Not to Blame

This song was obviously directly addressed at Jackson Browne since it refers to two incidents that involved him. But it appears from what I can tell that Joni has an incorrect take on the primary incident mentioned in the song; the assertion that Jackson B beat his former girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah, on the occasion of their breakup in the early '90s. With a little internet research it's pretty apparent that that's not really what happened. As to the other matter, the death of Jackson's wife (Phyllis) by suicide (in the mid '70s), the circumstances involved there have never been made public as far as I know (it might not be fully understood by anyone), and Joni's depiction may or may not be valid. Obviously it was a sad event in any case. When the song was released Jackson was questioned about it and said Joni should focus on her art and that maybe she still had some residual feelings to resolve from their (brief, I think) liaison many years earlier. I know nothing about that but in the mid 70s I went to a Jackson Browne concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and after it started a small group of people arrived and took seats about 10 rows from the front. When intermission came and the house lights went up a buzz started in the crowd and grew as more and more people gathered around the people who had arrived late. Eventually word worked its way back to where I was sitting that Joni was among those people -- the crowd had gathered around her. So she had gone out into public to see Jackson perform. A couple of songs before the concert ended, she and her entourage left. Take that for whatever it's worth; it's not necessarily relevant to this song, just thought I'd note that it happened. Good concert, by the way -- it was in the period when JB was introducing his listening public to the music of Warren Zevon, before he produced Zevon's first album.