Jackson Browne For Everyman CD

Live Recording

Personnel: Jackson Browne (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards); Jackson Browne; Doug Haywood (vocals, bass instrument, background vocals); Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bonnie Raitt (vocals, background vocals); Jon Douglas Haywood (vocals); Sneaky Pete Kleinow (pedal steel guitar); Rockaday Johnnie, Rockaday Johnnie (piano); Mike Utley (organ, keyboards); Leland Sklar, Wilton Felder (bass instrument); Mickey McGee, Micky McGee (drums); David Crosby (background vocals); David Lindley (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, steel guitar, violin, fiddle); Joni Mitchell (piano, electric piano); Bill Payne (piano, keyboards); Craig Doerge, David Paich (piano); Michael Utley, Spooner Oldham (organ); Gary Mallaber, Jim Keltner, Russ Kunkel (drums).
Audio Mixer: Al Schmitt.
Recording information: Sunset Sound, Studio One (1973).
Jackson Browne faced the nearly insurmountable task of following a masterpiece in making his second album. Having cherry-picked years of songwriting the first time around, he turned to some of his secondary older material, which was still better than most people's best and, ironically, more accessible -- notably such songs as "These Days," which had been covered six times already, dating back to Nico's Chelsea Girl album in 1967, and "Take It Easy," a co-composition with the Eagles' Glenn Frey that had been a Top 40 hit for the group in 1972. Browne unsuccessfully looked for another hit single with the up-tempo "Red Neck Friend," reminisced about meeting his wife and starting a family in the coy "Ready or Not," and, at the end, finally came up with a new song to rank with those on the first album in the philosophical title track, which reportedly was his more positive reply to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Wooden Ships." (David Crosby sang harmony.) Musically, the album was still restrained, but not as austere as Jackson Browne, as the singer had hooked up with multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, who would introduce interesting textures to his music on a variety of stringed instruments for the next several years. All of which is to say that For Everyman was a less consistent collection than Browne's debut album. But Browne's songwriting ability remained impressive. ~ William Ruhlmann
Browne's second album is state of the art early '70s L.A. ruminative singer/songwriter stuff, but in retrospect it's nowhere near as slick or mellow as the listener might remember. In fact, the combination of Sneaky Pete Kleinow's pealing steel and David Lindley's smudgy psychedelic lead guitar on songs like "Take It Easy" (all but unrecognizable from the Eagles' pop version) and "Our Lady of the Well" create a sound that eerily anticipates the '90s alt country rock of the Jayhawks and Golden Smog.
Even better, Browne's songwriting, though not quite as consistent as on his debut, is still in top form here. The poignant, often-covered "These Days," the uptempo feel and nudge-nudge humor of "Red Neck Friend," the autobiographical "Ready or Not," and the reflective title track all rank among Browne's best tunes. FOR EVERYMAN has a fuller sound than the singer's debut, and the new sonic textures and excellent songwriting proved that Browne's success with the first album was no fluke, and that he was in the game for keeps.

Rolling Stone (8/5/99, p.71) - 4 stars (out of 5) - "...the songwriter of the moment on a Seventies scene that was just emerging as a cultural force....he was testing his talents with obvious joy, because, like his audience, he was just discovering them."