Celebrating Something Softer

The Flood band room is usually a rather raucous place — rocking tunes, loud talk, lots of laughter — but often that mood can turn on a dime to something softer, even almost fragile. We hadn’t done this old Jackson Browne song for years, but something last week — about watching the beautiful spring evening come falling in, seeing those long shadows rolling down over the newly green leaves outside our windows — brought this song back to mind.About the Song“Jamaica Say You Will,” which Browne wrote in 1969 when he was just 20 years old, not only launched the singer/songwriter’s career, but also even helped found the record company that would bring his music to the world.The story goes that artist manager David Geffen signed Browne in 1970 after listening to a demo of this specific song. Right away, Geffen started searching for a record contact for his new artist.At one point, he pitched Browne to Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun, saying, “You’ll make a lot of money.” To that, Ertegun reportedly replied, “You know what, David? I have a lot of money. Why don’t you start a record company and then you’ll have a lot of money.”A year later, Geffen partnered with his old friend Elliot Roberts to create Asylum Records with the help of Ertegun, who put up the initial funds. Atlantic Records distributed Asylum Records with the profits split 50/50.Jackson Browne was one of first artists whom Geffen and Roberts signed for Asylum, and “Jamaica Say She Will” was the opening track of Browne’s self-titled debut album when it was released in September 1972. Browne was quickly joined on the new label that same year by Linda Ronstadt, John David Souther, David Blue, Joni Mitchell, Glenn Frey and others.For more about the song’s back story, see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here.“Jamaica” is one of several Jackson Browne songs in The Flood’s repertoire. As reported elsewhere in Flood Watch, from its earliest days the band has played “These Days” from Browne’s second album, For Everyman. More Song History?Meanwhile, if these back stories about songs hit the spot, you might want to browse Flood Watch’s growing archive of articles that explore the history of tunes in the band’s eclectic repertoire by visiting the free “Song Stories” department.There you can browse songs by their titles or by the time periods in which they were written and/or discovered. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com