User:Jmac0585/For everyman (song)
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"For Everyman" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. It is the title track to his second album For Everyman, released in 1973.
Origin[edit]
Shortly after releasing his first album, Browne left Los Angeles where he'd grown up. He moved to the Bay Area of California where he looked for a house. He was invited to live with David Crosby on Crosby's boat, The Mayan. He stayed there several months, not finding a home to rent or purchase, before going on tour to support his recently finished and released album. While staying with Crosby, Jackson was introduced to two of Crosby's neighbors, who also owned boats. The two friends along with Crosby, often talked about fulfilling their idyllic dream of simply sailing off into the "sunset," presumably somewhere to the South Pacific. This was a few years after Crosby, along with Steven Stills and Graham Nash had released their single Wooden Ships. In the liner notes to the 1991 boxset of Crosby, Stills and Nash, Crosby states that the songwriters "Imagined ourselves as the few survivors, escaping on a boat to create a new civilization." Browne admits that the dreamers were in a bit of a "fog," and composed his song as a response to their unrealizable dream. He entitled the song "For Everyman," taking the name for his song from the name of boat that had sailed to the South Pacific to protest the testing of Nuclear weapons in the early 1960s.
Style[edit]
On the studio album, the song For Everyman begins after a musical interlude following the song "Sing my songs to me." "Sing my songs to me" is roughly 2:31, followed by and musical interlude of about 50 seconds after which For Everyman immediately beings. The same style is used on two other songs on the same album, the first two on the LP, Take it Easy which plays into Our Lady of the well. Browne rarely if ever, plays "Sing my songs to me" in concert when playing For Everyman.
External links[edit]
- YouTube : Browne singing For Everyman for VH1 Classics
- "For Everyman" reviewed by Janet Maslin for Rolling Stone