Added: 5 years ago
From: ragbagken
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  • thanks

  • Always loved the song, the Pretender was my CB Handle as a truck driver.

  • I dont think I can get my hair back, but would for sure go back with you...My hats off to Jackson for one hell of an acustic performance Monday at Akron University!

  • I want born yet, But Im glad I was so i can listen to this beautiful song

  • worst lip sinking ever

  • @chupalia are you stupid? lip sync is a completely different definition than sink... and it would only be relevant if you were on ashlee simpson video or something

  • @KiokiMoto How about i punch you in the back of the head?

  • The song is about a former liberal who becomes a conservative. Its a tragedy. As a liberal who became a conservative who became a liberal say a prayer for this pretender.

  • @hulkthor1 You're either ignorant, an idiot., or a troll.

    Where do you people get this stuff? Did you think of it yourself or copy it from somewhere?

  • wat is dis, i want the foo fighters nt some old guy!!!

  • @DudsyHD

    Sorry, the Foo Fighters were about 30 years too late coming up with their song titles :)

  • @Schbopo wow genuinely surprised you didn't realize i was being sarcastic and/or trolling *insert pointless emoticon*

  • No disrespect intended, but I don't remember any out-of-sync video to audio back in the days of Analog Television, before all this Digital crap, indeed when this perfomance took place in 1976. (by An Analog Engineer).

    And I Love the song and this video, of course. Thanks for posting it.

  • Roll the credits. Awesome.

  • Go Jackson Browne Wooh hoo

    Say it again!!??

    AMEN

  • Back in 1980, I was on a Greyhound from Philadelphia to Ames, IA. I met a guy who told me he was schizophrenic and also claimed to be the ice cream vendor referred to in this song. Always makes me smile to think of it.

  • @juliekstroup I suppose you wouldn't believe I'm the junkman in this song. Excuse me while I go pound on my fender and take my medication.

  • i want him! :)

  • so great .. love this song x

  • Another Great Artist. He co wrote "Take It Easy", with The Eagles' Glen Frey. And after saying that he couldn't complete it, (I think because he was stuck for a second verse), Glen Frey did, and recorded it as an Eagles' Track. I like Jackson Browne's music. Very good.

  • Never quit,never back off,never loose sight of your goals. Get up,dust yourself off and climb back in that saddle and keep riding. Sucess is a relative term. Just depends on what side you want to be on. Drive On Jackson! NO NUKES!!!

  • 彼の波のある人生を乗り越えた自信にみちた,軽快な一面を感じる­。

    

  • WHAT IF I SAY I'M NOT LKE THE OTHERS, WHAT IF I SAY I'M NOT JUT ANOTHER ONE IN YOU PLACE, YOUR THE PRETENDER, WHAT IF I SAY I WILL NEVER SURRENDER.

    lol, just kidding all :)

  • ...'between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender'... Sad lyrics, brilliant writing.

  • GOD

  • GDO

  • I really think everyone should just drop all the fighting and enjoy the music Jackson Browne made for so many years. The man is incredibly talented and he's given most of us so much to love and enjoy in our lives - his words and music. Give it a break and just leave him alone. Really, who can throw the first stone? If he made any mistakes, well come on we all do. Just enjoy the man's music, and if you can't - go somewhere else!

  • Youve saved my life plenty of times, reawakened my creativity, and spoke to my soul. Thank you JB!

  • "AND THE JUNKMAN POUNDS HIS FENDER"; Takes me instantly back to my youth!!!

  • isn't this song about a guy who lives just to make money?

  • in another lifetime this guy would be Byron or Shelley

  • Perhaps, I have to go to the older version of "The Pretender".

  • love him, but he was a wife beater

  • @peefus67 I'm so tired of hearing this.

    Type Jackson + Browne + Abuse into Google. It's a true as Gere's gerbil incident.

  • @peefus67 look up the facts on the public police record. Jackson called the police, not his wife.If he had anything to hide he wouldn't have called the cops, and the cops investigated the situation and found the woman was not hurt in any way, she was simply trying to make it easier to divorce so she wouldnt feel bad about herself so she dissed an innocent man.

  • @4FabBEATLES this lady was abused by my exhusband and he did time for it, so dont come at me with myths, cause I know the truth

  • @peefus67 and yet your "truth" has what to do with Jackson Browne again? Are you claiming to be Phyllis Major or Lynne Sweeney (his only two ex-wives)? Even Daryl Hannah has came out and said that the "abuse" incident never truly occurred just a couple of years ago. You can't just throw terms like "wife beater" around based on information that has been debunked for years...then claim some sort of "truth" when the "myths" prove your ignorance on the topic.

  • @Unlitedsoul what I really want to say would get me thrown off the site; still if you think you are the authority on the criminal background of JB, wear that fake badge well. Maybe you can change the world one comment at a time on youtube, but I wouldnt hold my breath

  • Before he got a Producer, it was the riff "happy iddiots"...oh well.

  • if u look for the pretender. u will find jackson but u will also find The Foo Fighters. The newest and one of the best rock n roll bands right up there with J.B.

  • His wife had committed suicide earlier in the year. No wonder he looks so sad.

  • @SuperFringy few remember. most never knew. tragic.

  • "I'm gonna find myself a girl who can show me what laughter means and we'll fill in the missing colors in each of our paint by # dreams" ..seriously...GENIUS ..and can tell me, who wouldn't want that?! honestly?!

  • "I'm gonna find myself a girl who can show me what laughter means and we'll fill in the missing colors in each of our paint by # dreams" ..seriously...GENIOUS ..and can tell me, who wouldn't want that?! honestly?!

  • "the mass of men lead lives of quite desperation" -H.D. Thoreau

    they nailed it

  • -like some greater awakening

  • fashions change, hair sytle change,,,technology chages,,,but people dont. listen to the leson. i have loved jacksons musis, music, since i was 15. 30 years lator,, its still real

  • THE TIMES CHANGE BUT THE MUSIC DOSE'NT, DO IT.......

  • We'll get up and do it again!! Good night all my friends on FB!! Struggle for the legal tender!! Say a prayer for the pretender!!

  • His music is so rich, especially with David Lindley!

  • First heard this song from "Mr. Holland's Opus." It was one of my faves from the soundtrack :)

  • I wsh I had been born in that era!!!! I want to go to woodstock!!!! I wish I was there :'(

  • probably the best song ever written!

  • I wanta go back too.

  • This is one JBs best songs - my opinion here. I'm too old to care about the Top 40 of today and what I've heard of it has me rolling my eyes in disbelief. Yes, it was good to live in the 70s and have music such as this accompanying our lives, because that is part of what music does. If you like JB, give Steve Goodman or John Prine a listen - they'res on You Tube and just as relevent as our man Jackson. Long live great music!

  • I'm glad my mom forgot the name of this artist and made me look it up. This music is awesome

  • I was right in the middle of these good times back in the 60's and 70's. Such a good time to be in. In the 70's I was in a band and playing some Jackson Browne songs. His songs were such fun and still are. He is one of my favorite.

  • this is a great song. i think that people nowadays dont know real music. though im young i have been exposed to many older songs. todays music is meaningless. it used to be expression buut now its all about getting drunk and being stupid. haha

  • @BeachBabe905 You are so right. It's got the beat and the heat, but no meat. It's rhymes, not poetry..

  • At the age of 25 I truely appreciate music of the "classic" era. Todays popular top 40 type music is absolute trash......

  • Please...take me with you back to 1976!

  • iM GOINNA RENT MYSEL A HOUSE IN THE SHADE OF THE FREEWAY....GOINNA PACK MY LUNCH IN THE MORNING ............AND GO TO WORK EACH DAY! AND WHEN THE EVENING ROLLES AROUND, iLL GO HOME AND LAY MY BODY DOWN!

  • I'll get up and do it again.

  • @TBW92 Isn't that we all do every day? Love it!!!~

  • Good lyrics. I mean, the things he's singing about are reality for some people. But the music is pretty boring to me. Clueless and depressive.

  • He has that rare ability as writer, to put flesh and poignant meaning on subjects that we all identify with, but find difficult to articulate, or express ourselves. His own personal journey of life, tragedy, love, and meaning, are so often given profound consideration and exploration in many of his songs and is in part why he is so fondly admired and respected, because his finger is on the pulse of what it is to be everyman

    A rare gift, in an age that is vacuous

  • This is an old version of the Pretender over a video, what a joke.

  • The joke is actually you Belisa, sometimes when posting video on here there is a lag between the visual and audio. Do your homework!! or else you will look like an idiot!

  • A great song, really hits home to some of us who lived those days and probably some that didn't. Really brings back the old days.

  • Timeless..Good times!

  • what a great song. melancholy at its finest

  • This is of my generation - Didn't think much of it either way then.

  • What make guitar is Jackson playing?

  • glad my man mentioned you!

  • Geez thats sweet, even after all these years.

  • the veterans still dream of the fight, fast asleep at the traffic light... reminds me of my father

  • Give it up......give the man a round of applause....writing the songs of our soul....how sweet...how sad sometimes..he's reaching and grasping for something just out of his sight... the .lovely Mr. Browne,

  • God takes me back quite a few years and it's as good now as it was then.

  • If you find a way to go back I'm going with you. Give me a few months to get the hair back, get me some bell bottoms, and find my old 68 Camaro. Great Era of music that will never be again.

  • Can I go, too? I'd love it . . . can't help but be transported by his music. Saw him this summer in Cinci . . . would have been a 50+ groupie but doubt children would approve!

  • @hotstuffandicecream I'll hitch a ride and go back too. I'll drive with in my 76 Camaro.

  • @hotstuffandicecream Save me a seat, you guys! I still have my suede fringe vest!

  • @hotstuffandicecream Forget the hair, you remeber not to regret.

  • @hotstuffandicecream Me and you cant get our hair back or flairs, but what we can do is relish the Music of the Day and what it made us What we areXX

  • Great song ...un clasico de los 70´s en la que Jackson Browne canta con un sentimiento unico .un Grande del Folk-rock.

  • truer now than ever

  • love jackson browne

  • JB is the MAN!!! and his guitar looks like it has 1000 frets on it...very cool! he is the "everyman's" voice. He puts to lyrics and song what we cannot expain with our mere vocabulary....genius.

  • trollers are amusing. they should seriously rethink if that is actually a good use of time.

  • "out into the cool of the evening, strolls the pretender" This is one of the best song lyrics EVER. He captures the hopes, dreams, disapointments etc of the everyday working stiff. It is still topical today. It's so haunting!

    "I'm gonna be a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender"

    That about sums it all up!

  • Jackson Browne has encapsulated the human experience perfectly. His portraite of humanity will transcend generations and time. pure genius

  • Couldn't have said it better myself!

  • I suppose you could be less than

    impressed with his public spat with Daryl Hannah, but in my opinion it least his

    musical body of work is not only flawless

    but incredibly inspired and brilliant.

  • @johnnybluballs AMEN, Say it again, AMEN.

  • it was fucking sweet how he said "roll the credits" and they kept playing for them

  • what the fuck? Jackson is being called a Nazi? All I need to know to know ya'll f'n up this music,this country,and your lives.get smarter,listen,know history.

  • A Nazi - I've never come across a sweeter, less Nazi chap in all my life!

  • And he's certainly no Nazi. I often read negative comments on youtube about the performers, and I wonder why anyone would click on a link to watch a clip of someone they hate. That can't be a valuable use of a person's time and energy.

  • i couldnt agree with u more if i had said it myself.

  • There are some among us who rail against anything good, particularly anyone who dares to communicate. They're not sane. One of the methods used is smearing with labels and accusations, used on artists, the few decent politicians, or anyone with enough power to influence ideas toward bettering society or making people stronger, more vital, more alive. Jackson communicates.

  • Jackson isn't a Kraut. His dad was in the service and stationed in Heidelberg. He worked on the Stars & Stripes newspaper and was very much an American.

  • amazing song, it truly is!

  • He's great! That's it!

  • without doubt the best ever

  • thats why we love him cus idiots dont

  • LOL

  • Good for you, don't watch his videos then.

  • I nonly noticed how much of a dick you are. Why did you post that shite on a jackson browne video?

  • Not sure that the Pretender is about his ex-wife but For a Dancer makes sense for that as she was a dancer.

  • k well i'm 14 do we have any 13s?

  • yea, turnign 13 in like 6 days

  • it really hurt me to write what I had to write way back when, but i had to defend Jackson, he's a man of great talent, and I couldn't sit back and let some little brat attack his music or my love for it. Thanks ragbagken for leaving my comments no matter how ugly it got between the lines.

  • Comment removed

  • Or a neocon bigot.

  • I'm 15 and i love him

  • check out Warren Zevon while you on this road, He is well worth it!!

  • 20, and I have seen him once in concert and I'm going again this summer.

  • this video reminds me of an old kung fu movie where the lips move and the words come out six seconds later.

  • Anyone who smacks women around has gotta be cool right?

  • One of the best artists to ever live. So much heart in that music. Just wonderful!!!!

  • gotta agree with you there my friend. i saw him on saturday night, he was just awesome :D

  • i'm supposed to be some cool calm hardened scottish man. i'm only 20 but when i went to see him in glasgow i didn't even notice him come on stage but when he played the first chord on the piano i burst into tears couldn't believe it felt like a tit until i saw some older greaser in the same state beside me. coolest man alive and makes bob dylan look like some sort of boring machine. going to see him in glasgow again in april cant wait.

  • hey big man ive felt this way for 30 years

    hope to to meet you in april remember he set the eagles on thier way they were backin up linda ronstad

  • I was with you until you trashed Bob Dylan. He's a genius.

  • The Pretender..a song inspired by a wife that took her own life..I wouldn't last more than a few days if this happened to me...Then the song "These Days"..how does any sixteen year old kid wirte a song like that. (It saved my life)..if anybody out there knows Jackson..tell him THANKS for me!

  • Great singer song writer awesome performer

  • Im a young man, only 22, however when you hear the name jackson browne one goes weak at the knees, here is man of such charisma, someone who transends emotion, i dont' have a bad word to say about him, an absolute legend!!

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  • time to buy some dark glasses

  • Timeless song.

  • I agree, my #1 favorite song of ALL time.  This song is perfection. It describes the struggle and compromises we all make every day.

  • yeah --- always loved this ----- tore me down and built me up ---- all in 3 minutes

  • this is one of the greatest songs ever written.gary us bonds does a great version of this song with bruce springsteen and the e street band.

  • I definitely agree.

  • just make sure that you got it all set to go before you come for my piano. I know wrong song, but stop fighting on Youtube

  • this is an old LP dubb over a video. what a joke!

  • i think by posting a comment smackdaddy you answer you own argument, you clearly care who fromthispoint thinks is sexy !!

  • HAHA, you got me!

  • Love this song Jaskson Browne is amazing and sexy as well.

  • What is wrong with you? Nobody cares about what you think is 'sexy' A good thing would be for you to shut your cock-holster and stop ruining songs for people with moronic comments.

  • Jackson Browne being sexy dont ruin a song hahah and dont you worry about my cock or my holster and what I do with it ...he is sexy

  • Timeless....

  • Lyrics and music should go together. One won't work without the other to create meaningful music. Jackson has the ability to create both. It is a gift.

  • I just learned some of my favorite songs were by him. I never knew who they were by but I always got excited when I heard them. I found out yesterday when some guy was covering running on empty and I looked up Jackson Browne. He's a great musician especially his lyrics

  • So...don't click on the Foo Fighters song, problem solved!

  • so thankful for this music, thank you

  • Springsteen, Steve Earle, Dylan, and somewhere in there Townes...

  • thanks......say a prayer for him......

  • then why can't you spell his name right :P?

  • Im 14 and have grown up with both jacksone and springsteen. I prefer jacksone browne, some of his lyrics are astonishing, he can say something in a few words, that other artists would need a number of lines for. The naked ride home is the perfect example. - Then one room at a time i watched every light in our house go off, like the truth that would eventually dawn , forcing me to decide.

  • jackson browne,billy joel, van morrison

  • Best three songwritters 1)Dylan 2) Gordon Lightfoot 3) Jackson Browne, decent list?

  • when i hear this song i always think it was written about about me

  • AHH. i love this.

  • Jackson, Have loved your music but stop hitting your women!!!! Amen.

  • It's well documented that Jackson Browne did NOT hit Daryl Hannah. Both have denied it. The police officers who responded to Browne's 911 call all filed very specific reports on this. The dispute was that Hannah was moving out of Browne's house after a spat, and Browne called police because he believed Hannah was trying to remove items that did not belong to her. When the tabloids got wind of a police response to the Browne/Hannah home, the story tok on a life of its own as an urban myth.

  • News People hardly ever get the true story right. Believe me I know. What news people do is make up parts of a story they do not know.

  • he preforme this and cry because there are a couple of songs that make me cry thinking about my wife. she did commit suicide like his did not

  • I saw him on Monday night (10/27/08) in Atlanta and he was great, and by far, by far, by far the highlight was The Pretender. He had the band and equipment to be rock & roll loud, but knows how to use it. He started with just piano, and then built it to rock, then stopped, playing softly again.... and bang, back into almost hard rock, on and on. The sound system was perfect and all 2,000 people were on there feet clapping and singing.

    Great show. Not Springsteen, but who is? Very good.

  • That sounds like a great show! Since you asked about Springsteen...The Ramones trash that NJ guy!

  • I'm a HUGE Springsteen fan, but to my mind Browne is a superior writer and singer. This takes nothing away from Bruce's astonishing talents. Browne is just that much better than the Boss, and in some regards it's an apples-oranges comparison.

    Peace,

    Toby

  • Toby,

    We can agree to disagree. I love Jackson, too.

    However, I have to wonder how familiar you are with Bruce's catalog or how many times you've seen him live.

    Over the last 36 years I don't think anyone has performed at Bruce's level of excellence, writing, in the studio, and performing. In fairness, I haven't seen Jackson 55 times, including multiple shows on every tour beginning in 78, and I don't know all of his albums. How many of Bruce's 20, excluding compilations, do you know well?

  • Well, it's a really subjective thing, a matter of taste. That's why I said "to my mind Browne is...superior..." I'm thoroughly acquainted with both Springsteen's and Browne's work, and I've seen both live many times. As I said before, The Boss is an astonishingly good writer and performer. I just have a slight preference for Browne, that's all.

    Peace,

    Toby

  • I just saw him in concert yesterday. it was great :D

  • did his wife committ scuicide? i think she did and that must have been so hard for him. Anyway please check out my originals

  • Show some compassion, good grief. This is a beautiful song written when he was going through a horrible time in his life. It amazes me how many people are out there with no compassion for others. No wonder the state of the world is such a mess.

  • i don't know how he can preforme this and not cry,because there are a couple of songs that still make me cry thinking about my late wife and she didn't commit suicide like his did