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‘Like Opening A Book In The Middle’: Jackson Browne Returns To An Old Song

2014 10 06 Npr Article

Singer and songwriter Jackson Browne remembers the circumstances well: Just 18 years old, with $50 to his name and new to New York City, he “lucked into” a job playing for the singer Nico. Suddenly he was an observer to the world of The Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and their coterie.

On his new album, Standing In The Breach, Browne revisits a song he wrote during this time: “The Birds Of St. Marks,” a portrait of Nico that he composed as he was leaving New York.

“She was a big fan of The Byrds,” Browne tells NPR’s Melissa Block. “She would say ‘can you play something like Jim McGuinn?’ I’d go, ‘well, no.’ “

That request was in his mind when he returned to “The Birds Of St. Marks.”…

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