By Kevin Coughlin
Only Jackson Browne could pull off a surf song with “American exceptionalism” in the lyrics.
Not to worry, Brian Wilson. If I Could Be Anywhere isn’t really a surfing song. It just starts out that way, Browne prepped a packed house at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Thursday.
Actually, it’s about the precarious health of the planet’s oceans, and the hash we’re making of life on land. And that sounded kind of refreshing.
Many big names cruise through Morristown with a couple sets of Greatest Hits and call it a night.
To be sure, Browne pleased the faithful with plenty of old favorites: For Everyman, These Days, Fountain of Sorrow, My Opening Farewell (a lovely duet with Teresa Williams), Running on Empty and Take It Easy / Our Lady of the Well, to name a few.
And they paid tribute to Browne’s late pal and protégé, Warren Zevon, with a rambunctious treatment of Mama Couldn’t Be Persuaded.
But Browne also dipped liberally into last year’s Standing In the Breach for some great screeds, delivered with oomph by a band driven by Mauricio Lewak on drums, with Greg Leisz on assorted guitars, Bob Glaub on bass, Jeff Young on keyboard, Alethea Mills on harmonies and Larry Campbell adding some feisty licks on guitar and fiddle.
In If I Could be Anywhere, Browne sang about…
Searching for the future among the things we’re throwing away
Swimming through the ocean of junk we produce every day
You have to admit it’s clever
Maybe the pinnacle of human endeavor
When things are made to throw away but never made to disappear ….
The Romans, the Spanish, the British, the Dutch
American exceptionalism — so out of touch
Successions of empire repeating its course
Extracting the wealth and ruling by force
On and on through time
And he transformed 21st century angst into a call-and-answer rocker with Which Side?
People know the game is rigged even as they play
They see their expectations slowly slip away
They’ve got subsidies for billionaires, there’s a bailout for the banks
A monopoly on medicine, and a sale on armored tanks
The whole damned country’s being sold – out that revolving door
Between Washington and Wall Street like it’s one big Dollar Store
Speaking out is nothing new for the 66-year-old Browne– apocalyptic melancholy has been his stock in trade for decades, and he’s got stacks of awards to prove it.
What’s refreshing is how he still has something to say, and he’s not shy about saying it. These songs have some bite. Backbone, with a backbeat.
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Bantering with the adoring, almost reverent crowd, Browne confessed: “I’m not sure exactly where I am in New Jersey, north or south, or near the shore.”
Earlier in the week he played down the Shore, where Bruce Springsteen, celebrating his 66th birthday, joined him onstage.
Browne said the Boss told him he quit surfing as a young man, fearing he would do nothing else if he stuck with his board.
Let’s hope Jackson Browne never quits writing surf tunes.
