A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR YOU ALL

I first met Jackson Browne back in 1967, when he was this kid living in the studio in the rear of “The Compound,” the artists colony/cheap apartment complex (it was in West Hollywood, which with the word “cheap” tells you it was a loonnnnggggg time ago) managed by my then-new friend Karl Metzenberg, who ran the best used bookstore in Westwood Village when it really was - a village. Karl had the best taste in everything of anyone I ever knew, and an unerring sense for The Next Big Thing, and that was the category he put Jackson in, not minding when the rent was late, or even when it was later. “He’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of time,” Karl used to say.

So it wasn’t that surprising a few years later after I’d moved up to San Francisco when I was driving along and “Doctor My Eyes” came on the radio. It was the only time I ever heard a song on the radio that I’d heard an earlier version of, in person.

So it was realy nice last fall to find Jackson’s first album in a looonnnnggg time, and it’s just as good as the others. I put it up with “Running On Empty.”

I love it when a creative artist comes along and proves once again that time and age only mean the wine is better.

Jackson Browne