Track Listing

1. Jamaica Say You Will
2. Child In These Hills
3. Song For Adam
4. Doctor My Eyes
5. From Silver Lake
6. Something Fine
7. Under The Falling Sky
8. Looking Into You
9. Rock Me On The Water
10. My Opening Farewell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12680 in Music
• Released on: 2003-01-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
The first Jackson Browne album presents a thoughtful, literate artist informed by the street-poet-with-guitar sound of Bob Dylan. Browne takes that approach and refines it with a more formal use of language and a more carefully crafted folk-rock sound characterised by spare, tasteful arrangements. The L.A. studio-rock sound that crept into much of Browne's '70s catalogue is at a minimum here. Instead, the album is full of low-key, acoustic-oriented ballads such as the somber"Song For Adam".
Lilting, mid-tempo cuts like "I Am A Child In These Hills" and the classic "Doctor My Eyes" manage to blend Browne's introspective lyrical approach with streamlined, infectious arrangements for a new twist on the formula. Browne's perspective was sensitive, yet seasoned and somewhat darker than that of his '60s predecessors, while his sound moved away from folk roots toward radio-friendly accessibility. Along with James Taylor's SWEET BABY JAMES, this album helped launch a thousand singing, songwriting imitators, yet JACKSON BROWNE stands above them all in the singularity of its expression.

Customer Reviews

This is NOT a remastered CD
This music is masterful and deserves 5 stars. However, Amazon.uk wrongly states that this CD is a remaster. No way. This is the old, bad sounding CD from way back when (1985 if I am correct). After buying it, I compared it to my original mint pressing of the UK Asylum LP ; I also compared it to the tracks duplicated on the "Very Best Of Jackson Browne" (2004 release). My verdict is that the sound on this so-called "remastered" CD sucks ... in a big way. Be warned if sound quality matters to you !!!

The Begining Of Something Brilliant
When I was at university one of my friends bought me an album and when he gave it to me said "I think you'll like this, give it a try". That album was For Everyman, Browne's second offering. On recieving it I confess that I had no idea who this musician was and the only thing that rung any bells was Take it Easy (thanks to the Eagles). On listening to the album I was amazed that I had never heard of Jackson Browne. I have a wide taste in music and pride myself in my musical knowledge but I had never heard of Jackson Browne. The album was amazing.

After listening to For Everyman I decided I would buy his first album, Saturate Before Using. The opening track, Jamaica Say You Will, is a heartfelt ballad that sets out Browne's stall for his career. It's the begining of him experimenting with his audience in styles, and himself, testing his talent. A very timid opening to a first album but a very, very effective one. The rest of the album follows suit with tremendous feeling and timeless aura around it. It's hard to see how an album like this almost got lost in time with its heartfelt songwriting and emotional vocal and music. Ask people if they've heard of Jackson Browne and many of them look at you blankly. This, his first album was a warey, almost unnoticed step out into what was a rich music scene in the 70's. But it's innocence as an album offers so much to the listener, so much presence and meaning.

After this album Browne recorded some great music until he met the 80's rock scene and seemed to lose his way a bit. His debut is as good as any of his first five albums. Many rate Late For the Sky as his best, but I personally think his first two (For Everyman and Saturate Before Using) are hard acts to beat. Emotional and musically excellent.

The Best Debut Of The 1970's
Although Jackson Browne has had an up and down career, mostly up, it's ironic that the first record he ever made is still his best. 'Saturate Before Using/Jackson Browne' is as good as any Elton John record, and is one of the finest and original rock records of the 1970's. Of course, Brown's piano is the force behind his working man's vocal, and it is the thing that adds the most to Jackson Browne's own grandiose form of slow rock.

Many acts followed after Browne's debut in a similar vein and he even co-wrote The Eagles hit 'Takin' It Easy' which was also a Browne song in its own right. But it's on his debut that he shines the most. It's always been the truth that most of the best artists to ever get to put their colours onto a canvas in the music world, have always tended to create their masterpieces first. The fact is that when you're just starting out your creativity is possibly the highest it ever will be and Browne shows this to the fullest. Produced smoothly and perfectly by Richard Sanford Orshoff, Browne's tainted songwriting can be heard perfectly and touches on the greatness of all classic 70's rock albums.

The dreamy 'Jamaica Say You Will' is one of his defining songs, and is also one of his best, it tells its story of love found and eventually love lost and keeps to the same wonderful pace and sound, with a wonderful chorus and Browne's distinctive piano work, it's one of the better 'morning' songs ever written. Both 'A Child In These Hills' and the experimental 'Under The Falling Sky' are the only two slightly weak links in Jackson's tight songwriting, they're still very good songs, while inbetween, the low key and seemingly sucidal 'Song For Adam' drowns many sorrows before the joyous hit 'Doctor My Eyes' kicks in, Browne still maintaining his angst and loss underneath a pure pop-driven song. Indeed it's difficult to spot on cuts such as 'Doctor...' since they are perfectly created pop songs, of which are still some of the best heard.

'Looking Into You' and 'My Opening Farewell' both follow along similar lines with Browne's own piano-pop, keeping their individuality intact throughout, at ten tracks long, Browne's debut is just the right length to cheer up, or indeed lower the mood of anyone interested in his style of slow-rock, and although some of his other better songs aren't on his debut such as 'These Days', 'Saturate Before Using/Jackson Browne' is still a defining and pioneering album in piano pop and slow rock. In a nutshell, Jackson Browne created the finest debut of the 1970's and as it was done in 1972, there was a long time for something to top the quality of this smooth songwriting, and no-one could, the more upbeat 'Running On Empty' and his other masterwork the more epic, 'Late For The Sky' that although are great records in their own right, showed that even Browne himself couldn't do it.

4.5 Stars.