Jackson Browne with David Lindley - The Main Point, Bryn Mawr, PA, 9-7-1975

Here's a really epic Jackson Browne concert. It was nearly three hours long! The sound quality is great, and the performance is too. So if you're a fan of his music, you should get this.

Furthermore, this concert has been a popular bootleg for many years, but it now sounds much better than ever before. It was broadcast live on a local radio station as it happened. But even though it took place in a small club, there was a lot of crowd noise through the songs.

Last week (I'm writing this in February 2024), I noticed that my sometimes musical associate Lil Panda recently posted this concert at a bootleg sharing website. I recently showed him the technique of reducing the crowd noise through new AI technologies. (He uses the program X-Minus.) You may recall I used this technique to improve an Elliott Smith concert boot a few weeks ago. Not only did he use this to improve this concert, but he's been using it to improve a bunch of other recordings. So I hope we'll see more good work from him, and that others will start using it more as well.

Anyway, that helped a lot, but I noticed there still was a low buzzing sound through nearly the entire concert. Since this was an acoustic concert with no bass player, I was able to use another technique: I broke the songs into four tracks (vocals, drums, bass, and other) and then simply eliminated the bass track. This got rid of most of the buzz, though not all of it. 

And while I was at it, I noticed occasional sharp spikes in the drum track during songs, which didn't make sense since there was no drumming either. I checked each one, and found they were usually due to plosives in the singing. That means the loud popping of P sounds. Singers try hard to avoid this, but Browne was popping his P's all over this concert, for some reason. But I just eliminated those spikes and got rid of most of those.

This concert sounded very good already, since it was professionally recorded to start with, but after what Lil Panda and I did to it, it sounds even better, in my opinion. Even if you have this already, you should get this new version.

Now, let me discuss this musical content. In 1975, Browne had released three excellent studio albums, but he still wasn't a big star. Notice he was still playing a small club. (His popularity would surge with his 1976 and 1978 albums.) Starting in 1972, he began musically collaborated with David Lindley, and Lindley would tour with Browne nearly all the time until around 1980, when he started his own solo career. The only two people on stage at this concert were Browne and Lindley. Lindley really added a lot, because he had many talents, playing over 40 different instruments. He alternated between different instruments here, especially violin and lead guitar. 

Lindly also essentially did his own solo set in the middle of this concert. He took the spotlight for tracks 13 through 19, all instrumentals. I labeled all the songs the same in this concert for consistency's sake, but I was tempted to label those songs "David Lindley with Jackson Browne" instead of the other way around.

Another interesting aspect of this concert is that Browne sang three songs by Warren Zevon: "Mohammed's Radio," "Werewolves of London," and "Hasten Down the Wind." At the time, Zevon was essentially an unknown in the music world. He'd released one obscure solo album in 1970, but that was long forgotten by 1975. His solo career would essentially start in 1976 with the released of his album "Warren Zevon." Browne produced this album. I don't know the exact timing, but I'm guessing Browne knew these Zevon songs well enough to play them in concert because he was right in middle of producing that album.

What's interesting though is that one of those Zevon songs was "Werewolves of London." You can hear the crowd loved it. Yet it wasn't included on Zevon's 1976 album, for some reason. Instead, it was released on his next one, in 1978. It went on to be a big hit for him, and his signature song.

Browne has long been criticized for being too sober and serious, kind of the stereotype of the earnest, mellow, and politically correct singer-songwriter. Naturally, he played a lot of his serious original songs here. But he also showed a different side, mostly through a selection of playful and rocking cover songs, such as "Do You Wanna Dance," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Run Boy Run," and "Runaway." He even played an obscure cover song, "You Asshole You," that made the audience laugh. Other covers included "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies," "Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes," "Long Distance Love," and "Cocaine." (That last one would appear on his blockbuster 1978 album "Running on Empty.")

Due to its length, sound quality, performance, and song selection, this is probably the ultimate 1970s Browne concert recording.

This album is two hours and 47 minutes long.

01 Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
02 Take It Easy (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
03 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
04 Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
05 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
06 Long Distance Love (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
07 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
08 Fountain of Sorrow (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
09 Jamaica Say You Will (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
10 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
11 Mohammed's Radio (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
12 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
13 Fiddlin' Around [Instrumental] (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
14 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
15 True Arkansas Traveler [Instrumental] (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
16 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
17 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry [Instrumental] - Instrumental (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
18 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
19 Reel of the Hanged Man [Instrumental] (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
20 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
21 For Everyman (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
22 The Times You've Come (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
23 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
24 Song for Adam (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
25 Cocaine (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
26 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
27 You Asshole You [You Just Want Meat] (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
28 Werewolves of London (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
29 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
30 Late for the Sky (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
31 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
32 For a Dancer (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
33 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
34 Hasten Down the Wind (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
35 Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
36 These Days (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
37 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
38 Before the Deluge (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
39 talk (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
40 Do You Wanna Dance (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
41 Run Boy Run (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
42 Redneck Friend (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
43 Sweet Little Sixteen (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
44 Pipeline [Instrumental] - Runaway (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)
45 Your Bright Baby Blues (Jackson Browne with David Lindley)

https://www.imagenetz.de/f9F9s

For the cover, I wanted a photo of Browne and Lindley together in the 1970s. But I found surprisingly few. This was really the only decent color one I came across. I don't know the details, but it looks to be from the 70s.