Jackson Browne’s last album to top the charts
When Jackson Brownein August 1983, he released his sixth album, “Lawyers in Love”was fresh from the success of the previous one “Hold out”released in 1980, his only album to have reached number one in the US sales charts. Furthermore, in 1982, the Californian musician released his most successful single, “Somebody’s Baby”featured on the film’s soundtrack ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ of the director Amy Heckerling which included among its protagonists performers who would become Hollywood stars such as Sean Penn And Nicolas Cageas well as giving a little role to the Boss’ sister too Pamela Springsteen. In Italy the feature film was distributed with the unfortunate title ‘Out of your mind’.
The then 35 year old Jackson Browne – who turns 76 today, having been born on 9 October 1948 – he was perceived as a great singer-songwriter and as a politically aware musician, aligned in favor of many social causes, above all very sensitive to nuclear energy which, at the beginning of the 1980s, was at the center of public debate. Browne also performed and was arrested during protests against the use of nuclear power plants to produce energy. He was among the most active in organizing the concerts of the Musicians United for Safe Energy – which led to the creation of the concert film No Nukes – in reaction to the accident on March 28, 1979, at the power station Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
That said, until “Lawyers in Love” politics had found no place in his records. From a musical point of view the album did not deviate much from pop rock, while the lyrics were openly aligned. The title track was a yuppie satire of the new political and social course that the new president of the United States had established Ronald Reagan. The song was accompanied by a video which contributed to the good fate of the song.
Another noteworthy song featured in “Lawyers in Love” And “Say It Isn’t True”an invective against nuclear weapons and, in general, war. The singles also received a good reception “Tender Is the Night” And “For a Rocker”. The album performed very well on the charts, peaking at number eight. It was the last album of Jackson Browne to reach the Top Ten in the US sales chart, which it came close to in 2014 with “Standing in the breach” (read it here review) climbed up to 15th place on the chart.