Lives In The Balance

Discography

Released: 1986

Lives In The Balance

On Browne's recent Lives In The Balance album, sharply etched political songs question cultural imperialism, foreign policy and the current state of the American Dream.

Richard Harrington, Washington Post, June 18, 1986.

First single, "For America," is indicative of the collection's tone-staunchly anti-war and embittered by the sense of ironic betrayal that characterized political songwriting during the Nixon years.

Billboard, March 1, 1986

Browne draws strength from rock as if it were a religion. His phrasing is concise; his arrangements and melodies are terse and memorable; his production is uncluttered. These musical and lyrical gains define Lives in the Balance, but Browne hasn't completely abandoned the love songs with which he's made a lucrative career. "In the Shape of a Heart," when Browne finds the right couplets, rhyming "I guess I never knew/What she was talking about" with "I guess I never knew/What she was living without," he nails heartbreak to the wall and sends his listeners scurrying for the Kleenex. Browne didn't place an image of the Statue of Liberty on the cover of his album just so he could jump on the Rambo express. He implies throughout the album that, like the statue, we're all weather-beaten and in need of some reconstruction. Jackson Browne no longer believes he can change the world - the closing "Black and White" is drenched in defeatism - but he doesn't use his fatalism as a crutch or a reason to quit. Sure, time's running out, but it's not over yet. (RS 471)

Jimmy Gutterman, Rolling Stone

1. FOR AMERICA
As if I really didn't understand
That I was just another part of their plan
I went off looking for the promise
Believing in the Motherland
And from the comfort of a dreamer's bed
And the safety to my own head
I went on speaking of the future
While other people fought and bled
The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom that he found wasn't quite as sweet
When the truth was known
I have prayed for America
I was made for America
It's in my blood and in my bones
By the dawn s early light
By all I know is right
We're going to reap what we have sown

As if freedom was a question to might
As if loyalty was black and white
You hear people say it all the time-
"My country wrong or right"
I want to know what that's got to do
With what it takes to find out what's true
With everyone from the President on down
Trying to keep it from you

The thing I wonder about the Dads and Moms
Who send their sons to the Vietnams
Will they really think their way of life
Has been protected as the next war comes?
I have prayed for America
I was made for America
Her shining dream plays in my mind
By the rockets red glare
A generation's blank stare
We better wake her up this time

The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom that he found wasn't quite as sweet
When the truth was known
I have prayed for America
I was made for America
I can't let go till she comes around
Until the land of the free
Is awake and can see
And until her conscience has been found

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
2. SOLDIER OF PLENTY
God is great, God is good
He guards your neighborhood
Though it's generally understood
Not quite the way you would
You try to take the slack
Stay awake and watch his back
But something happens every now and then
And someone breaks into the promised land
Ah boy boy
This world is not your toy
This world is long on hunger
This world is short on joy

A-E-I-O
You speak as if you know
What's good for everyone
What's good in what you've done?
What's good about a world in which
War rages at a fever pitch
And people die for the little things
A little corn, a little beans

Ah boy boy
This world is not your toy
This world is, this world is
Long on hunger
Short on joy
How much longer
You gonna keep the world hungry boy?

You measure peace with guns
Progress in mega-tons
Who's left when the war is won?
Soldier of misfortune--
Soldier of an angry call
Soldier on foreign soil
I'm not here to fight your war
I know what you're fighting for

Ah boy boy
This world is not your toy
This world is, this world is
Long on hunger
Short on joy
How much longer
You gonna keep the world hungry boy?

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
3. IN THE SHAPE OF A HEART
It was a ruby that she wore
On a chain around her neck
In the shape of a heart
In the shape of a heart
It was a time I wont forget
For the sorrow and regret
And the shape of a heart
And the shape of a heart
I guess I never knew
What she was talking about
I guess I never knew
What she was living without

People speak of love dont know what theyre thinking of
Wait around for the one who fits just like a glove
Speak in terms of belief and belonging
Try to fit some name to their longing
People speak of love

There was a hole left in the wall
From some ancient fight
About the size of a fist
Or something thrown that had missed
And there were other holes as well
In the house where our nights fell
Far too many to repair
In the time that we were there

People speak of love dont know what theyre thinking of
Reach out to each other though the push and shove
Speak in terms of a life and the learning
Try to think of a word for the burning

You keep it up
You try so hard
To keep a life from coming apart
And never know
What breaches and faults are concealed
In the shape of a heart

It was the ruby that she wore
On a stand beside the bed
In the hour before dawn
When I knew she was gone
And I held it in my hand
For a little while
And dropped it into the wall
Let it go, heard it fall
I guess I never knew
What she was talking about
I guess I never knew
What she was living without

People speak of love dont know what theyre thinking of
Wait around for the one who fits just like a glove
Speak in terms of a life and the living
Try to find the word for forgiving

You keep it up
You try so hard
To keep a life from coming apart
And never know
The shallows and the unseen reefs
That are there from the start
In the shape of a heart

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
4. CANDY
Daughter of a woman who comes and goes
Candy
Daughter of a man she barely knows
Candy
All grown up about the things
People know to do
How to take a love and tear it in two
No no that isn't how it's gonna be
For Candy

She wants to be in love
But she doesn't know why
Candy
You think she's a child
Look at her now
My my Candy

Step by step this is her debut
Looking for love that's made to stay true
Step by step she's looking for more than I see
Candy
Candy
You know what your love is worth
It's a good thing baby
Candy
Take care of your own love first
What the world needs now-

All the young men want to pin her down
Candy
If you're looking for a real love
It's a ghost town
Candy

Step by step this is her debut
Looking for love that's made to stay true
Step by step she's looking for more than I see
Candy

By Greg Copeland and Wally Stocker
1986 Nel Mezzo Music ASCAP, Wally Stocker Publishing BMI
All Rights Reserved
5. LAWLESS AVENUES
Papa hit him, Mama kissed him
Made him go to catechism
With the sisters in their black and white
And all the time those city streets
Were teaching him another kind of wisdom
When to run and when to fight
Up at the playground after school
Listening to tales of the prison system
And those lawless avenues

Dawn on a half-darkened street
A childs footsteps repeat
And something there turns them
Down those lawless avenues

Silent Joe went down so bad
He was the strongest fighter the avenues had
Stabbed in the chesthe went down swinging
Someone from some other part of town
No one even seen it coming down
And you dont hear no church bells ringing
And in the violent night the police light
Sweeps across the lots and the yards
Following those lawless avenues

Down on a half-darkened street
Armies advance and retreat
And struggle to take control
From those lawless avenues

Manuelitos sister Rosa
Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa
Manuelito, cuida a Rosa,
Ay, mira cmo estn las cosas!

But who could blame her after she saw
Every boy die who could have gotten close to her
Rosa es joven y slo quiere
Ver la belleza del mundo

Manuel said,
"You gotta fight for what you want in this life"
Just before they shipped him overseas to Nam
Otra guerra sin razn
Otra guerra sin fin, sin honor

And she was fighting to understand
When they shipped Manuelitos body home
All she heard was one more shot
Echoing down lawless avenues

Hoy, amigo, tal igual como ayer
La lucha en el barrio no cambia
Nuestros hijos son los que han de crecer
Por ley de la calle
Viviendo entre abrazos y chingazos

Down on a half-darkened street
Fathers and sons lives repeat
And something there turns them
Down those lawless avenues

Down on a half-darkened street
En el calor de la calle
Down on a half-darkened street
Buscan valor en la calle
Down on a half-darkened street
Hasta final de la calle

By Jorge Calderon and Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP, Googoplex Music BMI
All Rights Reserved
6. LIVES IN THE BALANCE
Ive been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that youve seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And theres a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the TV
You hear one thing again and again
How the USA stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally cant take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

Theres a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we cant even say the names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But theyre never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
7. TILL I GO DOWN
Till I go down
Till I go down
Till I go down
I'm not gonna shut my eyes
Till I go down

I'm not gonna shut my eyes
I've already seen the lies
On the faces of the men at war
Leading people to the killing floor
Till I go down
Till I go down
Till I go down
I'm not gonna shut my eyes
No no

Till I go down
Till the world stops spinning around
Till I'm six feet under the ground
Till there's no sound
Till there's no pain
I'm gonna swing this chain
Till I go down

I'm not gonna shut my mouth
I'm for the truth to come out
About the leader with the iron will
And his allegiance to the dollar bill

Till I go down
Till I go down
Till I go down
I'm not gonna shut my eyes
Till I go down

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
8. BLACK AND WHITE
Long Before you ever saw your chances
You were going to burn this city down
Tired of the fashions and the dances
Tired of the people standing around
Ticking like a bomb in the night
And you knew you were right
Black and white

Blame it on the time it took to leave here
Blame it on the ones who slowed you down
Blame it on the kind of friends you knew here
Blame it on the sickness going round
Going round and round in the night
With your heart out of sight
With your world burning bright
Like a moth 'round a light
Black and white
The pictures of a life in flames
Black and white
The picture of a life remains
And the search you half remember
Setting out on at the start
Is burning like an ember in your heart

Time running out time running out
For the fool still asking what his life is about
Time running out time running out
Time running out time running out
Yeah beyond a shadow of a doubt
Time running out time running out

Tell them that you've gone to find a person
Someone you lost track of long ago
Tell them that it's someone you need worse than
Anybody else you'll ever know
Ticking like a bomb in the night
You were strong, you were light
You were fast, you were bright
Then you were gone in the light
Black and white
The pictures of a life in flames
Black and white
The picture of a life remains
And the high ideals and the promise
You once dressed the future in
Are dancing in the embers with the wind

Time running out time running out
For the fool still asking what his life is about
Time running out time running out
Time running out time running out
Yeah, beyond a shadow of a doubt
Time running out time running out

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1986 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved