Songfacts®:

• Running 6:05, this song covers a lot of emotional ground, much of it dealing with Jackson Browne's personal life. Early in the song, he's trying to outrun his demons, but no matter where he goes, there he is:
  
  No matter how fast I run
  I can never seem to get away from me
  
  Later, he addresses a person who might be able to help:
  
  Baby you can free me
  All in the power of your sweet tenderness
  
  This could be Phyllis Major, mother to his son and his first wife. It appears she did have bright baby blue eyes.
  
  Major fell into a depression and died by suicide in 1976 as Browne was working on The Pretender album. This song was written and likely recorded before her death.
• That's Lowell George on slide guitar and harmony vocals. Browne spent many nights getting loaded with the Little Feat leader, which he sings about near the end of this song:
  
  It's so hard to come by
  That feeling of peace
  This friend of mine said
  Close your eyes
  And try a few of these
  I thought I was flying like a bird
  
  Browne told Mojo: "There's a line in that song: 'Close your eyes and try a few of these.' That's exactly the way we turned each other on and gave each other drugs."
  
  Browne is godfather to Lowell's daughter, the singer Inara George. After Lowell died suddenly in 1979, Browne wrote a song about it adressed to Inara called "Of Missing Persons," which appears on his 1980 album Hold Out.
• "Your Bright Baby Blues" wasn't released as a single but became one of Jackson Browne's most popular songs, played at many of his concerts. It's part of his fourth album, The Pretender, which has a timeless quality thanks to high production value and songs that explore the human condition. Browne brought in Jon Landau, known for his work with Bruce Springsteen, to produce the set.
• Browne feels the song is best understood within context of the album, where it's the second track. "The whole album is a cycle," he told Phonograph Record. "Because more happens on the second side it's more obvious that there's a continuity. That's only because the first side is preparatory. Like without having 'Your Bright Baby Blues' where it is, then 'Sleep's Dark And Silent Gate' wouldn't mean as much if you didn't have it there. The things discussed on the first side really come to a head on the second side, so it appears as if the second side is more connected, but it's not really."
• Roy Bittan of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band is the piano man on this track. The other musicians are:
  
  Chuck Rainey - bass
  Jim Gordon - drums
  Billy Payne - organ