WXPN's 885 Greatest Songs From Movies And TV, #10: Jackson Browne - Before The Deluge From The Movie No Nukes (1979)

"Before the Deluge" has always been one of my all-time favorite Jackson Browne songs. Yes, it's political - and therefore controversial - but it also has a gorgeous melody that was helped in no small part by the late great - and always drug free - David Lindley whose sad violin work on this tune is its highlight regardless of the track's intended message.


"Before the Deluge" is one of Browne's most memorable songs. It's from Late for the Sky (1974) - an album most people consider his best. I loved the original studio recording, but it was easily topped five years later by this live version from the historic No Nukes soundtrack that made the original sound lifeless by comparison. To me, it's the definitive performance of this great song and it made me realize just how important Lindley was to Browne's music. 

Browne continued to have a long and moderately successful recording career, but I always believed that after Lindley left his band following the release of Hold Out (1980) that the hall-of-fame singer-songwriter's records were never the same. His first album after Lindley's departure, Lawyers in Love (1983), was listenable, but something was missing, and I'm convinced it was the band's former main sideman. Whatever the reason, Browne never regained what he lost when his good friend left for a career of his own.

Many years later, the duo worked together again when they toured Europe together in 2006. A double-set, live album, Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino, celebrating the event was praised by the press. I even attended and wrote about their last stop on that tour at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
    

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