Have you ever had a song that you’ve known for years and years and you know it well; the lyrics, the time, everything, but then you hear it one day and it hits you completely differently.

That happened to me this weekend with Jackson Browne’s In the Shape of a Heart, from his Lives in the Balance album of 1986.

It’s a song about love and loss that is a very personal song in an album mainly filled with political comment. Browne has described it in the past as one of his best songs and, while I’ve always enjoyed it, I probably wouldn’t have thought of it even in my top 5 of his. Then something happened when I listened to it again.

This line in particular…

We keep it up, we try so hard,

To keep a life from coming apart,

And never know,

The shallows and the unseen reefs,

That are there from the start,

In the shape of a heart.

I don’t know; somehow the pain in the lyric really got under my skin.

Anyway, I’ve listened to it a good few times this weekend as a result and I recommend you do too. I’ve loved Jackson Browne’s music since I was 16. The poetry and beauty of it. I’ve been very lucky to see him live a few times, particularly in 1994 at The Royal Albert Hall which was an important moment in my life.

Thanks for reading,

Richard