Late for the Sky

I don't remember the 70s. Not for the reasons people usually cite--no, I was busy being conceived and born.

But I can relate to a lot of it, particularly the whole early-70s-Southern-California-singer/songwriter scene peopled by musicians like Neil Young, Warren Zevon, and Jackson Browne. The narcissism, the alcoholism, the world-weary cynicism--these are my people, and their stories are my stories. And "Late for the Sky" is one of the very best albums any of them recorded.

During his speech inducting Jackson Browne into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen said that Browne wrote the songs that the Eagles wished they'd written. It's a telling judgment--the Eagles aren't terrible, but they aren't great either; you understand their songs the first time you hear them, and that understanding never deepens. Whereas these songs are everything great music should be--complicated and deep, but still accessible; great on the first listen, but even better on the tenth.

There's a beautiful liquid simplicity to Browne's guitar playing; the songs sound fat and juicy and delicious, but easily digestible. Still, it is the lyrics that keep me coming back. The Eagles sang for others, and at them, and it shows in the superficiality and judgment of songs like "Witchy Woman" and "Desperado". But Browne sings for himself, and with such honesty and thoroughness that it feels like he's singing for all of us--or at least for me. (When he describes "the hollow sound of your own steps in flight," I can relate. When he speaks of having a "world of illusion and fantasy in the place where the real world belongs," I can relate. And Lord help me, but when he sings to a soon-to-be-ex-lover: "I don't know what you loved in me...maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be," I can most definitely relate.) These are conversations I've had, and these are lies I've told--the most dangerous lies of all, the kind that I thought were the truth, because I told them to myself too, and believed them.

Springsteen not only called this "Jackson's masterpiece," he also called it "essential in making sense of the times." I couldn't agree more--this is one of the best albums of the 70s, period--but it is more timeless than that, far too full of heart and soul to be a mere document or period piece. Whether or not this album ever finds the respect it deserves in the 70s music pantheon, I'll still be listening to it when I'm in my 70s. To paraphrase and invert yet another singer/songwriter: I really think these songs are about me.

Most people who listen to music inevitably make comparisons. How does a given release hold up alongside an artist's other work? How well does it measure up to the work of contemporaries? How well does it age? As is true of most Art, time is the decider, and perhaps the greatest tribute any work can receive comes when it is no longer measured against others, but becomes that which others are measured against. Such has become the case with Jackson Browne's 1974 masterwork, "Late for the Sky." Almost from the moment of its release, it has been an acknowledged classic of its era and of its genre (the singer-songwriter period). Within these songs live some of the most beautiful expressions of Love and the most heartbreaking and eloquent contemplations of Love-lost that have ever been written. Throughout his career, Jackson's explorations of relationships have resonated so well with listeners because, as he has understood from the beginning, music is a gift, and once given it has as much--or more--to do with the listeners' lives as it does the artist's. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Listened to from beginning to end, LFTS leads listeners on a journey. Love is the overriding theme of this release, and the one to which Jackson returns again and again. The title song opens the record just as a relationship is dying ("Such an empty surprise to feel so alone.") But also explored are a young person's attempts to find a place in the world to belong ("Now the distance leads me farther on/Though the reasons I once had are gone/I keep thinking I'll find what I'm looking for/In the sand beneath the dawn"), attempting to come to terms with the death of a friend ("I don't know what happens when people die/I can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try/It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear that I can't sing/But I can't help listening"). The final song is an ominous, apocalyptic "Before the Deluge," which sounds as if it could have, or perhaps should have been written only yesterday. And as beautiful and timeless and relevant as all of these songs are, it is when he is writing and singing of Love that Jackson always has and will shine brightest. "Fountain of Sorrow" celebrates a woman's outer and inner beauty, which continues to hold a place deep in the grateful heart of a former lover. There's even a relatively light-hearted rocker (Walking Slow) in which he sings of love's conundrums ("Sometimes we forget we love each other and we fight for no reason.") But the song that defines this record and for me, Jackson Browne's career, is The Late Show, in which he sings to the woman he had come to think might only ever exist in his dreams ("I saw you through the laughter and the noise/You were talking with a soldier and the boys/While they scuffled for your weary smiles I thought of all the empty miles/And the years that I'd spent looking for your eyes...") The song ends with him waiting in his car outside her house (see album cover). Will she come? We wait, and wait...and wait, and then we hear a car door slam...and then another! And as beautiful soaring strings play over the sound of the car driving off into the distance, we believe once more in the endless power of love.

This is one of Jackson Browne's best albums. My favorite songs are "Before The Deluge" and "For A Dancer", although "Late For The Sky" is really great also. This album is a must for any Jackson Browne fan.






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I've purchased this album several times. I had it in cassette, and an LP and now in CD. Jackson Browne is an incredible lyricist and musician. He really puts songs together in a very accessible and talented way.

Highly recommended.

A fond trip down memory lane. He was at his best on this one.