Many songwriters take an arms-length look at love to keep their songs pretty and accessible. It takes guts to dive into the nooks and crannies of a relationship and depict it as fractious and bumpy as it can often be. Jackson Browne has always proven that he’s a gutsy type of writer with an ability to pen a lyric or two that sticks with the listener. His 1986 song “In The Shape Of A Heart” represents one of his most fearless forays into the fraying connections between a man and a woman.
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Heart Songs
Throughout the 70s, nobody was any more insightful or moving in documenting affairs of the heart than Jackson Browne. On albums like Late For The Sky and The Pretender, he sang with eloquence and honesty again and again on the topic. That made him the go-to singer-songwriter for the heartbroken.
When the 80s dawned, Browne slowly began to change his area of focus to current events. The transformation started in earnest on his 1983 album Lawyers In Love. Three years later, on Lives In The Balance, he wrote about social ills and political issues. He did so with the same kind of piercing insight that he had previously wielded for songs about romance.
That’s not to say he abandoned songs about love and loss completely, however. “In The Shape Of A Heart”, the second single released from the record, came from the perspective of someone looking back on his time with an ex and futilely trying to make sense of it all.
If the song sounds lived-in, it’s probably because Browne had endured some heartache of his own prior to recording the song. His first wife committed suicide, while his second marriage ended in divorce. There was no shortage of hard-earned experience on which he could draw.
Behind the Lyrics of “In The Shape Of A Heart”
The title of the song literally refers to a necklace that the narrator finds in his home at some point after its owner, his ex, has left the premises. Figuratively, the phrase refers to the volatile whims and desires of his former partner. They remained somehow unknowable to him, even as close as they became.
The heartbreak of the song is that Jackson Browne realizes everything too late in one lyric.
“I guess I never knew what she was talking about / I guess I never knew what she was living without.”
He mocks anyone who dares to think they truly know their lover: “People speak of love don’t know what they’re thinking of.”
Browne refuses to shy away from some of the harsher moments. The second verse delves into a particularly momentous altercation.
“There was a hole left in the wall from some ancient fight / About the size of a fist / Or something thrown that had missed.”
These mementos are physically irreparable, making them a good metaphor for how their relationship crumbled.
In the final verse, Browne brings it again to the present day and the necklace. His move for closure is to drop the chain into the hole in the wall. Meanwhile, he pleads his case: “You keep it up/You try so hard / To keep a life from falling apart.”
But even effort won’t solve the problems: “And never know / What breaches and faults are concealed / In the shape of a heart.”
It wasn’t long after that Jackson Browne was back writing almost exclusively songs about romance on I’m Alive. That album came in the wake of another failed relationship. As “In The Shape Of A Heart” proves, no amount of experience is enough to avoid the unknowns of love.
Photo by Robin Platzer/IMAGES/Getty Images
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