By 1972 any artist aiming to leave a mark among the wave of gifted singer-songwriters who had adopted the soft rock now identified with Southern California would have to be supremely talented – the newcomer already having any number of monumental albums in this field to contend with and be judged against.
Indeed, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Randy Newman and Carole King had each, on more than one occasion in some cases, set the bar incredibly high in regard to writing reflective, often confessional lyrics that were gripping in their resonance while delivered for the most part over delicate folk-rock melodies.
Two years into the new decade it was going to take someone with remarkable ability to make their presence felt in this company. Fortunately for a 21-year-old named Jackson Browne – and growing audience for the introspective balladry being purveyed – he was blessed with the talent to convey personal emotions with an honesty only Ms Mitchell could truly match.
Born in Heidelberg West Germany (9/10/1948) where his father was serving in the Press Corps of the US Military, Browne from the age of three was raised in Los Angeles. He first came to attention in New York playing guitar for Tim Buckley, while also contributing three songs to ‘Chelsea Girl‘ the 1967 debut solo album of former Velvet Underground vocalist Nico, one of which, ‘These Days‘ was a work of astonishing maturity from one not yet out of their teens.
On returning to L.A. his songs were recorded by a wide cross-section of acts and with his name beginning to carry some weight through compositions such as ‘These Days‘, ‘Jamaica Say You Will‘ and ‘Doctor My Eyes‘ Browne became an early signing to Asylum Records, the West Coast label founded by Los Angeles music scene big-wheel David Geffen, (where in time he would be joined by the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt), recording a superb 1972 self-titled debut album for Asylum featuring material that had already been made familiar by other artists.
Working closely with the Eagles, his name appeared in the credits on tracks across their first three albums, one of which ‘Take It Easy’ (co-written with Eagle Glenn Frey), gave the band their first hit single. His version of the song opened ‘For Everyman‘ (November 1973) which proved another stellar collection from Browne, built upon songs with the lyrical gravitas of ‘Our Lady of the Well‘, ‘Ready or Not‘ and the momentous title track.
Highlighted by a preponderance of exquisite songwriting, the themes of fate, family, hope and despair overlapped from his first album to the second, personal concerns set against ever-present backdrops of love and contemporary life informing Browne’s work until the end of the 70s at least.
His third album ‘LATE FOR THE SKY‘ (September 1974) proved the most accomplished yet, brilliant philosophical depictions of love, loss, honour and humility, the most fully realized to appear on any recording of the era.
If at times the production sounds a touch muddy – not until his next album, ‘The Pretender‘ (1976) with Jon Landau, fresh from ‘Born To Run‘ at the controls, would the melodies fully flower – it still cannot detract from a remarkably cohesive and enduring record, this eight-song set articulating many uncertainties of the day but from a perspective where the notions are universal, making ‘Late for the Sky‘ not just pertinent to 1974 but every year thereafter.
Due to what he felt were excessive production costs incurred in the making of ‘For Everyman‘ (multiple sessions earning Browne a reputation for working in painstaking manner), Geffen insisted noted soundman Al Schmitt was brought in as co-producer to hasten things and the number of ‘star’ cameos be reduced – various Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, Mitchell, David Crosby, Elton John, Little Feat keyboardist Billy Payne and renowned Motown bassist Wilton Felder had all appeared on the previous album – Browne instructed to record with his current touring band that by now included guitar/fiddle virtuoso David Lindley.
To an ensemble comprising of Doug Hayward (bass), Larry Zack (drums) and Jai Winding (keyboards), Browne contributes piano and acoustic guitar, although in the event fellow songsmiths J. D. Souther and Dan Fogelberg along with Eagles drummer Don Henley are among those who chip in with harmony vocals. With five of the songs clocking in at over five minutes (two more than six), for the most part these are weighty, substantive pieces and even when he is heard in less serious vein, such as on a couple of second side tracks, there is always a sense Browne has thought carefully about what it is he wants to say.
During forty-odd minutes when he is constantly heard to profound effect, his poetic poignancy is immediately evident on the opening title-track. Describing a relationship whose best days now appear to have passed, with the opening lines Browne reflects on the state of impasse that has been reached, the lines delivered over sympathetic electric guitar lines from Lindley:
‘Now the words had all been spoken/And somehow the feeling still wasn’t right/And still we continued on through the night/Tracing our steps from the beginning/Until they vanished into the air/Trying to understand how our lives had led us there.’
As the narrative unfolds the writer conjures a series of juxtapositions – night/morning, awake/asleep, drifting/running, spoken words/whispered promises – that emphasise just how estranged in their feelings the couple have become. Yet this is far more than clever wordplay, Browne making each line deeply resonant, before the giving his heartfelt observations an intriguing final twist. In referring to ‘the bed where we both lie’ is he commenting upon where they sleep or the place untruths are spoken?
Either way it is ambiguity of which Dylan would be proud. ‘Late for the Sky‘ is a song of exceptional literacy and also great episodic development, Browne retaining the sense of drama right to the conclusion, being one of those rare pieces where the title is only heard in the last line.
He is heard in more wistful frame of mind on ‘Fountain of Sorrow‘ where he looks back on a love affair (presumed by some with Joni Mitchell), that while now over is viewed with both fondness and regret. Over a mid-tempo country rock melody with piano and acoustic guitar to the fore, Browne offers small but precise details of this liaison, beginning with looking at photographs of his estranged lover he has taken – the image offering reminder of why their romance failed to last:
‘Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer/I was taken by a photograph of you/
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more/But they didn’t show your spirit quite as true.’
His recollections go so far to admit ‘What I was seeing wasn’t what was happening at all/
Although for a while our path did seem to climb,’ the music gaining pace then easing off as if to convey what the couple were experiencing.
Indeed, from his current vantage point Browne at least appears not to carry any bitterness forward, conscious ‘that magic feeling never seems to last.’ Hopes of longevity for the attachment may have been lost, but experience gained, Browne at his most erudite when stating, ‘And all the future’s there for anyone to change, still you know it seems/It would be easier sometimes to change the past.’
These lengthy, but meticulous and marvelously plotted ruminations end in upbeat manner in both a musical and lyrical sense, Browne suitably composed to reflect without any trace of hurt, indeed sorrow, ‘You could be laughing at me, you’ve got the right/But you go on smiling so clear and so bright.’
In ‘Farther On‘ he goes further back into the past (‘In my early years I hid my tears/And passed my days alone/Adrift on an ocean of loneliness/My dreams like nets were thrown‘), this autobiographical ballad Lindley illuminates with some atmospheric slide guitar.
Similar in theme to ‘Looking Into You‘ from his debut album, Browne is two years farther on in his journey to find answers regarding the vagaries of life even if ‘my dreams have come up torn and empty‘ a reference perhaps to the failed aspirations of the 60s counterculture that by 1974 had become lost amidst the mire of Vietnam and Watergate.
Honest enough to admit ‘I’m not sure what I’m trying to say/It could be I’ve lost my way‘ he vows to continue searching for truth while maintaining faith society will reach more enlightened times, using the title at the end in accentuating those hopes.
Browne closes side one with the sweeping mid-paced ballad ‘The Late Show‘ a piece impressive in scope that almost stands as a West Coast companion piece to ‘American Tune‘ (Paul Simon/1973) in seeking to take the collective temperature of America as the mid-70s approach.
Offering personal insights (‘Everyone I’ve ever known has wished me well/Anyway, that’s how it seems, it’s hard to tell‘), he comments on the struggle to make sense of everyday issues be they personal or political, which leave him as much as anyone weary of the battle (‘There comes a point when you’re not sure why you’re still talking/I passed that point long ago‘), introduces hopes for a new romance (‘I thought of all the empty miles/And the years that I’ve spent looking for your eyes‘), before concluding of his fellow citizens (‘No one ever talks about their feelings anyway/Without dressing them in dreams and laughter/I guess it’s just too painful otherwise).’
At this point ‘The Late Show‘ undergoes a subtle change of emphasis, Browne giving the song cinematic perspective that would be captured for the album cover. Describing how he is sitting in an early model Chevrolet across the way while being looked at by his lover from an empty house – here the harmonies of Souther and Henley are particularly distinctive – the imagery is strikingly vivid, he wanting her to take, with him, a leap of faith:
‘It’s a warm and windy day/You go and pack your sorrow/The trash man comes tomorrow/Leave it at the curb and we’ll just roll away.‘
Side two opens with ‘The Road and the Sky‘, a fast-paced country rock track with similarities to ‘Already Gone‘ and ‘James Dean’ (co-written with Browne), by the Eagles. Although more jocular than most other songs on the record, the words are in no way slight, the composer taking a come-what-may approach to the portents of doom in the world outside:
‘When we come to the place where the road and the sky collide/Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide.’
In the chorus Browne is escaping reality at the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet, performing the slide guitar solo himself and while the melody remains upbeat, he cannot evade the feeling of foreboding:
‘Now, can you see those dark clouds gathering up ahead?/They’re gonna wash this planet clean like the Bible said/Now you can hold on steady, try to be ready/But everybody’s gonna get wet/Don’t think it won’t happen just because it hasn’t happened yet.’
The calamity he fears for the planet has occurred on a personal level on ‘For A Dancer‘ – a breath-taking evocation of loss in relation to the death of a friend. In the first verse Browne addresses the shock and incomprehension of what has happened, yet by the second is lost in bewilderment:
‘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/I can’t help listening.‘
Browne perceives the deceased as a dancer through allusions to life being a dance, extending the metaphor to the ones left behind (‘Dancing our sorrow away‘), the sombre mood heightened by a mournful violin solo from Lindley. At the end Browne seeks solace beyond personal despair (‘Keep a fire for the human race/Let your prayers go drifting into space’), but throughout cannot escape the notion that life, or the dance in this case, ends in a solitary way:
‘No matter how close to yours another’s steps have grown/In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone.’
In a lighthearted way Browne refers to his own passing in ‘Walking Slow‘ singing in the chorus of this engaging L.A. soft rock period piece, ‘But if die a little farther along/I’m trusting everyone to carry on‘.
From the first verse we discover he is ‘Walking slow down the avenue through my old neighborhood‘ taking stock of what he sees, the bump-along nature of the electric guitars following him into the second where he meets a ‘Pretty little girl running up and down the street with no shoes on‘, a moment that serves to remind him of the woman Browne has at home and the fact they sometimes ‘forget we love each other/And we fight for no reason.’
As the album is dedicated to ‘Phyllis’ (who would become his wife the following year) and their young son ‘Ethan’, the final line of the second verse ‘I don’t know what I’ll do if she ever leaves me alone‘ becomes tragically prophetic when Major committed suicide in March 1976.
To bring the record to a close Browne offers a six-minute piano/violin-based history of the earth through the eyes of environmentalists down the ages, ‘Before the Deluge‘ is panoramic in scope and ambition, the title alluding possibly to the time of Noah and the world being cleansed by rain or a time prior to the onslaught of materialism.
While at times the narrative is a touch vague – the Eagles would pick up on the general theme in ‘The Last Resort’ on ‘Hotel California‘ two years later – all through Browne keeps in mind words from Ecclesiastes, ‘men come and go but the earth abides.’
By the last of three extensive verses those intent on protecting the planet are angry at men who have ‘learned how to forge her beauty into power‘ – the words then developing even darker connotations with the earth found in a state of post-apocalypse:
‘And they struggled to protect her from them/Only to be confused/By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour/And when the sand was gone and the time arrived/In the naked dawn only a few survived/And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge/Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge’.
Browne, a committed environmentalist and campaigner for the anti-nuclear movement, received fulsome praise for ‘Late for the Sky‘. Critical acclaim was matched by significant chart success and despite not being accompanied by a hit single the record climbed to number 14 on the US charts, his highest placing to date.
At the time it cemented his growing reputation as a first-rate wordsmith, Browne acclaimed by Rolling Stone magazine in 1979 as ‘the most accomplished lyricist of the decade‘. Time has not diminished appreciation and admiration of ‘Late for the Sky‘, Bruce Springsteen describing it as a ‘masterpiece‘ in inducting Browne to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 while in 2020 it was selected for preservation in the US National Recording Registry on meeting the criteria of being ‘culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.’
Just twenty-five years old when it was released, Browne was seen as a liberal idealist, someone who offered discourse rather than dogma, (through the 1980s his songwriting would become more politically pronounced). But in 1974 he was articulating self-anxiety along with aspirations for greater compassion within society and from a record where memorable lyrical passages come in droves the chorus of ‘Before the Deluge‘ feels the most profoundly enduring – the sentiments of ‘Now, let the music keep our spirits high/Let the buildings keep our children dry‘ common to us all during the past two years.
JACKSON BROWNE – LATE FOR THE SKY (Released September 13 1974):
Late for the Sky/Fountain of Sorrow/Farther On/The Late Show/The Road and the Sky/For a Dancer/Walking Slow/Before the Deluge;
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