Jackson Browne - Sing My Songs To Me (1966)

In October 1966 Jackson Browne booked some time in Columbia studios, and spent two hours recording demos of his songs for Nina Music, with the label's idea being to showcase his songs to various artists on the Elektra roster. For some reason, Nina Music pressed thirty of Jackson's songs, along with ten of fellow musician Steven Noonan's, onto two LP's, although only about a third of the songs were from the 1966 recording session, with the rest being recorded at Jaycino Studio in New York on 7 January 1967. One hundred copies of this unorthodox showcase LP, packed in plain white jackets, were distributed around the music community, and for fans of the singer these records, which came to be known collectively as 'The Nina Demos', are a treasure. Comprising virtually every demo-able song in Browne's repertoire at the time, they tell an enlightening tale of an eighteen-year-old doing his conscientious best to pin down his life as well as his art. The songs don't stray too far from Browne's own experience, with a favorite, and convincing, theme being that of the earnest, motivated and optimistic young man on the threshold of discovery and growth. From the 1966 sessions, we find that water, specifically running water, is a favorite image for more aggressive striving, and in 'We Can Be' he declares himself to be as reckless as a mountain stream, whereas in 'And I See' he juxtaposes his perception of the open door with the river running relentlessly to the ocean. He also affords a lighthearted touch on his mythic tributes to friends and lovers, such as 'The Painter' and 'Marianne', as well as 'Lavender Bassman', written in honor of Jimmy Fielder, another Paradox regular who went on to play with Blood Sweat And Tears. If there is an issue with these demos, it isn't his folk/pop-flavored melodies, which are alternately bright and catchy, and with enough surprises to keep a listener's interest. Rather, the problem is how Browne himself sounds...like a singer in search of a voice. He's mechanically proficient, and knows how to hold his notes, and he seems to have done a noble job of ridding his voice of obvious cops from other singers, but his singing reveals that he hadn't learned a far more important lesson yet...how to feel with his voice. His vocals, dragging and wooden, tend to turn his more plaintive songs into dirges, and to sabotage his upbeat tunes. In short they illustrate why Browne, for all the Nina Demo evidence of his young genius, was signed to a songwriter contract instead of recording contract with Elektra Records in 1967. He wasn't particularly happy with the demo's, as he didn't see the purpose in bunching so many of his songs on long-playing records when artists and producers were typically plugged with only one or two tunes at a time for a given recording project. In fact he was so upset with Nina's decision that he personally hunted out and destroyed nearly half of the copies. I've split the original double album into two posts, one for the 1966 recordings and one for those from 1967, with this first one being a shortish 32 minutes, and so I've fleshed it out with a couple of co-writes, one with Greg Copeland and the other with Pamela Polland. As mentioned before, this is mostly just Jackson and his guitar, so will probably appeal more to his committed fanbase rather then to the casual listener, but the sound quality is excellent for the year and circumstances of recording, so it's perfect for when you're in the mood for some gentle acoustic singer/songwriting from a budding star in the making.   

Track listing 

01 Sing My Songs To Me (Browne)  
02 Lavender Windows (Browne)  
03 The Painter (Browne)  
04 Fourth And Main (Browne)  
05 Bound For Colorado (Browne)  
06 We Can Be (Browne)  
07 And I See (Browne)  
08 Ah, But Sometimes (Browne)  
09 Marianne (Browne)  
10 Tumble Down (Browne)  
11 You Didn't Need A Cloud (Browne)  
12 Lavender Bassman (Browne)  
13 She's A Flying Thing (Browne)  

14 Gotta See A Man About A Daydream (Browne/Copeland)   

15 Time Travel Fantasy (Browne/Polland)  

Comments on the songs taken from 'The Story Of A Hold Out' by Rich Wiseman; 

Dolphin Books.