Songfacts®:

• Jackson Browne considers the inexorable march of time on "Time The Conqueror," the title track to his 2008 album. The dream he sings about in the first verse really happened.
  
  "I had a dream where I heard this singing, this voice from the sky," he told Rolling Stone. "I was on a street near where I grew up, and it was just the break of day. Every blade of grass had a shadow behind it, and the voice sounded like Buddy Holly. It was so great. I tried to depict that moment in the first verse."
• Jackson Browne was 59 when he released his Time The Conqueror album. He's long been a champion of environmental causes and was concerned not just for his own mortality, but what kind of world he'd eventually be leaving behind.
  
  "I don't know how long I'll be doing this," he said. "But the world is at a pivotal point, where we have very little time to change what we're doing - or lose it. That's the paradoxical thing: We're only here for a little while. But we have to figure out how to preserve this for future generations."
• Browne was at his commercial peak in the 1970s but made music throughout his life, holding to a consistent sound and message, but evolving in his outlook. "Time The Conqueror" is typical of his thoughtful songwriting.