Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician. His introspective lyrics made him the poster boy of the Southern California confessional singer-songwriter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 2004, Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by fellow American musical artist and good friend, Bruce Springsteen. In the same year, Browne received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Los Angeles' Occidental College for "a remarkable musical career that has successfully combined an intensely personal artistry with a broader vision of social change and justice.
Browne was born in Heidelberg, Germany, where his father, an American serviceman, was stationed. Browne's mother, Beatrice Amanda (née Dahl), was a Minnesota native of Norwegian ancestry. Browne has three siblings: Roberta "Berbie" Browne who was born in 1946 in Nuremberg, Germany and Edward Severin Browne who was born in 1949 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His younger sister, Gracie Browne, was born a number of years later. Browne moved to the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, California, at the age of 3 and in his teens began singing folk music in local venues like the Ash Grove. In 1966, he joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He had attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California.
A precociously gifted songwriter, Browne signed a publishing contract with Nina Music, and his songs were performed by Joan Baez, Tom Rush, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds and Steve Noonan, among others. After moving to Greenwich Village, New York, Browne was briefly in Tim Buckley's back-up band. He also worked on Nico's Chelsea Girl, playing guitar on Nico's version of Browne's classic song "These Days". After leaving New York City, Browne formed a folk band with Ned Doheny and Jack Wilce. After leaving New York, Browne settled in Southern California.
In 1971, Browne signed with Asylum Records and released Jackson Browne (1972), which included the piano-driven "Doctor My Eyes", a Top 10 hit in the US singles chart. "Rock Me on the Water", from the same album, also gained considerable radio airplay, while "Jamaica Say You Will" and "Song for Adam" helped establish Browne's reputation as a versatile and original writer with a deep thinking, sometimes downbeat, but always romantic flair. During this period, he also toured with Linda Ronstadt.
His next album, For Everyman (1973) — while considered of high quality — was less successful than his debut album, although it still sold a million copies. The upbeat "Take It Easy," co-written with The Eagles' Glenn Frey, had already been a big hit for that group, while "These Days" (actually written by Browne and first recorded by Nico in 1967) captured the essence of Browne's youthful, morose angst. The title track, meanwhile, was the first of Browne's studies of personal exploration, soul-searching, and despair set against the backdrop of a decaying society.
Late for the Sky (1974) consolidated Browne's following, with some fans drawn in purely by the record's intriguing, Magritte-inspired cover. Highlights included the searching, heartbreaking title song, the elegiac "For a Dancer" and the apocalyptic "Before the Deluge". The arrangements featured the evocative violin and guitar of David Lindley, Jai Winding's outstanding piano, and the stellar harmonies of Doug Haywood. The title track was also featured in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver. Around this time, Browne began his fractious but lifelong professional relationship with singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, mentoring Zevon's first two Asylum albums through the studio as a producer after browbeating Asylum head David Geffen into giving Zevon a recording contract.
Browne's disaffected, wondering character struck out even more starkly in his next album, The Pretender, which is arguably his darkest and yet musically and lyrically his brightest. It was released in 1976, after the suicide of his first wife, Phyllis Major. The album features stronger production by Jon Landau and a mixture of styles, ranging from the Mariachi-inspired peppiness of "Linda Paloma" to the country-driven "Your Bright Baby Blues" to the near-hopeless sadness and surrender of "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate". The title track "The Pretender" is Browne's magnum opus, a vivid account of romanticism losing the battle with the realities of day-to-day life. "Here Come Those Tears Again" was cowritten with Nancy Farnsworth, the mother of Browne's wife, after the untimely death of her daughter.
By then, Browne's work had gained a reputation for its compelling melodies, clear, honest, and insightful lyrics, and a flair for composition rarely seen in the world of rock and roll. He was often referred to as "a thinking man's rock star."
Browne began recording his next LP while on tour, and Running on Empty (1977) became his biggest commercial success. Breaking the usual conventions for a live album, Browne used all new material and combined live concert performances with recordings made on buses, in hotel rooms, and back stage, creating the audio equivalent of a road movie. Running on Empty contains many renowned songs, such as the propulsive title track, "Running on Empty", "The Road" (written and recorded in 1972 by Danny O'Keefe), and "The Load-Out/Stay" (Browne's affectionate and knowing send-off to his concert audiences and roadies).
Browne has been married twice and has two children. His first wife was actress/model Phyllis Major (1946-1976). The two began their relationship around 1971, as was artistically memorialized in the song "Ready or Not". Their son, Ethan Zane, was born in 1973. Major and Browne married in late 1975. He was devastated when she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills just a few months later, in March 1976, at the age of 30.
Browne was married in January 1981 to Australian model, Lynne Sweeney with whom he had a second son, Ryan Daniel, born in 1982. Browne and Sweeney were divorced in 1983, when he became involved with actress Daryl Hannah. The relationship with Hannah continued until 1992. He has been in a relationship with artist Dianna Cohen since the mid '90s.
Four years after his previous album, Browne returned with I'm Alive, a critically acclaimed album with a more personal perspective that had no hits but still sold respectably — indeed, the ninth track from the album, Sky Blue and Black, was used during the pilot episode of the situation comedy Friends. He also sang a duet with Jann Arden, "Unloved", on her 1995 album Living Under June. Browne's Looking East (1996) was released soon after, but was not as successful commercially. The Naked Ride Home was released in 2002.
In 2003, Browne guest-starred as himself in The Simpsons episode "Brake My Wife, Please", performing a parody of his song Rosie with lyrics altered to reference the plot involving Homer and Marge.
Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. In his induction speech, Bruce Springsteen noted that while the Eagles got to the Hall first, "You [Browne] wrote the songs they wished they had written". The previous year, three of Browne's albums — For Everyman, Late for the Sky, and The Pretender — had been selected by Rolling Stone magazine as among its choices for the 500 best albums of all time.
Somebody's Baby
Running on Empty
The Pretender
Jamaica say you will
Lawyers in Love
Doctor My Eyes
Take It Easy
Rock Me on the Water
before the deluge
The Load Out / Stay
