Discography

Standing In The Breach

Jackson Browne's Standing in the Breach One of Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2014

Browne confirmed his place as an essential voice in the wilds of the 21st century with this powerful set of songs about love and progressive ideals forces that a corrupt world can never truly defeat. Songs like "The Long Way Around" are the most eloquent protests against apathy you'll hear this year.

  • 1. THE BIRDS OF ST. MARKS
    Oh how sad they sound the songs
    The Queen must sing of dying
    The prisoner upon her throne,
    The melancholy sighing
    If she could see her mirror now
    She would be free of those who bow
    And scrape the ground beneath her feet

    Silently she walks among
    Her dying midnight roses
    And watches as each moment goes
    That never really knows us
    And so it seems she doesn't care
    If she has dreams of no one there
    Within the shadows of her room

    And all my frozen words agree and say it's time
    To call back all the birds I sent
    To fly behind her castle walls
    And I'm weary of the nights I've seen
    Inside these empty halls

    Wooden lady turn and turn
    Among my weary secrets
    And wave within the hours past
    And other empty pockets
    Maybe we've found what we have lost
    When we've unwound so many crossed,
    Entangling misunderstandings

    But all my frozen words agree and say it's time
    To call back all the birds I sent
    To fly behind her castle walls
    And I'm weary of the nights

    Words and music by Jackson Browne (Open Window Music, ASCAP/ Criterion, ASCAP)
    All Rights Reserved
  • 2. YEAH YEAH
    You know I don't lead you and you know I don't feed you no lies
    And it's not up to me to tell you what you see through your eyes
    You know girl sometimes I just don't know
    Where it is you still think you can go
    Without taking my world with you maybe you don't realize
    Yeah yeah

    That time that I met you there's something that set you apart
    The smile on your face, or your lips, or the taste of your heart
    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've got, you paid
    And you made for the heart when we fought and you stayed
    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've made
    Yeah yeah

    You know I don't lead you and you know I don't feed you no lies
    Maybe I didn't come with instructions like some other guys
    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
    With my shoulder to the wheel
    And my heart in the deal
    Yeah yeah
    And you can see it's not always easy
    And maybe that makes you crazy
    But can you see that I've bet all I had
    That you'd 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've got, you paid
    And you made for the heart when we fought and you stayed
    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 that we've made
    Yeah yeah

    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved
  • 3. THE LONG WAY AROUND
    I don't know what to say about these days
    I'm seeing people changing in the strangest ways
    Even in the richer neighborhoods
    People don't know when they've got it good
    They've got the envy, and they've got it bad

    When I was a kid everything I did was trying to be free
    Running up and down Tinsel Town with the fire inside of me
    My planets all in retrograde, the best of all my plans got laid
    I made my breaks, and some mistakes
    Just not the ones people think I made

    Now I'm a long way gone
    Down this wild road I'm on
    It's going to take me where I'm bound
    But it's the long way around

    It's so hard keeping track of what's gone wrong
    The covenant unravels, and the news just rolls along
    I could feel my memory letting go some two or three disasters ago
    It's hard to say which did more ill
    Citizens United or the Gulf oil spill

    And I'm a long way gone
    Down this wild road I'm on
    It's going to take me take me where I'm bound
    But it's the long way around

    It's never been that hard to buy a gun
    Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone
    The seeds of tragedy are there
    In what we feel we have the right to bear
    To watch our children come to harm
    There in the safety of our arms
    With all we disagree about
    The passions burn, the heart goes out

    And we're a long way gone
    Down this wild road we're on
    It's going to take us where we're bound
    It's just the long way around

    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved
  • 4. LEAVING WINSLOW
    I'm walkin' all around lookin' up and down this railroad
    I'm walkin' all around lookin' up and down this train
    All I gotta see is a place for me to grab a hold of
    And I'll be on this train and I won't be back again

    I'm over qualified for any other ride I can think of
    I got a PhD in Sun and Wind and Rain
    I had a reservation 'bout every occupation
    I was ever on the brink of
    'Til the day my heart got given to the rhythm of the train

    Station to station, coast to coast
    Not that much of anything in mind
    No expectations, way less than most
    But I wanted to see Winslow one more time

    I'm walkin' all around, lookin' up and down this railroad
    I'm walkin' all around, lookin' up and down this town
    I'll bid adeau to the precious few I knew here
    And I'll be on my way and I won't be back around

    My mother married an oxygenarian ladies man
    He'd take her dancing with a tank of oxygen
    The ladies kept him goin'
    He'd recite for them his favorite koan
    He specialized in Western Swing and Zen

    Station to station, coast to coast
    Not that much of anything in mind
    No expectations, way less than most
    As long as I got oxygen and wine

    I keep on hearing 'bout the disappearing ozone layer
    I keep on hearing 'bout the disappearing Greenland Shelf
    I keep hearing all about the disappearing middle class
    I figure I'll be doing some disappearing myself

    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved
  • 5. IF I COULD BE ANYWHERE
    Sliding on the shimmering surface between two worlds
    Standing at the center of time as it uncurls
    Cutting through the veil of illusion
    Moving beyond past conclusions
    Rendering all doubt and confusion clear

    If I could be anywhere
    If I could be anywhere
    If I could be anywhere right now
    I would want to be here

    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

    If I could be anywhere
    If I could be anywhere
    If I could be anywhere in time
    I would want to be here

    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

    But the world can't take it very much longer
    And we won't make it 'less we're smarter and stronger
    The world's going to shake itself free of our greed somehow

    If I could be anywhere
    If I could be anywhere in time
    If I could be anywhere and change things
    It would have to be now

    They say nothing lasts forever
    But all the plastic ever made is still here
    And no amount of closing our eyes will make it disappear
    And the world can't take it very much longer

    And we won't make it 'less we're smarter and stronger
    The world's going to shake itself free of our greed somehow
    And the world can't take it, that you can see
    If the oceans don't make it neither will we
    The world's going to shake itself all the way free somehow

    If I could be anywhere
    If I could be anywhere in time
    If I could be anywhere and change the outcome
    It would have to be now

    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved
  • 6. YOU KNOW THE NIGHT
    You know the night I met you
    My eyes had been looking for you
    All over everywhere
    Over low roads, down highways, and bald deserts

    You know the night
    You know the night

    Your eyes had this same shine about 'em, I noticed
    And when I first looked through the wild, wayward mist
    I felt such a warm friendly, cool sunny smile
    That I wanted to look in your eyes for all time

    And I felt like you feel
    When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
    And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel
    I just felt like you feel
    When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
    And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel

    Did you feel this way too when I met you?
    You know the night I first met you
    Did you look at me and think
    Here's this guy who hopes like I hope
    And sees the same kind of dreams I see
    'Cause you wondered, I know
    If your hopes could find shape
    In the words that we used there to work back the fog
    Your hopes and your plans for the good of the people
    Could all of your hundred and one
    Dreams just as bright as the sun
    And all your wants and your hottest desires
    Find shape in the flow of my talk?
    You know the night
    You know the night

    And if my jellied brain turns to ashes and sand
    There will still be such night smiles across all the land
    There will still be such faces meeting here in the dark
    And there around the corner, or maybe in the park
    It's when we meet this way and we look at each other
    We get a hold of our scattered aims and we bring em'
    And beat them and wrestle and fight them and heat them
    And beat them and weld them together
    Like iron from the valley and fire from the sky
    Like iron from the valley and fire from the sky
    Like iron from the valley and fire from the sky
    This blast furnace heat burns in our people's eyes

    You know the night I met you
    My eyes had been looking for you
    All over everywhere
    Over low roads, down highways, and bald deserts

    And I felt like you feel
    When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
    And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel
    I just felt like you feel
    When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
    And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel
    Words written by Woody Guthrie and music written by Jackson Browne and Rob Wasserman (Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., BMI/ Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP/ Steep Music, BMI)
    All Rights Reserved
  • 7. WALLS AND DOORS
    Ever since the world's existed
    There's one thing that is certain
    There are those who build walls
    And those who open doors
    Ah but this my love I'm thinking you already knew

    For some it's always winter
    While others have the spring
    Some people find good fortune
    While others never find a thing
    Ah but this my love is something you already knew

    That's how it's always been
    And I know you know it
    There can be freedom only when nobody owns it
    I'm going to say that again
    Because I know you know it
    There can be freedom only when nobody owns it

    Of what use is the moon if you don't have the night?
    Of what use is a windmill with no Quixote left who'll fight?
    Ah but this my love is something you already knew
    At some point on the horizon
    Sky can be confused with earth
    Some people dream of God
    While others dream of wealth
    But of course my love this is what you see out on the street

    It's how it's always been
    And I know you know it
    There can be freedom only when nobody owns it
    Let me say that again
    Because I know that we both know it
    There can be freedom only when nobody owns it
    When nobody owns it
    When nobody owns it

    Ever since the world's existed
    There's one thing that is certain
    Some people build walls
    Others open doors

    Written by Carlos Varela, English translation by Jackson Browne (Graffiti Music Group, Ltd, SGAE)
    All Rights Reserved
  • 8. WHICH SIDE?
    You might be a young man with the mountain in his step
    In search of El Dorado, but you haven't found it yet
    Or you might be an old man with his whole life at his back
    And you can hear eternity whispering down the track
    Or maybe you're a woman, or just about to be
    And you can feel the generations swimming in your sea
    But you know that it's coming, as surely as the dawn
    The battle for the future, baby, which side are you on?

    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Come on come on come on
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Which side are you on?
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Battle lines are drawn
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Which side - which side are you on?

    Which side?
    The corporations attacking
    The natural world - drilling and fracking
    All done with the backing of the craven and corrupt
    Or the ones who fight
    For the Earth with all their might
    And in the name of all that's right
    Confront and disrupt

    There's a restlessness out in the street there's a question in the air
    How long if this theft goes on will our country still be here?
    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

    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Come on come on come on
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Which side are you on?
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Battle lines are drawn
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Which side - which side are you on?

    Which side?
    The bankers and their special friends
    Who rob you time and again
    Who like to pretend they're the only game in town
    Or the people who
    Hope with everything they do
    They can build something new
    And turn this world around

    Who owns the elections? Who profits either way?
    Who ends up with all that money politicians pay?
    To be the fearless leader, to put themselves across
    To be the one entrusted with the profit and the loss
    You try hard to believe that when you cast your vote it counts
    But elections are won with money in ever larger amounts
    Take the money out of politics and maybe we might see
    This country turn back into something more like democracy

    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Come on come on come on
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Which side are you on?
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Battle lines are drawn
    Come on come on come on if you're coming
    Which side - which side are you on?
    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved
  • 9. STANDING IN THE BREACH
    And though the earth may tremble and our foundations crack
    We will all assemble and we will build them back
    And rush to save the lives remaining still within our reach
    And try to put our world together standing in the breach

    So many live in poverty while others live as kings
    Though some may find peace
    In the acceptance of all that living brings
    I will never understand however they've prepared
    How one life may be struck down and another life be spared

    And though the earth may tremble and cast our works aside
    And though our efforts resemble the fluctuating tide
    We rise and fall with the trust and belief
    That love redeems us each
    And bend our backs and hearts together standing in the breach

    You don't know why it's such a far cry
    From the world this world could be
    You don't know why but you still try
    For the world you wish to see
    You don't know how it will happen now
    After all that's come undone
    But you know the change the world needs now
    Is there, in everyone

    The unpaid debts of history
    The open wounds of time
    The laws of human nature always tugging from behind
    I want to think that the earth can heal
    And that people might still learn
    How to meet this world's true challenges
    And that the course we're on could turn

    And though the earth may tremble and the oceans pitch and rise
    We will all assemble and we will lift our eyes
    To the tasks that we know lie before us
    And the power our prayers beseech
    And cast our souls into the heavens, standing in the breach

    You don't know why it's such a far cry
    From the world this world could be
    You don't know why but you still try
    For the world you wish to see
    You don't know how it's going to happen now
    After all that's come undone
    And you know the world you're waiting for may not come
    No it may not come
    But you know the change the world needs now
    Is there, in everyone
    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved
  • 10. HERE
    You wait for the tears to fall but they won't
    You think you should know what to say but you don't
    Here at the break of day
    The world moving on its way
    Without her

    You're sitting there staring into the distance
    Like you're putting up some kind of resistance
    But you barely see the dawn
    It's like this river that you're on
    Here where the sorrows flow
    And all you will never know about her

    Here
    You're here

    The city waking up off in the distance
    They're all working on some other existence
    But you don't quite seem to care
    It's like you know they're not going anywhere
    Here where the sorrows flow
    Here where the questions grow
    And all you will never know about her

    You wait for the tears to fall but they won't
    You think you should know what to say but you don't
    Here at the break of dawn
    The world moving on
    Without her

    By Jackson Browne
    Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
    All Rights Reserved