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
So you're keeping your distance
A little
bit of room around you
But if he doesn't return your call on
time
Oh my my
You just act like a fool on a holiday
There's
nothing that you wouldn't try
You must be a prisoner in disguise
– From “Prisoner In Disguise” by J.D. Souther
Eagles' fans may be surprised to learn that someone who is not a member of the band wrote or co-wrote many of their big hits – “How Long,” “Heartache Tonight,” “New Kid in Town,” “Best of My Love,” “Heartache Tonight,” “The Sad Cafe,” “Doolin' Dalton.” That would be J.D. Souther. He is an incredible artist in his own right. If you have never heard of him, you should discover his catalog and enjoy his music.
J.D. Souther also wrote Linda Ronstadt classics like “Faithless Love” and “Prisoner in Disguise” and “Her Town Too” for James Taylor. In addition, Souther has worked with numerous other artists and writers, including Bonnie Raitt, Warren Zevon, Paul Williams, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Hugh Masekela, Burt Bacharach, Dixie Chicks, Raul Malo, India Arie, Roy Orbison, Arthur Hamilton, George Strait, Brian Wilson, Bob Dipiero, Bernadette Peters, and Trisha Yearwood.
Souther released successful solo albums praised by publications like Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, Jazz Times, and American Songwriter.
J.D. Souther’s songs have appeared on over 117 million albums sold worldwide. In 2012, he was cast as a guest star on ABC’s hit show Nashville as legendary producer, songwriter and mentor Watty White.
Souther has received many accolades including Grammy nominations, Academy of Country Music and American Music Awards, over twenty ASCAP performance awards and the prestigious ASCAP Golden Note Award in 2009. On June 14, 2013, Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and called "a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters."
John David Souther (born November 2, 1945) was raised in Amarillo Texas, where he heard a lot of opera, big band, and jazz. He said in a 2015 interview with T. Cole Rachel for Interview Magazine that his grandmother sang opera, and his father sang in a big band. Souther was also influenced by fellow Texan Roy Orbison’s rock and roll music.
In fourth grade Souther learned to play the violin, followed by the clarinet; it wasn’t until he was 12 that he learned to play the drums and to this day feels it is the instrument he plays best (although he also plays guitar and piano).
During high school and college he played in different jazz and rock n’ roll bands as a drummer, including John David & The Senders.
By 1968, 23-year-old J. D. Souther was also living in Los Angeles and earning a living as a session musician. He’d picked up a guitar that had been left in his apartment and found a new instrument besides playing drums and piano, that suited his songwriting and performing.
“I wanted something tonal that I could write songs with and someone left a guitar in my apartment in 1968 back in L.A. I’d never even held a guitar until then. I started noodling around on it and I thought, 'Well shit. Not only can I play chords and voicing and find melodies and counter melodies on here, I can also put this thing on my back and get on my Triumph motorcycle and get to the Troubadour and back.' It was almost that simple.”
-- J.D. Souther (2015)
(T. Cole Rachel. The Tender Hand of JD Souther.” Interview Magazine. May 11, 2015.)
There, Souther met a couple of struggling musicians – Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey. He played with Frey briefly in the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle. Their lone album was released in 1970 on Jimmy Bowen's Amos Records. (Souther would also contemplate, and decide against, joining the Eagles).
(Anita Hamilton. “Celebrating Seniors - JD Souther Turns 70.” 50+ World. November 2, 2015.)
“Writing songs in that group was not exactly a love circle. A bad idea was met with stony silence. For a pretty good idea, somebody might go, 'All right.' For a very good idea, Frey might say, 'I think we could use that.' And even with an excellent idea, Don (Henley) just mostly made faces and offered corrections. He’s such a literate guy and he’s so precise about language.
“But Glen, we used to call him “Greg-a-rious” because he was so outgoing about everything, and so demonstrative. But if it was a really good idea, then he’d do this peace sign with both hands. But when we all wrote together there would be hours of this difficult back and forth. Someone would put forth a line, and the other two guys, silence, or maybe 'Hmm,' which basically meant, you’re an asshole, don’t bring that up again.”
– J.D. Souther (2019)
(T. Cole Rachel. “On songwriting, poetry, and making space for something new.” The Creative Independent. July 25, 2019.)
After recording a solo studio album in 1972, Souther next teamed up with Chris Hillman (They Byrds) and Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) to form the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band. The group made it to #27 on the US Charts with the hit single “Fallin’ in Love” from their self-titled first album, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. The group released one more album, but creative tensions and lack of record sales led to the band's demise.
In 1979, he had a hit of his own, "You're Only Lonely," which reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the #1 spot on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart for five consecutive weeks. Souther found this experience disquieting, and he took a two-decade break from recording a few years later.
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Souther said …
“After “You’re Only Lonely” hit I thought, ‘It’s time to retire for a little while.’ I had done what I wanted to do musically and I just thought to myself, ‘All the men in my family worked until they died, and I’m going to take a few years off and build a great house and have a life.' That stretched into 20 years, and I realized I’d better start getting back to work.”
(Anita Hamilton. “Celebrating Seniors - JD Souther Turns 70.” 50+ World. November 2, 2015.)
Souther moved to Nashville, married and divorced, and released an unexpectedly jazz-inspired comeback, "If the World Was You," in 2008.
In 1987, Souther contributed, performed, and did the vocal arrangements for the “Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night” concert and video, sang the Platters' "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always, and wrote the theme song to the 1989-1992 sitcom Anything But Love. In 1987, he collaborated as guest vocals on Clannad's album Sirius. The Don Henley hit song "The Heart of the Matter", released in 1989, was also co-written by Souther.
In 2009, Souther recorded the live album Rain - Live at the Belcourt Theatre, featuring a blend of old and new material. Then in 2011, Souther released Natural History, featuring new versions of his songs recorded by other artists. And in 2012, he released Midnight in Tokyo, an EP that was recorded live.
J.D. And the Ladies
Some of the women Souther has been linked with in the past includes singers Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Judy Collins, Stevie Nicks and Judee Sill. The lyrics in Sill’s hit song “Jesus was a Crossmaker” (written in 1971) “he’s a bandit and a heartbreaker” are widely attributed to Sill’s brief, unhappy romance with J. D. Souther that same year; Souther dropped Judee Sill for singer Linda Ronstadt. Ronstadt and Souther became a couple for a few years and lived together in the early 1970’s.
Souther has credited Judee Sill, Judy Collins, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt as strong songwriting influences on him, Linda in particular.
“[She was] more responsible for my career than almost anyone else because she was in my house when I was writing the first songs that I thought were good. She just set such a high bar. She picked the best songs of mine, the best of Warren Zevon’s, the best of Lowell George, the best of Jackson Browne … ”
(Anita Hamilton. “Celebrating Seniors - JD Souther Turns 70.” 50+ World. November 2, 2015.)
Souther and Ronstadt have maintained a life-long friendship to this day, despite their break-up, distance, and her illness (Parkinson’s Disease).
“People tend to be more educated about the flow of income and people meeting their own emotional needs in their own way than they once were, but there was definitely a period of time where people would occasionally say to me, 'Doesn’t it piss you off that the Eagles have these big hits off your songs?' I would usually start saying, 'Would you like to see the checks?'
“Pissed off? How could I be pissed off? Even Glen Frey once said – and he was kind of joking because he knows how the royalty thing works – but he said, 'One of the reasons JD didn’t have a bigger solo career is because he gave us or Linda Ronstadt most of his best songs.' And that’s sort of true. The closest I got to being really famous was during the “You’re Only Lonely” period, and I really didn’t like it that much, frankly. It’s a relief in some ways, though it also doesn’t pay quite as well.”
– J.D. Souther (2019)
I believe you can't fully understand the emotion and the meaning of Souther's “The Sad Cafe,” “New Kid in Town,” and “Faithless Love” until you hear J.D. perform them. I can remember the first time I heard Jimmy Webb sing “Galveston.” Something about the intonation and the sincere delivery in his performance created new and insightful meaning for me.
J.D. Souther has said he doesn’t want to be hyped. He doesn’t want to sound exciting. “I want to sound like what I am – elusive and hard to find,” he says. That he does. To me, he is a diamond in the world of music.
For those who want to hear Souther's music, may I suggest starting with Border Town - The Very Best Of J.D.Souther (2007) If the World Was You (2008) was recorded live in the studio with a five-piece jazz ensemble is also highly recommended. Natural History (2011) is a beautiful album.
“New Kid in Town” from Natural History
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