Jackson Browne, Mr. Benefit : The Activist/Singer Lives for Causes . . . but Is He Paying for Them With His Career?

Jackson Browne, a youthful 39, could be the ideal poster boy for rock’s New Sincerity and its ever-growing politically conscious contingent. Name a left-wing cause and Browne has been there, usually long before the issue became popular.

He founded the anti-nuclear Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE), has supported American Indian and homeless rights, actively opposes U.S. policy in Central America and appeared on the 1986 Amnesty International concert tour.

“There was a writer in the L.A. Times who said that they must have passed an ordinance that you can’t hold a benefit concert in L.A. without Jackson Browne,” the singer said, poking fun at his own image recently at a funky Santa Monica cafe.

Currently he is headlining a tour benefiting a lawsuit filed in May, 1986, by the Christic Institute, a self-described “interfaith center for law and public policy,” in behalf of two U.S. journalists who were injured in a bombing at a 1984 Contra press conference in Nicaragua. Eight people, including another U.S. reporter, were killed in the explosion.

The suit, currently under appeal after having been dismissed by a federal judge in June, alleges that among the 29 people behind the bombing were several people now associated with the Contragate affair, including Maj. Gens. Richard Secord and John Singlaub. The benefit tour closes tonight with a show also featuring David Crosby and Graham Nash at the Shrine Auditorium.

While other artists are jumping on the bandwagon of social responsibility in droves, no one could possibly question Browne’s dedication and commitment.

But the fact is that Browne is not the attraction in the pop market that he once was. In the late ‘70s his albums were sure million-sellers. His last two albums, 1983’s “Lawyers in Love” and 1985’s specifically political “Lives in the Balance,” stalled at gold (500,000) status.

In 1980 he sold out three nights at the 18,000-seat Forum. That would seem to be out of reach for him now. In fact, sales for tonight’s show at the 6,000-seat Shrine were somewhat sluggish.

Is he just too liberal for 1988 stardom?

“Somebody who was selling T-shirts (on this tour) said someone left in the middle of the show and said I had ruined the whole thing (by talking about political issues),” Browne related with a laugh. “God knows what they thought the whole thing was supposed to be. Maybe it was just a date, maybe it was someone who came to one of my shows 10 years ago and heard ‘Running on Empty’ and ‘Stay’ and hasn’t thought much about it since.

“Sure, it’s possible (that some old fans haven’t followed him). Some people are really offended by the injection of any kind of political subject matter. Anyway, I don’t worry about that too much. (The political aspect) hasn’t been hidden. And I think in 10 years those people are going to say, ‘You know, I was at this concert and he was saying stuff about cocaine and the Contras and Bush. . . . ‘ “

“I can understand if somebody comes to a concert and feels like, ‘Am I at a meeting?’ ” he said. “So I don’t preach on the subjects and I don’t want people to feel like they somehow unwittingly signed up for some partisan cause. What we try to tell people at these concerts is there’s something that they should know about that is impossible to tell them in a few moments, and so if they would bother to fill out this card we’ll send them some information.”

Can this benefit tour, coinciding as it does with the Presidential campaign, really be considered nonpartisan?

“I don’t make a secret of my political beliefs, but it’s not a partisan event, it’s not a rally,” Browne insisted. “The crimes that have been committed by the covert, clandestine community have been done under Republican and Democratic administrations alike over a period of 25 years. But I can’t do anything about the fact that one of the candidates is implicated in what I believe will wind up being the largest scandal of the last 25 or 30 years.”

Partisan or no, Browne knows that the passion with which he speaks of these issues has earned him a reputation as a serious individual whose life revolves around these causes.

“That’s ‘cause no one’s ever come to see my show at the Comedy Store,” he deadpanned. “I’m not like that all the time. It’s weird, because I’m always doing press when it’s needed for something like this (benefit), and not necessarily as a matter of course. Maybe I should do a story in The Times every six months whether there’s a benefit or not.”

Media mogul David Geffen, who in 1969 became Browne’s first manager, seemed insulted at the question of whether the singer’s politics hurts his career.

“I don’t think it does,” Geffen said. “But I don’t think it would make any difference to him. (His views) are just as much part of his life as is being a father and husband. He does what he believes he should do as a responsible American citizen and should be applauded for that. I certainly do.”

Browne’s current manager, Donald (Buddha) Miller, also thinks it’s erroneous to pin Browne’s drop in popularity on his political views.

But he acknowledges that the number of benefits Browne has appeared at may have diluted his marketability.

“As far as ticket sales, Jackson’s availability to certain markets hurts,” Miller said. “There’s only so many times you can play a market before an audience reaches a point where there’s no compulsion to see him, and even Jackson’s biggest fan might say, ‘I’ll catch him next time.’ We’ve certainly done that on the West Coast.”

“I advise him of the problems and Jackson makes the choice,” Miller said. “He doesn’t play anything safe when it comes to supporting justice or anything he believes in.”

Journalist Rich Wiseman, author of the unauthorized biography “Jackson Browne: The Story of a Holdout,” doesn’t blame the nature of Browne’s politics for the decline in popularity.

“I just see the drop-off of interest in him based on his lack of productivity,” he said, noting that since 1980 Browne has released only two albums (a third is due in February) and has toured commercially (i.e., non-benefit) infrequently.

Peter Lubin, who has been working closely with Browne since becoming vice president of artists and repertoire at Elektra Records in May, believes that if Browne wanted to regain his commercial momentum, he could.

“Jackson is a grade-A artist,” said Lubin, who describes himself as having been a “fair-weather” Browne fan in the past. “If he wants to have a No. 1 record he certainly can.”

But Lubin maintained that Elektra has put no pressure on Browne to be hit-conscious.

“Elektra believes in Jackson Browne and whatever he does we back him 100%. If what he wants to do is make a masterpiece on par with Karl Marx’s manifesto, great. I’m with him on that. He’s a full-blown artist who has the gift to communicate.”

Times have changed a great deal since 1976 when Browne first stepped into the mainstream with “The Pretender,” and the nature of his communication has changed too. In that album’s title song, long before the term yuppie had been coined and before liberal was a dirty word, Jackson Browne sang in “The Pretender” of suppressing emotions in favor of materialistic values.

“ ‘The Pretender’ was about abdicating any kind of feelings,” Browne said. “But even then, it was a modest proposal: ‘And believe in whatever may lie / In the things that money can buy.’

“It’s a bit of a rueful, modest proposal, like, ‘OK, I’ll try it this way, just investing all my beliefs in these things,’ you know? You don’t really get the feeling that this person believes that’s going to be it. There’s this longing for what life is supposed to be about.”

But by 1983 this “modest proposal” had become a cultural stereotype that Browne himself satirized in the caustically sarcastic song “Lawyers in Love.” Many of those he skewered were once among his following.

This would seem to say that the people Browne once sang for have become those he sings about.

To some, the fervency that Browne shows now may seem far removed from the seeming innocence of Browne’s early songs like “Doctor My Eyes” and “Take It Easy” and therefore at odds with his initial, core audience.

But Browne, who traces his political consciousness to his parents, who were active in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, sees a consistent element of concern in both these more personal songs and more specifically political material.

Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s manager/co-producer, who produced Browne’s “The Pretender” album at a time some perceive as the turning point in the singer’s activism, concurs.

“That element (of concern) was always present in his music,” Landau said. “I think as time went on, it probably got a little more specific in the translation of these feelings. But the essential world consciousness and essentially empathetic quality toward people in distress (has always been) there to me.”

But are there enough people who care about what he’s saying now to make a difference?

“That’s the question of the day,” Browne said.

“People care about what affects them directly, and most people are concerned with the amount of money they’ve got. The question is really, ‘Who the hell cares?’ ”

Browne also acknowledged that he might be able to reach more of his old fans if he stuck to his old hits. But that, he feels, would be unfair both to himself and his audience.

“You do the audience the biggest disservice by imagining you know what they want,” he said. “You have to do what you want and that’s what they’re there to hear.”