Sister Golden Hair

So apparently Gerry Beckley wrote this song with Jackson Browne in mind. Which is interesting and might go some way towards explaining why it's America's least-bad hit, lyrically. (Talk about damning with faint praise.)

But also amazing when you compare it to Browne's then-current work: he would have released Late for the Sky the year before, home to the staggeringly brilliant "Fountain of Sorrow," and was working on The Pretender. Which, I mean. It's not my favorite of Browne's 70s work—in fact, it's probably my least favorite. But it's "The Fuse" and "Here Comes Those Tears Again" and, oh yes, the phenomenal title track.

And from that we get...this. Which, as this dandy cover makes plain, is—don't get me wrong—delightful, with its crazily catchy melody, neat chord changes, and lyrics that are, by America's (very, very low) standards, pretty okay.

But Jackson Browne they ain't. Still, not everything needs to be. I suppose.