I listened to all 23 tracks of "Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne" over and over again for two or three days, and I keep coming up with the same inescapable conclusion - there is one and only one Jackson Browne.
Most of the tribute album left me feeling completely indifferent, cold, or even disgusted...although the tracks covered by Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, Keb 'Mo, Lyle Lovett, and Bruce Springsteen came close, they still didn't really satisfy me deep inside. Something crucial was missing - that special intonation, the timing, the diction, the soulfulness in the vocals, and the musical arrangements and instrumentation on the original recordings by Jackson Browne...
I went back to the source this morning, and collected my favorites from Jackson Browne's early 1970's recordings, and listened to a few in the car on the way to work.
Ahhhhh, now that really hits the spot... that's the way I like to hear "Fountain of Sorrow", "The Pretender", and "Running on Empty"...
Sometimes there is just no substitute for the real thing, the original...
