#91: Los Angeles Style

Jackson Browne was almost a dear casualty of this rather ridiculous top-100 song exercise (which I last delivered-on three and half years ago!) One of his songs just squeezed onto the list while two other gems just barely missed out. This is a steep accomplishment considering I am familiar with so few of his songs overall. Three other bands also came close to such a hat trick but they are arguably my three faves and I know their catalogues back-to-front!

Browne is also significant as a major influence on the Eagles who is one of my faves and easily my most favourite band of those who somehow did not make this list. One of These Nights, title track of one of my fave albums of all time, came close.

Gerry Beckley was an army brat with English mom, who picked up piano and age three and guitar at age five and formed a band with London-area classmate; drummer Dave Atwood (who would not last long). The band took the name of the home nation of Beckley’s military father.

The group, well blessed with vocal harmony, became heavily influenced by Crosby Stills and Nash and it shows. Beckley wrote and sang the band’s first top-ten hit in 1972: I Need You, and three years later, as he endeavoured to imitate Jackson Browne’s LA style (observational) lyrics, he came up with this:

#91

SISTER GOLDEN HAIR

By Gerry Beckley (America)

1975, USA

Forty-four years later, America, after several line-up changes, is still active on the nostalgia concert circuit with two originals: Beckley and fellow U.S. Air Force base schoolmate Dewey Brunell.

Peak: #1, Billboard Hot 100. June 14, 1975

Here’s Minneota’s Reina del Cid and her delightful pals (none of them near as old as this song) with a sweet cover from last summer:

As for the three-and-a-half-year lay-off: I’m on pace to finish this top-100 list by 2094 at age 125! As you may have noticed I’m better at starting projects than finishing them. One of the hurdles was the realization that it would have been far more useful to publish a 100 must-hear song list instead, exposing some hidden and under-rated gems. Oh well. Maybe later. For now I have vowed to finish some old lingering projects including this one because it’s fun.