In the song, Mitchell deals with a news story about beating up ``the girl you love most.'' In 1992, Darryl Hannah accused Browne of beating her, which he denies. In 1976, Browne's wife, Phyllis Major, committed suicide, and there's a reference in the song to their 3-year-old boy. Browne said he wrote Mitchell about the song, but noted that she considered him ``the anti-Christ,'' adding: ``She's not really big enough . . . to . . . actually have a conversation with me about it.''
A spokesman for Mitchell's label said Mitchell would not respond.
STARTIN' UP * The Rolling Stones, opening with ``Satisfaction'' and closing 23 songs later with ``Brown Sugar,'' played it safe at the Tuesday opening of their tour and pretty much made it a greatest-hits show offering but two ditties from their new album, Bridges to Babylon.
On a chilly, overcast night in Chicago's Soldier Field, Mick Jagger emerged for the two-hour-plus show in a gold-spangled, turquoise-trimmed tux over a loose brown shirt and blue-sequined sleeveless T-shirt. Keith Richards was a vision in ankle-length leopard jacket and wraparound shades.
Jagger strained for the high notes in ``The Last Time,'' at one point giving up and just shouting a phrase. Sound over the $3 mil system was declared fine. One observer noted that the opening pace was ``funereal until Charlie Watts kicked the band in the shins with his drum volleys on ``19th Nervous Breakdown.''
One critic described Jagger as ``a competent pro going through the motions.'' Noted another: ``Ultimately, it's not the age of the songs or the performers that matters. It's the richness of the music, and the Stones' best is as rich as rock ever produced.''
