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 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
Though 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?
~ Jackson Browne
You could say that I saved the best for last. Well, almost the last. This penultimate song choice is, in my humble opinion, the greatest rock song ever written. And nearly five years ago, in July 2013, I got to tell that to Jackson's face, up close and personal at Levon Helm's Barn. You know what Jackson replied? He said, "Thank you." To me. Appearing on an album of the same name, the song dates back to 1976. American Songwriter took note of the song's prescience: "What can't be properly explained is the haunting way it predicts a time when 'Greed is good' started to win out over 'All you need is love.'" Are we all becoming happy idiots? Can money buy us that happiness? Jackson himself said of the song, "It's grappling with the question of whether the life you're living is the life you thought you were headed for."
So the song deals with the meaning of life, with the decisions made about prioritizing love or possessions, with the sorry way that life becomes a robotic stumble over responsibility and release. These are not new questions or issues. So why do I think the song stands out as the best?
Well, let's start with that piano intro. Jackson sets both the stage and the mood for an introspective journey into the examined life. And those few notes lead me there gracefully, if not without some trepidation. The piano continues to direct the listener . . . when to slow down, when to get excited, when to get ready to switch gears. Then there are the back-up vocals. Did you know those are courtesy of Graham Nash and David Crosby? The song swells with passion when the lovers are observed by the pretender, who strolls out into the cool of the evening, thanks to Nash and Crosby. The song's musical composition is masterfully crafted.
But lyrically speaking (!), ohmigod, the song is just brilliant. The third verse, especially, blows me away. It's a feast of sight and sound, for one thing. The sirens and the bells provide a small-town backdrop, but that pounding on the fender (which, in my mind, is off in the distance) just punctuates the theme of the song. Is there meaning in spending a life pounding dents out of car parts? Is that a more satisfactory existence than pounding on a keyboard in a cubicle at some corporate headquarters? But wait, there's more. Having provided us with the sounds, Jackson treats us to a somber look at life with no preference to age. The veterans falling asleep at the traffic light have seen their glory days become a thing of the past, but where is the promise of glory for the children? Many of us are old enough to remember the thrill of hearing the chimes of the ice cream truck as it rolled into our neighborhood. A Good Humor ice cream bar was ours for the sacrifice of a dime. But the children here are not waiting happily or excitedly or eagerly. They're waiting solemnly. Where is joy? Where is hope? Is this as good as it gets?
We'll fill in the missing colors in each other's paint-by-number dreams. Okay, sounds romantic, in that "You complete me" kind of way. But then we'll put our dark glasses on / And we'll make love until our strength is gone. Dark glasses? So one cannot look too deeply into the other's eyes (which, of course, are the windows to the soul)? Is this robotic love? Whatever, let's do it again tomorrow.
"'The Pretender' took a long time. It's not that I worked on it everyday; 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 to Rolling Stone)
I will never, ever tire of this song or its meaning. Life sets up a bunch of questions, and I am grateful that Jackson tries to answer them. His thoughts have many times been helpful to me as I struggle to understand this journey, which is a goal I don't ever expect to reach. But I've been aware of the time going by / They say in the end, it's the wink of an eye. What else to do but get up and do it again?
Amen.
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