The fate of 1970s Laurel Canyon-style singer-songwriters in the 1980s was diverse. Some (England Dan, Paul Davis) went country; some refused to change until world music woke them up to new possibilities (Paul Simon); some focused on soundtracks (Carole King). But others simply adapted their sound, making use of new technologies while following their same muses, thus producing much the same music, only a little brighter, a little tighter, and a little more pop. This is James Taylor, Carly Simon--and most of all, Jackson Browne.
Browne's contrarian folkish sensibility always made room for the enhanced capacities of rock and roll, as the rueful, rocking genius in the lyrics and orchestration of "The Load-Out/Stay" from 1978 makes clear. But I don't think he ever got better than "Lawyers in Love," my absolute favorite Browne composition, which hit the Billboard charts 40 years ago this week. The song reflects both the musical style and the political moment of 1983 with a whimsy and a satire that I think has rarely been equaled by any artist with any kind of pretensions to seriousness. The video is, admittedly, a weird mess, but if anyone in the 1980s came up with a sharper Cold War line than "eating from TV trays / tuned into Happy Days / waiting for World War III while Jesus slaves," I don't know what it is.
