The early 1970s was such a wonderful time for music.
The ’60s was the era of rock groups, from the Beatles to the Doors to the Beach Boys to the Kinks and many others and the late ’70s was the era of the abomination we call disco.
But the period from 1971 to the middle of the decade was the golden age of the singer-songwriter. It was the era of Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen, of James Taylor and Cat Stevens to name just a few.
Then there was J.D. Souther.
Souther wrote some of the most memorable songs of the ’70s, although his versions of them are not the ones most people remember. He wrote some of the Eagles’ best songs as well as ones memorialized by Linda Ronstadt.
The first time I heard a Souther song was 1975, the title song of her album “Prisoner in Disguise.”
“You think the love you never had might save you but true love takes a little time. You can touch it with your fingers and try to believe your eyes, is it love or lies?”
I have loved this song for nearly 50 years, and there are so many other great songs you may not have known were written by Souther, who died Tuesday at age 78.
“Faithless Love,” “You’re Only Lonely” and three great Eagles songs — “The Sad Cafe,” “Best of My Love” and “New Kid in Town,” to name just a few. He cowrote the Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight” and Don Henley’s wonderful “The Heart of the Matter.”
He had a lesser known song that was wonderful, although it shares a title with at least two other better known songs.
Souther joined with Chris Hillman and Richie Furay in 1974 to form the SHF Band, which released two albums before breaking up. Hillman came from the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers and Furay had been in Buffalo Springfield and Poco. The band didn’t last, at least in part because of tensions when Furay became a born-again Christian.
When people think of the great singer-songwriters, Souther isn’t always one of the first that comes to mind. But I would be willing to bet there are at least a couple of his songs you love.
Rest in peace, J.D.
“Well this night life is my life but there’s no one else in it and sometimes those lonesome breezes blow.
But it’s no show so you might as well go if you think you could win it without losing and letting it show.
The city is no place to hide in, everybody knows your number and you know that you could never be alone if you tried.
You just run like a man with no reason to run and no place to ever arrive.
You must be a prisoner, look just like a prisoner. Well you must be a prisoner in disguise.”