity. It's the feeling John Lennon sang about in "Imagine." Note that the first activity The Pretender undertakes when he finds his ideal woman will be to "fill in the missing colors in each others' paint-by-numbers dreams." He doesn't even have his own dreams or desires, they've been replaced by prefabricated art manufactured to fit a prefabricated soul. In The Pretender Jackson is revisiting the territory he's covered before, in the title song from his album "For Everyman" and in "Before the Deluge" from his album Late for the Sky. In his early career he was sort of our troubadour singing about where the ideals of the 60's had gone.
wow! i LOVED Sifa's vocal breakdown of Jackson's voice & the comparison to Seger. while i love and appreciate reaction channels who are just genuinely being wowed by artists, i particularly admire artists like yourself who can school me on the ins and outs of the how-things-get-done, and what people might be experimenting with musically. i'm a bit of an outlier when it comes to Jackson Browne -- i came to him late just because of my generation. i didn't connect, and frequently haven't heard, a lot of his 70s catalog when he was killing it on the pop/rock/folk scene. i fell for his work with the 1986 "Lives in the Balance" album with deep-messaged rock tunes like "For America" and the title track. so for me this was a really fun listen that opened my appreciation for him even more.
I always liked the possible double meaning of the line about "caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender" -"legal tender" being a synonym for money or an equivalent - but also, since sex outside of marriage was frowned upon more back then, the most acceptable framework for expressing physical tenderness would be within the legality of marriage (which a certain degree of finances or legal tender would help).
You mentioned Eagles. Jackson lived in an apartment adjacent (above I think) to Glenn Frey and helped Glenn complete the lyrics to "Take It Easy", their first big hit.
For sure David Crosby is in the background. Maybe some Eagles too. Sifa hears so many things I haven’t thought about so these reactions are always appreciated.
Guys Jackson is a prolific singer and songwriter and has been for the last 40 years .The whole album is great .Crosby and Nash on backup vocals.. great reaction as usual..ps Sifa i didnt know you are vocal coach...dam girl you actually sound like you know what your talkin about..lol😅
Thanks for reacting to some JB. One of my favorites from the time I was about 5 or 6. Fun fact about this song: The drum tracks that Jeff Porcaro recorded were so inspiring to Jackson that he actually added more lyrics to fit with what Jeff played. He basically ended up building the song around the drum part. Great analysis of the lyrics. Some of his very best.
Saw the Browne-Raitt double bill on the RunningOnEmpty tour in 1977, and scotched out of our nosebleed seats to take vacant seats just above the floor... Both bands were great, with all their top sidemen, such as DavidLindley! Anyway, the band did a lot of Jackson's all time hits, inc a fantastic rendition of ThePretender... Interesting that you mention the Eagles, cuz (as you know), they did several of his songs. But BillyJoel?!? Thanx for the memory Sifa&Dan. (btw,, I'd love to join you 2 on Patreon, but I'm a retired dude on an "extremely low income" [Yes! The feds define it exactly in those terms.], so I'll just have to groove with you here).
A good friend of mine was a big Jackson Brown fan. He used to play and sing this song all the time. It drove me nuts! But i haven't heard it in over 20 years so now i love it. But what i love even more is that PAW GETS PLAYED TOMORROW 😂😂😂
Jackson Browne"s Christmas song "The Rebel Baby Jesus" would be a great song at this time of year. I don't think any of the other reviewers would have the balls to do it.
This is social commentary at its finest. I hear him talking about the limitation that the 1% put on our lives, even our dreams. From the get go of the song, we are shown what limitations of our dreams/goals are meant to be by our Masters. God forbid we should have a higher, more ethical standard to reach for, besides commercialism. But the "Man" whispers to us, "You should be happy w/ what you are given, & not expect more". "Caught between the longing for love, & the struggle for the legal tender", & later he bemoans that "True LOVE could have been a contender" Talking about how social movements based on love, could have been the focus of our lives: like Civil Rights & Anti-War aspirations. But NO, we were quietly told to shut up & trade in our dreams for the "struggle for the legal tender" (limited though it was, for the lower classes), & adopt the dreams that the Oligarchy wanted for us. Most of the other lyrics speak of how petty & limited are the dreams we are allowed : "Children & the Ice Cream Vendor", etc. The key (to the ken) of this song, is the title, "The Pretender", a person trying to navigate conditions he despises, but must endure to survive. Has little or nothing to do w/ the simplicity of male or female thinking. "Leaving nothing but to choose off & fight, They'll tear at the world w/ all their might", means to me, how we are pitted against each other, of the lower classes, & ethnic background, to get the scraps, we are allowed, to survive, while the rich, laugh all the way to the bank. "while the ships bearing their dreams (real ones), sail out of sight", while we 99%ers were distracted by the daily struggle, our real aspirations were forgotten. "I'm gonna find myself a girl, who can show me what laughter means, & we'll fill in the missing colors of our paint by number dreams", I'm gonna get as much happiness out of the limited choices I'm allowed, but this also displays a genuine desire to find a soul mate, that can focus him on the good, beautiful & funny things that can be had, even w/in the limited scope we have available. The next lines refer to the rose colored glasses we must don, to make the best of a bad situation, & funny stuff about, love making..... The reduction of the scope of our hopes is found in the next lines, "& believe whatever may lie, in those things that MONEY can buy", we are left to wish for fulfillment in cheap trinkets, tokens of true value, that we are denied access to. "Forget your ideals, & be happy w/ what (little) you are "blessed" w/ "! Then the epitomal line about True Love/Contender. "Say a prayer, R U there for the Pretender", he is asking us to pray & sympathize w/ the Pretender, because he is US !!!
I would bet that Jackson put his 10,000 hours of practice in his youth. Renowned by other musicians for his work ethic, his old roomates Glen Frey and Don Henley heard him spend hours upon hours working on one song, which taught them how it's done.
70s, the time of the "Singer Songwriter," Jackson Browne was the best Lyricist of them all. Better than Don McClean, better than James Taylor, Joni Mitchel, better than Carol King (which is very, very had to do). Literally every song he wrote on every album he produced, beginning with "Saturate Before Using'' (when he was 19) through the 70s and well beyond was pure poetry. He is that amazing.
Now copare this song to what you do. I'm going to tell you what bob Dillan told John lennon..do you have anything to say? That's what music is. You connect with emotions, with truths and feelings. Music today is all gimmicky all hype. There is no content.
One of the best lyrics ever in this song 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 when true love could have been a contender..... damn
Back in 1976, when this came out I was a pretty disillusioned young man, after a tough breakup with a girl and there were MANY Friday nights spent at other dude's places, drinking Strohs and commiserating about our lost loves and spinning Jackson Browne records, and most of them still make my eyes water. 👍👍👍👍👍
Mine was when Late For The Sky came out. Bought it...took me several years before I could listen to it all in one take.
@@billkant849wow ! Me too
Check out Running on Empty
That is one kick ass album ! The pretender has some classic songs on it .
Well said.
Thanks Bob!
Russ Kunkel and Leland Sklar on Drums and Bass respectively ...it's absolutely impossible to fail or produce a bad record with such world class musicians holding it all together ! All as easy as ice cream on a hot , Summer's day ...brilliant musicianship . Magical.
He's humble yet powerful...Jackson Browne is the Keanu Reeves of Rock.
This is his best work in my humble opinion, such great storytelling
Not many other singer/songwriters could put together lyrics like Jackson Browne. He rates in the top tens of lyricists. We had so much good music!
I love the piano in this song.....
Always loved this one. In the history of the Eagles, Glen Frey talked about living downstairs from Jackson and learning about the work that went into his songwriting... Hours getting a bridge right, then hours on a chorus. Very interesting take from Sifa on the respective points of view of Browne and Bob Seger. Seger lamented his lost youth but he was mostly celebrating it. Jackson may have sounded younger, but he could be plenty disillusioned. He was dealing with his wife's suicide when he recorded the Pretender and the whole album has a heavy emotional feel.
And he was only 16 or 17 when he wrote “These Days”. He’s definitely an old soul!
The issue of career vs. a love relationship is not any easier for a musician who's on the road more often than not. "In '69 I was 21 and called the road my own.'' Running On Empty.
The seventies California country/rock genre was the Eagles and Jackson Brown. They wrote songs together and played and sang on each other's records.
With this song, you have just unlocked a memory. I’m recalling my Dad had a Jackson Brown CD he would listen to often and, by golly, I’ve heard this one before! Gosh, I really need to deep dive him and unlock more memories and music! Love his style! And his singing which is not really head or chest voice so it must be mixed voice which is just so pleasant. Wish I would’ve paid attention more as a young’n.😂
We still have time Amber 🥰!
@@SightAfterDark true!
Sifa mentioned him finding his voice early. He was a fan of Dylan in his early teens, and began writing music and singing in high school. Look up a video for "These Days." He released it on his 2nd album, but by that time it had been covered by everyone from Nico to the Allman Brothers. He wrote that when he was 16 years old. He found his voice early but he is an old soul.
The Pretender is a song of its own time. As someone below mentioned he's singing about the sensibilities of the late 60's/early 70's when a lot of young folk dreamed of making the world a better and a fairer place. In retrospect some call it silly, but we were young and energized. By the late 70's the bulk of the generation were in their first jobs and focused on buying homes and building families -- many gave up on their "youthful ideals" and bought into the same materialism that we had rejected earlier. That's the Love that he sings about, the love that will save humanity. It's the feeling John Lennon sang about in "Imagine."
Note that the first activity The Pretender undertakes when he finds his ideal woman will be to "fill in the missing colors in each others' paint-by-numbers dreams." He doesn't even have his own dreams or desires, they've been replaced by prefabricated art manufactured to fit a prefabricated soul.
In The Pretender Jackson is revisiting the territory he's covered before, in the title song from his album "For Everyman" and in "Before the Deluge" from his album Late for the Sky. In his early career he was sort of our troubadour singing about where the ideals of the 60's had gone.
This was beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
Amazingly well written and 💯 fact
He wrote Doctor my eyes when he was 16.
wow! i LOVED Sifa's vocal breakdown of Jackson's voice & the comparison to Seger. while i love and appreciate reaction channels who are just genuinely being wowed by artists, i particularly admire artists like yourself who can school me on the ins and outs of the how-things-get-done, and what people might be experimenting with musically.
i'm a bit of an outlier when it comes to Jackson Browne -- i came to him late just because of my generation. i didn't connect, and frequently haven't heard, a lot of his 70s catalog when he was killing it on the pop/rock/folk scene. i fell for his work with the 1986 "Lives in the Balance" album with deep-messaged rock tunes like "For America" and the title track. so for me this was a really fun listen that opened my appreciation for him even more.
Legendary tune and backing from Crosby and Nash. Loved all Jackson’s early works. Fountain of Sorrow, Before The Deluge!
Wow, thanks for the details!
I always liked the possible double meaning of the line about "caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender" -"legal tender" being a synonym for money or an equivalent - but also, since sex outside of marriage was frowned upon more back then, the most acceptable framework for expressing physical tenderness would be within the legality of marriage (which a certain degree of finances or legal tender would help).
Great reaction to one of my favorites! Thank you!!!
That you “love all his vowels”… what an insightful thing to say. Thank you … and this is such a great old song.
This song is a deep metaphor of his life. Brilliant lyrics.
I don't have to look up the bass player on this track because it is undoubtedly the legend Leland Sklar, now a TH-cam star himself...
Nice
You mentioned Eagles. Jackson lived in an apartment adjacent (above I think) to Glenn Frey and helped Glenn complete the lyrics to "Take It Easy", their first big hit.
For sure David Crosby is in the background. Maybe some Eagles too. Sifa hears so many things I haven’t thought about so these reactions are always appreciated.
❤😊 The Load Out/Stay by Jackson Brown ❤😊
What a wonderful artist.
Guys Jackson is a prolific singer and songwriter and has been for the last 40 years .The whole album is great .Crosby and Nash on backup vocals.. great reaction as usual..ps Sifa i didnt know you are vocal coach...dam girl you actually sound like you know what your talkin about..lol😅
Just landed here cannot wait for this one love Jackson love you guys
Thanks for reacting to some JB. One of my favorites from the time I was about 5 or 6. Fun fact about this song: The drum tracks that Jeff Porcaro recorded were so inspiring to Jackson that he actually added more lyrics to fit with what Jeff played. He basically ended up building the song around the drum part. Great analysis of the lyrics. Some of his very best.
JB knows how to spin a tale
Once again a great reaction. Thank you for doing this one. Hopefully more JB to come.
Since Sifa is a singer, I really enjoy watching her appreciation for Jackson's gorgeous voice.
His voice is so comforting ❤️. Thanks for watching!
Saw the Browne-Raitt double bill on the RunningOnEmpty tour in 1977, and scotched out of our nosebleed seats to take vacant seats just above the floor... Both bands were great, with all their top sidemen, such as DavidLindley!
Anyway, the band did a lot of Jackson's all time hits, inc a fantastic rendition of ThePretender...
Interesting that you mention the Eagles, cuz (as you know), they did several of his songs. But BillyJoel?!? Thanx for the memory Sifa&Dan.
(btw,, I'd love to join you 2 on Patreon, but I'm a retired dude on an "extremely low income" [Yes! The feds define it exactly in those terms.], so I'll just have to groove with you here).
I always smile when someone mentions David Lindley - a brilliant musician who is missed!
Thanks for sharing that story with us Fred!
It’s ok, we love meeting you here on TH-cam; thanks for the support!
amazing song! thanks for reacting
JB is a genius still making wonderful music. Late for the Sky is my favourite album of all time....a masterpiece!
I just watched 3 of your videos in a row and you picked 3 amazing Jackson songs…keep up the great work!
Awesome! Thank you!
A good friend of mine was a big Jackson Brown fan. He used to play and sing this song all the time. It drove me nuts! But i haven't heard it in over 20 years so now i love it. But what i love even more is that PAW GETS PLAYED TOMORROW 😂😂😂
Hi guys! Another thoughtful reaction to a GREAT song. Thanks
This song, and Like a Rock by Bob Seger, hit much harder now that I'm in my late 50s than it did when I first heard them.
Absolutely
My freshman year in college he's the man
Hell yeah
Jackson Browne"s Christmas song "The Rebel Baby Jesus" would be a great song at this time of year. I don't think any of the other reviewers would have the balls to do it.
“Bob Seger is the older guy and Jackson Browne is the younger guy”……perfect!!
you noticed that sweet bass line. that's the legend Leland Sklar.
That's Leland Sklar on bass. The busiest man in LA.
Even if he never sang a note, Jackson is a national treasure. A poet on par with Bob Dylan. A better singer than Bob, I believe.
lol definitely a better singer
"fill in the colors in our paint-by- numbers dreams". ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
Yes
This is social commentary at its finest. I hear him talking about the limitation that the 1% put on our lives, even our dreams. From the get go of the song, we are shown what limitations of our dreams/goals are meant to be by our Masters. God forbid we should have a higher, more ethical standard to reach for, besides commercialism. But the "Man" whispers to us, "You should be happy w/ what you are given, & not expect more". "Caught between the longing for love, & the struggle for the legal tender", & later he bemoans that "True LOVE could have been a contender" Talking about how social movements based on love, could have been the focus of our lives: like Civil Rights & Anti-War aspirations. But NO, we were quietly told to shut up & trade in our dreams for the "struggle for the legal tender" (limited though it was, for the lower classes), & adopt the dreams that the Oligarchy wanted for us. Most of the other lyrics speak of how petty & limited are the dreams we are allowed : "Children & the Ice Cream Vendor", etc. The key (to the ken) of this song, is the title, "The Pretender", a person trying to navigate conditions he despises, but must endure to survive. Has little or nothing to do w/ the simplicity of male or female thinking. "Leaving nothing but to choose off & fight, They'll tear at the world w/ all their might", means to me, how we are pitted against each other, of the lower classes, & ethnic background, to get the scraps, we are allowed, to survive, while the rich, laugh all the way to the bank. "while the ships bearing their dreams (real ones), sail out of sight", while we 99%ers were distracted by the daily struggle, our real aspirations were forgotten. "I'm gonna find myself a girl, who can show me what laughter means, & we'll fill in the missing colors of our paint by number dreams", I'm gonna get as much happiness out of the limited choices I'm allowed, but this also displays a genuine desire to find a soul mate, that can focus him on the good, beautiful & funny things that can be had, even w/in the limited scope we have available. The next lines refer to the rose colored glasses we must don, to make the best of a bad situation, & funny stuff about, love making..... The reduction of the scope of our hopes is found in the next lines, "& believe whatever may lie, in those things that MONEY can buy", we are left to wish for fulfillment in cheap trinkets, tokens of true value, that we are denied access to. "Forget your ideals, & be happy w/ what (little) you are "blessed" w/ "! Then the epitomal line about True Love/Contender. "Say a prayer, R U there for the Pretender", he is asking us to pray & sympathize w/ the Pretender, because he is US !!!
Early Tangs. from Phaedra on much recommended. Give Edgar Froese solo album "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" a chance... awesome ambient trance...
I would bet that Jackson put his 10,000 hours of practice in his youth. Renowned by other musicians for his work ethic, his old roomates Glen Frey and Don Henley heard him spend hours upon hours working on one song, which taught them how it's done.
Shoutout to those Eagles!
Lee Sklar - bass
I knew it was him on the cover because it was him.
😆
1976 was how long it took for the sensibilities of the 1960s to be well and truly over. We had a clue in November 1963, but...
The 60s were naive bs, but they led to the crap we have now. Like drag queen story hour for kids.
The album cover =
Out into the cool of the evening strolls the pretender....
FWIW his wife committed suicide during the recording of this, so that may explain a majority of these lyrics
Jackson cerebral, Bob visceral?
🤔💪🏽😅🤙🏼🎶❤✨️🕊
Look at the influence the suicide of his wife had on his song writing.
Yes🕊️❤️
70s, the time of the "Singer Songwriter," Jackson Browne was the best Lyricist of them all. Better than Don McClean, better than James Taylor, Joni Mitchel, better than Carol King (which is very, very had to do). Literally every song he wrote on every album he produced, beginning with "Saturate Before Using'' (when he was 19) through the 70s and well beyond was pure poetry. He is that amazing.
To think he wrote this when he was like 16.
Now copare this song to what you do. I'm going to tell you what bob Dillan told John lennon..do you have anything to say? That's what music is. You connect with emotions, with truths and feelings. Music today is all gimmicky all hype. There is no content.
What music do you make?