The unlikely song Jackson Browne calls “one of the greatest of all time”
With 15 studio albums and over 18million album sales to his name, alongside a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction from none other than Bruce Springsteen himself, there are few people more qualified to name the greatest songs of all time than Jackson Browne.
The German-born artist discovered his talent for songwriting at an impressively young age, reportedly writing ‘These Days’, the iconic track recorded by Andy Warhol and Nico, at just 16 years old. Browne went on to pen songs that would be recorded by the likes of Joan Baez and the Byrds, while his own recorded music garnered him Grammy nominations, shows alongside the likes of Joni Mitchell, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, and even a feature in Scorsese’s cult classic, Taxi Driver.
Browne retains his influence on music even today – in 2021, he worked with modern indie staple Phoebe Bridgers on a Spotify Singles special version of her track ‘Kyoto’. Amidst his lengthy presence in the music industry and his knowledge of songwriting, Browne has declared his love and admiration for a number of other artists, from The Kinks to Crowded House, the latter of whom he suggested penned one of the greatest songs of all time.
Collating members from across Australia and New Zealand, Crowded House almost rival Browne with their success, having sold over 15 million records, but it was their debut that would spawn their most memorable hit. In 1986, the band unveiled the self-titled Crowded House, a collection of songs which included the iconic ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’.
Speaking with the New Zealand Herald, Browne stated that the song was one of his favourite Crowded House songs and, furthermore, “one of the greatest songs of all time”. When he first met the band at the 1986 Rainbow Warrior concert in Auckland, he recalls being immediately “so knocked out, by Neil, by their playing. I thought, God, who is this guy?”
Penned by Crowded House vocalist Neil Finn, ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ formed the fourth single and the fourth track from the band’s debut album. As Finn recalled to Goldmine, it was written on his brother’s piano: “I’m not sure if I remember what the context was, exactly, but it was just about on the one hand feeling kind of lost, and on the other hand sort of urging myself on: Don’t dream it’s over. That one actually fell out literally, without me thinking about it too much.”
Mitchell Froom, the producer of three Crowded House albums, remembers helping to finish the song: “The day I did it, I knew I had something quite special. Then the next day we played it with the band and it sounded like a bag of s–t. It was only when Mitchell suggested the bassline, which Nick (Seymour) elaborated on, that it really found its groove. I was wavering away doing demos, and Mitchell made some quite profound suggestions. Like an R&B bassline might be better than a rock or pop approach, or a Hammond organ could sound nice. These were not textures I was used to. He filled in quite a few areas that we weren’t covering, but maybe it made our individual sounds less distinctive. It took a while, but then ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ started to work in the US and whole record went on to have a pretty big life.”
Over breezy guitars and understated percussion, Finn repeats the comforting words that form the song’s title. It’s a track that has only become more iconic since its release, covered by the likes of Paul Young and Sixpence None the Richer and featured in a swathe of films and series from The Perks of Being A Wallflower to Adventureland.
Widely loved for over three decades since its first release, it’s no surprise that Browne dubs it one of the best songs of all time. Revisit ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ by Crowded House below.
