A wee bit of subversion is one of the motives behind Jackson Browne`s acoustic tour this summer, which rolls into the Chicago Theatre on Friday.
The singer-songwriter knows that it`s the kind of show his fans have craved for years. Browne`s core audience fell in love with the soul-searching, plaintive tunes he began recording during the early `70s-the kind of material that sounds best when accompanied by an acoustic guitar and performed in a small theater or club.
In recent years, however, Browne`s music has spun in different directions. His last two albums, 1986`s ”Lives in the Balance” and last year`s ”World in Motion,” embraced more modern music technology and were driven by lyrics more directly political than anything he`d written before. Artistically, they were a step forward; commercially, they`ve hardly been his best sellers.
So with a guitar, a piano and two accompanists, Browne is hoping this summer to give his new songs a fresh airing in a format his fans seem to find most palatable.
”It`s a chance to sing the songs they wanted to hear and have always wanted to hear . . . and also to sing the new songs that they really haven`t heard in this manner,” said Browne, 41. ”The songs from the later albums, like `The Word Justice` or `Anything Can Happen,` within that acoustic context you can just hear them better.
”It`s interesting. A friend of mine put it to me that on some of my recent records, the arrangements, with all the synthesizers and the electronics, obscure the songs. It`s easier to feel them when there`s less going on. And I understand what he`s saying; I love the words to `Chasing You Into the Light,` for instance, but it`s an arrangement that was intentionally for a kind of three- or four-piece rock band. It`s supposed to be repetitive and very simple. Who listens really carefully to the lyrics to that kind of song? People get with the beat and the guitar sound.
”So, yeah, it`s my hope that people who come to hear their favorite old songs from the old albums will hear these (later) songs in a new light.”
Still, Browne is amused by the notion that he suddenly turned political in the last half of the `80s. After all, he long has been affiliated with social and political causes. He helped organize the 1979 No Nukes concerts, was arrested at a 1981 antinuclear demonstration, has made several fact-finding visits to Central America, is a vocal participant in environmental issues and has performed to support such organizations as Amnesty
International and the Christic Institute, which has sought to uncover covert CIA involvement in Central America.
”In L.A.,” Browne likes to quip, ”people say there`s a law that you can`t have a benefit unless I`m involved.”
But he stresses that his concern is rooted and well known, and therefore has been part of his music since the beginning.
”A song like `Our Lady of the Well,` which predates anything I wrote that was very political, makes reference to what is going on now, hints at empathy for Latin people. There are political themes echoed in `Before the Deluge` and `For Everyman,` too . . . though they`re general enough that they could be sung at all types of rallies.
”The difference is that I`m concerned about more specific things now. To hear, or to write, a specific song means you have to know something about it. Now, (as opposed to) four or five years ago, people know more about foreign policy than they knew then. I have a very keen interest in U.S. foreign policy and world events and the way they`re intertwined with domestic issues. I wasn`t going to have this keen interest and not find a way to speak about it. ”The way I speak is through my music. I`m willing to take the chance of putting some people off by yelling about these things. It`s not as if they`re not very important issues.
Browne says he`s not trying to dictate solutions. His goal as a songwriter and performer is to raise the consciousness of his audience and convince listeners that these issues affect them, too.
”It`s very tempting to get into the studio with a bunch of arrangements and ideas for music and songs, but I`m not sure that`s the right way to,”
Browne said. ”This is an opportunity, while I`m writing my next album, to immerse myself in my best songs . . . in songs that sound complete and very simple, without much else but an instrument or two.
”The songs always have to communicate a feeling and an emotional thing;
you have to just go with your feelings, with your heart. I`m trying to play an intimate concert where you get to hear the songs more intimately . . . but at the same time I hope that this (tour) will strengthen my idea about what a song is.”
