The Pretender (Jackson Browne song)

"The Pretender" is a song written and performed by American rock performer Jackson Browne and featured on his 1976 album The Pretender.

"The Pretender"
Spanish Picture Sleeve
Single by Jackson Browne
from the album The Pretender
B-side"Daddy's Tune"
ReleasedMay 1977 (1977-05)
Recorded1975 - early 1976
GenreRock
Length5:52
LabelAsylum/Elektra
Songwriter(s)Jackson Browne
Producer(s)Jon Landau
Jackson Browne singles chronology
"Here Come Those Tears Again"
(1976)		 "The Pretender"
(1977)		 "Running on Empty"
(1978)

History

"The Pretender" was composed, according to Browne, in a number of locations; in Los Angeles, within a rented store-front in North Hollywood, and in a "tacky" hotel in Hawaii. Browne is quoted to have claimed that the song was almost complete before he had discovered the defining opening piano-riff.[1]

In answering the question of who The Pretender is, Browne said - "...it's not me exactly, although sometimes people applaud for me at that moment in the song as if I am, but in truth there is a bit of The Pretender in me, but it's anybody that's sort of lost sight of some of their dreams...and is going through the motions and trying to make a stab at a certain way of life that he sees other people succeeding at. So maybe it's a lot of people of a certain generation who sort of embraced a very material lifestyle in place of dreams that they had that sort of disintegrated at some point."[1]

Piano is in the forefront, played by Craig Doerge. Drums are played by Jeff Porcaro, bass by Bob Glaub, acoustic guitar and electric guitar are played by Fred Tackett, harmonies performed by David Crosby and Graham Nash and the string section was arranged by David Campbell.

"The Pretender" was only a minor hit single, reaching #58 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending 5 weeks on the chart in 1977.[2][3] However, it gained substantial progressive rock radio and album-oriented rock airplay, and has since become a staple on many classic rock formats. It has been one of Browne's most often performed songs during his concert tours. As a result, it is one of Browne's best-known works.

It was featured in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus.

Critical analysis

William Ruhlmann calls the song "a cynical, sarcastic treatise on moneygrubbing and the shallow life of the suburbs," saying that it was "primarily inner-directed," and that "the song's defeatist tone demands rejection, but it is also a quintessential statement of its time, the post-Watergate '70s; dire as that might be, you had to admire that kind of honesty, even as it made you wince."[4]

Writing about the songs in the context of its placing as the finale on the album of the same title, Author Peter Ames Carlin noted in 2010 that "tellingly, this is the first JB album to not flirt with holy transcendence in its final grooves." He describes the song as "a tart portrait of society, but unlike, say, Billy Joel (whose simple folk are so often reduced to Davy-in-the-Navy caricatures) JB sees himself right in the middle of the crowd. 'We’ll fill in the missing colors in each others’ paint-by-numbers dreams,' he pledges." Compared to the "sweet, sticky erotica" one might recall Browne singing of with Bonnie Raitt on 1973's "The Times You've Come," Carlin says "this ain’t it. Not even close:"

We're gonna put our dark glasses on
And we'll make love until our strength is gone,
And when the morning light comes streaming in
We'll get up and do it again. Amen.

"The life of an idiot, perhaps. But certainly not a happy one," writes Carlin.[5]

Billboard Magazine described the song as having "a richly complex lyric and a sweeping melodic structure."[6]

Cover versions

A version appeared on the Dedication album released by Gary U.S. Bonds in 1981.

Lucinda Williams performed it on the Jackson Browne tribute album Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne.[7]

Columbus, Ohio band Saving Jane did an up-tempo version of the song for inclusion on their 2005 Girl Next Door album.[8]

Chart positions
Chart (1977) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 58

Notes
  1. Jackson Browne The Pretender on YouTube
  2. Jackson Browne discography
  3. Whitburn, Joel. Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Seventies. Wisconsin: Record Research, 1990.
  4. Ruhlmann, William. "The Pretender" ALLMUSIC Review Accessed July 9, 2012.
  5. Carlin, Peter Ames. "Jackson Browne De-and-Reconstructed: The Pretender." peteramescarlin.com. Accessed July 9, 2012.
  6. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. May 21, 1977. p. 74. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  7. "Release "Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne" by Various Artists". MusicBrainz. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  8. Allmusic.com. Accessed July 9, 2012.
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