Vinyl Vault

At the peak of his songwriting powers in 1974, Jackson Browne released his third album, Late for The Sky, a collection of songs regarding love and loss that is generally considered one of the very best LPs in his long and storied career. But does it still ring true today, or was it just a product of the “sensitive” troubadour phase that was sweeping the music scene at the time? There’s only one way to find out: A song-by-song review, of course.

Late for the Sky (1974, Asylum Records)

Side A

  A1. “Late for the Sky”
It’s so much more than just a break-up song, which is why Martin Scorcese used it to amplify the angst of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. If you keep it at its basic level, it’s about reaching a point where you don’t recognize why you loved your partner in the first place, and the pain of that realization (“What an empty surprise/To feel so alone.”) At a deeper level, it’s about a whole generation searching for answers after their dreams have been compromised. “How long have I been sleeping?” was a question that resonated as much then as it does now. All the while the weeping guitar of ace session man David Lindley betrays the emotion that the composed voice of Browne refuses to show. Heartbreakingly lovely and achingly profound, this is as good as the singer/songwriter genre gets.

  A2. “Fountain of Sorrow”
This could be the broken relationship of “Late For The Sky” a few years down the road, as Browne stumbles upon some powerful memories. He admits the fault of his immaturity (“I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you.”) and that he fell for “love’s illusions,” but he also finds the grace of forgiveness at song’s end (“It’s good to see your smiling face tonight.”) The singer knows it’s a hollow victory, but he also knows, that in a flawed world, you take what you can get.

  A3. “Farther On”
The peaks of this album are so high that more modest pleasures like this one suffer by comparison. This song travels the same road as “Late For The Sky” with less success, but Browne’s lyrical dexterity and lovely singing are hard to deny as he continues his futile search for a fairy-tale love while addled by reality. Confusion reigns (“I’m not sure what I’m trying to say/It could be I’ve lost my way”), but glimmers of hope still peek through

  A4. “The Late Show”
You can hear echoes of this song in the early albums of Browne’s buddy Warren Zevon. A rambling narrative is leavened by a sweet string section and lush backing vocals (provided by Don Henley and Dan Fogelberg, among others). The struggle to find authentic human companionship among the seemingly endless artifice (the guy was from L.A., after all) is the theme here, artfully articulated as usual.

Side B

  B1. “The Road And The Sky”
Boogie is not Browne’s strong point, to say the least. Some might say that this up-tempo effort changes the pace. I would argue that it breaks the spell.

  B2. “For a Dancer”
Set amid mournful piano and Lindley’s forlorn violin, Browne sings a song for a free-spirited lost friend that belongs on the list of rock’s finest elegies. Coupled with his sadness, the singer can’t wrap his head around the idea of death (“I can’t help feeling stupid standing ‘round/Crying as they ease you down.”) The conclusions he comes to are both sobering (“In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone”) and reassuring (“Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around/Go on and make a joyful sound.”)

  B3. “Walking Slow”
The jug playing on this jaunty number signals right away that this is a departure from all the gloom that came before. Nothing special, though.

  B4. “Before the Deluge”
Browne eloquently imagines an apocalypse brought about by lost souls who mistake the things that are truly important: “In the end they traded their tired wings/For the resignation that living brings/And exchanged love’s bright and fragile glow/For the glitter and rouge/And in a moment they were swept/Before the deluge.”

It’s a moving requiem to the lost ideals of Browne’s generation, and territory to which the singer would return in later classics like “The Pretender.” “Before The Deluge” asks us to “let the music keep our spirits high” until the dreams of youth can be realized. With music this great, that’s no problem at all

The Bottom Line

For anyone who sees the term “sensitive singer/songwriter” attached to Jackson Browne and balks because it all sounds too lite-rock for you, I would urge you top check out Late For The Sky, an album that’s in many ways as tough as any in the unflinching way it addresses how the promises of love are often undercut by the shortcomings of human nature. This is Browne’s masterpiece, and it stands among the best albums of the decade.

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