''Late for the Sky'' is the third studio album by American singer–songwriter
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...
, released by
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/As ...
on September 13, 1974. It peaked at number 14 on
''Billboard'''s Pop Albums chart.
In 2020, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
and selected for preservation in the
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...
.
Background
Browne was still living in his childhood home, The Abbey San Encino, where he began writing the songs for his third album. Because of the high costs of recording his previous album,
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/As ...
founder
David Geffen
David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American business magnate, producer and film studio executive. He co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 199 ...
required him to complete this next album quicker and at less cost. Browne decided to use his touring band of
David Lindley, Doug Haywood, Jai Winding, and Larry Zack. It was also decided that
Al Schmitt
Albert Harry Schmitt (April 17, 1930 – April 26, 2021) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and other ...
, an engineer on ''
For Everyman
''For Everyman'' is the second album by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1973 (see 1973 in music). The album peaked at number 43 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and the single " Redneck Friend" reached number 85 on the ''Bi ...
'', would co-produce to aid in the album being completed on time. The album was completed in six weeks and at half the cost ($50,000) of ''For Everyman''. Numerous friends of Browne's, including
Dan Fogelberg
Daniel Grayling Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his 1970s and 1980s songs, including "Longer" (1979), "Same Old Lang Syne" (1980), and " ...
,
Don Henley
Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He is the drummer and one of the lead singers for the Eagles. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", "Despe ...
, and
J. D. Souther
John David "J. D." Souther (born November 2, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He has written and co-written songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. Souther is probably best known for his songwriting abilities, especi ...
contributed harmony vocals. There were only eight songs on the album, five of them longer than five minutes.
The title track was used in the 1976 Martin Scorsese film ''
Taxi Driver
''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...
''. "Before the Deluge" was later covered by
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
on her 1979 album ''
Honest Lullaby
''Honest Lullaby'' is the nineteenth studio album (and twenty-first overall) by Joan Baez, released in 1979. It would be her final album on CBS Records' Portrait imprint; it also stood as her last studio album issued in the U.S. until the release ...
''; Baez and Browne performed the song together on her 1989 PBS concert special. "Walking Slow" and "Fountain of Sorrow" were released as singles but both failed to chart.
In his speech inducting Browne into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
,
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
called ''Late for the Sky'' Browne's "masterpiece" and referred to the car doors slamming at the end of "The Late Show".
In 2000 it was voted number 594 in
Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
Along wit ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums
''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...
''.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 372 on ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine's list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...
, Browne's highest ranking. In a 2012 update it ranked at 377.
The album was certified as a Gold record in 1974 and Platinum in 1989 by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA).
Cover
Browne has publicly acknowledged that the cover art for ''Late for the Sky'' was inspired by the 1954 painting
''L'Empire des Lumieres'' ("Empire of Light"), by Belgian surrealist
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...
. The album itself contains the credit, "cover concept Jackson Browne if it's all reet with Magritte". The original photograph was shot on South Lucerne Avenue just south of West 2nd Street in Windsor Square, about 10 miles southwest of Browne's childhood home, the Abbey San Encino, in
Highland Park, California
Highland Park is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located in the city's Northeast region. It was one of the first subdivisions of Los Angeles and is inhabited by a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
History
The area was set ...
. Designer and front cover photographer
Bob Seidemann
Robert Emett (Bob) Seidemann (December 28, 1941 – November 27, 2017 ) was an American graphic artist and photographer.
Biography
Seidemann was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Queens. He graduated from Manhattan High School of Aviat ...
said, "I spoke to Jackson in 1980 and he told me he thought it was his favorite cover. Lest the jacket appear too funereal, a mood-defusing photo of a relaxed Jackson, almost smiling and looking as though he has a surprise to share, occupies a small square of the back cover."
Reception
Reviewing for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' in 1974,
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
Biography
Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
highly praised the album, calling it Browne's "most mature, conceptually unified work to date" and saying that the "...open-ended poetry achieves power from the nearly religious intensity that accumulates around the central motifs; its fervor is underscored by the sparest and hardest production to be found on any Browne album yet... as well as by his impassioned, oracular singing style."
In a retrospective review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, William Ruhlmann describes the themes of the album as "love, loss, identity, apocalypse", similar to Browne's debut album, feeling that Browne "delved even deeper into them...Yet his seeming uncertainty and self-doubt reflected the size and complexity of the problems he was addressing in these songs, and few had ever explored such territory, much less mapped it so well."
According to ''
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...
'', ''Late for the Sky'' "strengthens and solidifies Browne’s approach; it’s the quintessential Browne album. The metaphorical complexity of 'Fountain of Sorrow' and the clear-eyed poignancy of 'For a Dancer' would be a tough act to follow...when his songwriting is sharp, the mellowing trend in his music dulls the impact."
A 1999 ''Rolling Stone'' review of ''For Everyman'' called ''Late for the Sky'' Browne's "masterpiece".
''
Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide'' call it "a bit mopey, but it hangs together as Jackson Browne's strongest and most melodious album, with a couple of rockers thrown in to perk up the listeners."
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was more critical in ''
Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981), saying that Browne's "linguistic gentility is inappropriate, his millenarianism is self-indulgent...This, of course, rather conveniently forgetting that artistic criticism is also highly self-indulgent, as is art."
In popular culture
"For a Dancer" has a unique connection to ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
''. The song was played at memorial services for both
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his ca ...
and
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States w ...
(by Browne at the Hartman service).
The title track appears in a scene in the movie ''
Taxi Driver
''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...
''.
The title track is included as essay twenty in ''
Songbook
A song book is a book containing lyrics for songs. Song books may be simple composition books or spiral-bound notebooks. Music publishers also produced printed editions for group singing. Such volumes were used in the United States by piano manu ...
'' (published in the United Kingdom as ''31 Songs'') by
Nick Hornby
Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir ''Fever Pitch'' and novels '' High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work f ...
.
Track listing
All tracks are written by
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...
.
;Side one
# "Late for the Sky" – 5:36
# "
Fountain of Sorrow" – 6:42
# "Farther On" – 5:17
# "The Late Show" – 5:09
;Side two
# "The Road and the Sky" – 3:04
# "For a Dancer" – 4:42
# "
Walking Slow
"Walking Slow" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released as the initial single from his 1974 classic album, ''Late for the Sky'', however, the single failed to chart. It was also released as a promotion ...
" – 3:50
# "Before the Deluge" – 6:18
Personnel
* Jackson Browne – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano,
slide guitar
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...
(on "The Road and The Sky")
*
David Campbell – string arrangement on "The Late Show"
* Joyce Everson – harmony vocals
* Beth Fitchet – harmony vocals
*
Dan Fogelberg
Daniel Grayling Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his 1970s and 1980s songs, including "Longer" (1979), "Same Old Lang Syne" (1980), and " ...
– harmony vocals
* Doug Haywood – bass guitar, harmony vocals
*
Don Henley
Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He is the drummer and one of the lead singers for the Eagles. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", "Despe ...
– harmony vocals
*
David Lindley – electric guitar,
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...
, fiddle; harmony vocals (as Perry Lindley)
*
Terry Reid
Terrance James Reid (born 13 November 1949) is an English rock vocalist and guitarist. He has performed with high-profile musicians, as a supporting act, session musician, and sideman.
Biography
Reid was born in Paxton Park Maternity Home, L ...
– harmony vocals
*
Fritz Richmond
John B. "Fritz" Richmond (July 10, 1939 – November 20, 2005) was an American musician and recording engineer. Richmond was a washtub bassist and was also a professional jug player.
Richmond, born in Newton, Massachusetts on July 10, 1939, was ...
–
jug
A jug is a type of container commonly used to hold liquids. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and often a pouring lip. Jugs throughout history have been made of metal, and ceramic, or glass, and ...
on "Walking Slow"
*
J. D. Souther
John David "J. D." Souther (born November 2, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He has written and co-written songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. Souther is probably best known for his songwriting abilities, especi ...
– harmony vocals
* Jai Winding – piano,
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
* Larry Zack – drums, percussion
* H. Driver, Henry Thome,
Michael Condello – handclaps
Production notes:
* Jackson Browne – producer, cover concept
*
Al Schmitt
Albert Harry Schmitt (April 17, 1930 – April 26, 2021) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and other ...
– producer
* Kent Nebergall – engineer
* Tom Perry – engineer
* Fritz Richmond – engineer
*
Greg Ladanyi
Greg Ladanyi (July 6, 1952 – September 29, 2009) was an American record producer and recording engineer of Hungarian descent, known for his work with many musicians, including Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, The Church, Caifanes, Anna Vis ...
– mastering
*
Bob Seidemann
Robert Emett (Bob) Seidemann (December 28, 1941 – November 27, 2017 ) was an American graphic artist and photographer.
Biography
Seidemann was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Queens. He graduated from Manhattan High School of Aviat ...
– front cover, design
*
Rick Griffin
Richard Alden "Rick" Griffin (June 18, 1944 – August 18, 1991) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground comix movement, his work appeared regularly in ...
– front cover lettering
*
Henry Diltz
Henry Stanford Diltz (born September 6, 1938, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American folk musician and photographer who has been active since the 1960s.
Career
Among the bands Diltz played with was the Modern Folk Quartet. While a member of ...
– back cover photography
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{Authority control
Jackson Browne albums
1974 albums
Asylum Records albums
Albums with cover art by Rick Griffin
Albums produced by Al Schmitt
Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders
United States National Recording Registry recordings
United States National Recording Registry albums