Music |
Jackson Browne: Yeah, Yeah
By
Published: Nov 23, 2014
Category:
Rock
Jackson Browne could have been looking into many New York windows when he wrote “I don’t know what to say about these days/ I see people changing in the strangest ways/ Even in the richer neighborhoods/ People don’t know when they got it good.” Well, not here. There isn’t a day when my wife and I don’t say, “We are so lucky.”
In this sentimental stew, I’ve been listening a lot — okay, obsessively — to one song, “Yeah, Yeah,” from Jackson Browne’s recent CD, “Standing in the Breach.” Overall, it’s a powerful, emotional diary that will resonate with people of a certain age and sensibility. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here. For the $1.29 download of “Yeah, Yeah” — it’s 6 minutes long, so that’s 20 cents a minute — click here.]
There’s no video, but you can listen to it here.
Here are the lyrics. I second that emotion.
Well you know I don’t need you
And you know I don’t feed you no lies
Yeah, yeah
And it’s not up to me to tell you
What you see through your eyes
Yeah, yeah
You know girl sometimes I just don’t know
Where it is you still think you can go
Without taking my world with you
well maybe you don’t realize
Yeah, yeah
That time that I met you
There’s something that set you apart
Yeah, yeah
The smile on your face
Or your lips
Or the taste of your heart
Yeah, yeah
You followed me away from your home
And we’re out here in this world on our own
And it’s too late to go back
And it’s too late to leave me alone
Yeah, yeah
Cause you paid for the love that we got
You paid
Yeah, yeah
And you made for the heart to be fought
And you stayed
Yeah, yeah
Was it strength or your pride
That sent you back inside
For the love that you paid for
Or was it for the love that we made
Yeah, yeah
You know I don’t need you
And you know I don’t feed you no lies
Yeah, yeah
Maybe I didn’t come with instructions like some other guy
Yeah, yeah
You see me standing at the window
With our world at my back
And my eyes down the road
Staring at the wreckage of a lifetime strewn along the track
And the seeds I sowed
You think I’m wishing I was some other place
But in fact I’m right here
And my shoulder to the wheel, baby
And my heart in the deal
Yeah, yeah
And you can see that it’s not always easy
Yeah, yeah
Maybe that makes you crazy
Yeah, yeah
But can you see that I’ve spent all I had
That you go on making me glad
That I found your love in this world after times were so bad
Yeah, yeah
And you paid for the love that we got
You paid
Yeah yeah
And you made for the heart when we fought
And you stayed
Yeah, yeah
Is it faith or your will
That keeps you hanging on still
For the love that you paid for
Or is it for the love we made
Yeah, yeah
So. On Thanksgiving, we’re invited to eat too much and watch football but also to list the sources of our gratitude. And, if we dare, to thank people to their faces. My nuclear family is small and far away, so my list is ragtag and largely virtual. Thanks for Anne Lamott for the new book. Thanks to the President for that speech on immigration. Thanks to Krishna Das for support during this endless Kali Yuga. Thanks to the kids in my writing class and the teacher who lets me color outside the lines. Thanks to Edward Albee for John Lithgow’s rip-the-skin-off speech about friendship in Act 3 of “A Delicate Balance” and to my friends for being real friends. Thanks to my partners in the cross-your-fingers-it-happens movie of “Married Sex.” Thanks to all of you, especially the ones who write and remind me why any of this might matter. Thanks to my mother and my brother and his crew. And, above all, thanks to the small person and my wife.
BONUS VIDEO
