Late for the Sky

For the board game publishing company, see Late for the Sky Production Company.
Late for the Sky
Studio album by Jackson Browne
Released September 13, 1974
Recorded 1974, Elektra Sound Recorders - Hollywood Sound Recorders - Sunset Sound Recorders
Genre Rock
Length 40:38
Label Asylum
Producer Jackson Browne, Al Schmitt
Jackson Browne chronology

For Everyman
(1973)		 Late for the Sky
(1974)		 The Pretender
(1976)

Late for the Sky is the third album by American singer/songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1974 (see 1974 in music). It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975. It peaked at #14 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. It is considered by many fans, critics and musicians to be his best and most influential album.

History

Browne has publicly acknowledged that the acclaimed 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. The album itself contains the credit, "cover concept Jackson Browne if it's all reet with Magritte." The original photograph was shot on a South Pasadena residential street, several miles from Browne's childhood Highland Park, California home. Designer and front cover photographer Bob Seldemann 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."[1]

The title track was featured prominently in the 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver.[2]

The song "Before the Deluge" was later covered by Joan Baez on her 1979 album Honest Lullaby; Baez and Brown performed the song together on her 1989 PBS concert special.

In his speech inducting Browne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen called Late for the Sky Browne's "masterpiece" and referred to the car doors slamming at the end of "The Late Show".[3]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 372 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, Browne's highest ranking.

The album was certified as a Gold record in 1974 and Platinum in 1989 by the RIAA.[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [5]
Robert Christgau B− [6]
Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide [7]
Rolling Stone [8]
Rolling Stone (no rating) [9]

Late for the Sky received mainly favorable reviews. In his review for Allmusic, William Ruhlmann described the themes of Late for the Sky as "love, loss, identity, apocalypse", similar to his debut album, but noted 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."[5] Rolling Stone rated the album 5 of 5 stars also and stated it "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."[8]

The original Rolling Stone review in 1974 by music critic Stephen Holden highly praised the album, calling it "...his most mature, conceptually unified work to date" and noting 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."[9] A 1999 Rolling Stone review of For Everyman called Late for the Sky Browne's "masterpiece".[10]

However, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B- grade, writing 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."[6] Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, called 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."[7]

Track listing

All songs by Jackson Browne

Side one
  1. "Late for the Sky" – 5:36
  2. "Fountain of Sorrow" – 6:42
  3. "Farther On" – 5:17
  4. "The Late Show" – 5:09
Side two
  1. "The Road and the Sky" – 3:04
  2. "For a Dancer" – 4:42
  3. "Walking Slow" – 3:50
  4. "Before the Deluge" – 6:18

Personnel

Production notes:

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1974 Pop Albums 14

References

  1. ↑ The Design of a Classic Album Cover Retrieved June 4, 2010.
  2. ↑ The A.V. Club: Song And Vision No. 1 Retrieved June 4, 2010
  3. ↑ Springsteen's induction speech of Jackson Browne. Retrieved June 4, 2010
  4. ↑ RIAA Gold and Platinum award. Retrieved July 20, 2010
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ruhlmann, William. "Late for the Sky > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved June 4, 2010.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Christgau, Robert. "Late for the Sky > Review". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Asakawa, Gil (1996). "Late for the Sky > Review". Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Coleman, Mark. "Late for the Sky > Review". Rolling Stone.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Holden, Stephen (November 1974). "Late for the Sky > Review". Rolling Stone.
  10. ↑ DeCurtis, Anthony (1999). "For Everyman > Review". Rolling Stone.