Somebody mined deep and took a lot of care putting Jackson Browne’s Going Home DVD together. This is actually a reissue of the 1999 video showcasing not just stage performances of this famous singer and songwriter but backstage footage, interviews, and more spanning the man’s 40-year career. Watching this DVD, you’ll be running between more recent footage of Browne playing songs like “I’m Alive” and “Before The Deluge” with his full, tighter-than-tight band, and clips with Browne and the amazing lap-steel player David Lindley in the studio and backstage, working on tunes like “Farther On” and “Take It Easy.”
In another sequence, Browne sits on stage with the Eagles in 1974 performing “Your Bright Baby Blues.” There are also seven different performances of “Doctor My Eyes” that span of Browne’s decades-long career doctored into one seamless whole. We get Browne and Lindley on stage again, during what looks like an unplugged segment, having some fun with David Crosby and Graham Nash, and then launching into the rich harmonies of “Lives In The Balance.”
There’s some great footage from 1979’s No Nukes shows at Madison Square Garden. A version of “All Along The Watchtower” with Bonnie Raitt made the cut. Or how about Browne backstage with a Russian band in 1987 or being interviewed on Italian TV? There are times the singer gets a little too middle of the road on tunes like “In The Shape Of A Heart.” But the moments of him on the piano in the studio, like on “These Days” and “Birds Of St. Marks,” are priceless.
The great thing about Going Home is the sheer number of tunes you get here — 23 in all. From concert footage and in-studio jams to backstage and even one from a soundcheck with Browne teaching his band “Good Morning Little Mutant” — this DVD has it all. The only disconcerting thing when you see Jackson Browne footage from over four decades is not that the guy is a great songwriter, but that he must be hoarding his own version of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, because he never seems to age. Some guys get all the luck.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
