By Brad Gallagher:
Today’s post is going to be short and sweet. It is about a little tidbit I recently heard on the radio in regards to Jackson Browne’s debut album that was simply titled “Jackson Browne”. Even though many rock artists start their careers with an album named after themselves, this particular album carried with it a certain amount of confusion as to its name.
As The Story Goes:
Jackson Browne’s self-titled debut album, featuring his hit songs, “Doctor My Eyes”, and “Rock Me On The Water” peaked on the Billboard 200 charts at # 53. The title of the album, as I mentioned was just “Jackson Browne”, however, many fans referred to it under a different name.
It all came down to the cover art. Browne decided to use a picture of an old time desert water bag, that he had collected in his travels, as the cove art. The bag was designed to be filled with water and then hung over your hood ornament or radiator cap. Then as you drove through the desert the natural evaporation would cool the water and also help keep the radiator cool. The bag bared the phrase “Saturate Before Using”.
He described it like this: “I remember being on the phone with Gary… talking about what the album cover should be, and I happened to be in a room that had a water bag on the wall. It was just one of the things that I collected driving around on trips and stuff. And I was looking at this bag as he was saying ‘what do you think it ought to be?’ I was thinking, ‘well, it could be a water bag.’ … it said ‘saturate before using’ on the front … ‘You know, Gary, on mine, it says this on the back.’ And you said, well, so?’ And ‘if you put it on the front, people are going to think that’s the title.’ And you said, ‘don’t be ridiculous. Who would think that was the title?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ So, not only does everyone think that’s the title of that album, but my record company thinks that’s the title of the album.”1
The record company, Asylum Records, tried to convince him not to use that cover art, but Browne refused to concede. And to this day there are still those who think the title of his first album is “Saturate Before Using”.
From this debut album, the song “Doctor My Eyes” peaked at #8 on the Billboard charts, and “Rock Me On The Water” peaked at #48. Not bad for a debut album from an unknown 21 year old singer/song writer. Who, by the way, has a tremendously crisp and clear singing voice. And great hair. I encourage you to check it out. And come back and see me real soon right hear at As The Story Goes.
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[1] Burden, Gary & Diltz, Henry. Under The Covers DVD, Jackson Browne Audio Interview. Archived May 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine 2002
AS THE STORY GOES 