Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well and continue to stay that way during this global health crisis we are facing.  But in addition to protecting your physical wellness, what are you doing to stay mentally healthy today?

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I know we are still facing a serious situation but a new year gives us hope for the new days, seasons, opportunities & moments ahead. Still, music is something that will never change for me. It is my refuge, the most comforting part of my life & the one thing I consistently count on. So until a more normal semblance of life returns, I am going to share a song I listen to that helps me escape the current state of things, if only for a few minutes each day. And if this helps anyone else, even better.

From the minute music became important to me, I was interested in the details. I would read the songwriting credits on the records, the liner notes of every album & magazine interviews with my musical heroes to discover who inspired them while they were growing up. As I got older I realized my heroes had contemporary favorites as well and occasionally they would collaborate with them on recordings or at live shows.

However, it was not until I was listening to Bruce Springsteen’s speech to induct Jackson Browne into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2004 that I realized how much Springsteen, one of music’s most eloquent & revered poets, admired Browne’s song writing skills. Springsteen spoke extensively about the beauty, intensity & sadness of Browne’s lyrics and how one song even moved Springsteen to tears. He listed about half a dozen other songs as examples of Browne’s gift which Springsteen said were the ones he wished he had written. Then he quoted a couple of lines from today’s song which is my absolute favorite track by Browne of all time.

“I’m gonna find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we’ll fill in the missing colors
In each other’s paint-by-number dreams“.

Top (L-R): Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Brown circa 1987. Bottom: Browne circa 2015. (Images found online.  Original sources unknown.)

Jackson Browne: “The Pretender” (1976, written by Jackson Browne).

I do not own the rights to anything.  I am just sharing what I love and how I am coping with you.

Stay well.