Late For The Sky

Discography

Released: 1974

Late For The Sky

Remastered: 2014

Late for the Sky, Jackson Browne's third Asylum album, is his most mature, conceptually unified work to date. Its overriding theme: the exploration of romantic possibility in the shadow of apocalypse. No contemporary male singer/songwriter has dealt so honestly and deeply with the vulnerability of romantic idealism and the pain of adjustment from youthful narcissism to adult survival as Browne has in this album. Late for the Sky is the autobiography of his young manhood.

Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone, 1974

Possibly the best thing this long time successful writer and, over the past few years, successful singer has come up with. The lyrics are meaningful and come as close to poetry as anyone else making music today. This album really transcends any categorization, which is one of the highest compliments that can be paid an artist.

Billboard, October 7, 1974

1. LATE FOR THE SKY
The words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasnt 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

Looking hard into your eyes
There was nobody Id ever known
Such an empty surprise
To feel so alone

Now for me some words come easy
But I know that they dont mean that much
Compared with the things that are said when lovers touch
You never knew what I loved in you
I dont know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be

Awake again I cant pretend
And I know Im alone
And close to the end
Of the feeling weve known

How long have I been sleeping?
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been dreaming I could make it right
If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might
To be the one you need

Awake again, I cant pretend
I know Im alone
And close to the end
Of the feeling weve known

How long have I been sleeping?
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been running for that morning flight
Through the whispered promises and the changing light
Of the bed where we both lie
Late for the sky

Words and music by Jackson Browne
1974 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
2. FOUNTAIN OF SORROW
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 didnt show your spirit quite as true
You were turning round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes

Now the things that I remember seem so distant and so small
Though it hasnt really been that long a time
What I was seeing wasnt what was happening at all
Although for a while our paths did seem to climb
But when you see through loves illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
Youve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
Youve had to hide sometimes but now youre all right
And its good to see your smiling face tonight

Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last
And while the futures there for anyone to change still you know it seems
It would be easier sometimes to change the past
Im just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at loves pain and heartache school
Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you
Theres this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
Youve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
Youve had to hide sometimes but now youre all right
And its good to see your smiling face tonight

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
Youve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
Youve had to struggle, youve had to fight
To keep understanding and compassion in sight
You could be laughing at me, youve got the right
But you go on smiling so clear and so bright

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
3. FARTHER ON
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
To catch the love that I'd heard of
In books and films and songs
Now there's a world of illusion and fantasy
In the place where the real world belongs

Still I look for the beauty in songs
To fill my head and lead me on
Though my dreams have come up torn and empty
As many times as love has come and gone

To those gentle ones my memory runs
To the laughter we shared at the meals
I filled their kitchens and living rooms
With my schemes and my broken wheels
It was never clear how far or near
The gates to my citadel lay
They were cutting from stone some dreams of their own
But they listened to mine anyway

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say
It could be I've lost my way
Though I keep a watch over the distance
Heaven's no closer than it was yesterday

And the angels are older
They know not to wait up for the sun
They look over my shoulder
At the maps and the drawings of the journey I've begun

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

But the angels are older
They can see that the sun's setting fast
They look over my shoulder
At the vision of paradise contained in the light of the past
And they lay down behind me
To sleep beside the road till the morning has come
Where they know they will find me
With my maps and my faith in the distance
Moving farther on

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
4. THE LATE SHOW
Everyone I've ever known has wished me well
Anyway that's how it seems, it's hard to tell
Maybe people only ask you how you're doing
'Cause that's easier than letting on how little they could care
But when you know that you've got a real friend somewhere
Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear

Now to see things clear it's hard enough I know
While you're waiting for reality to show
Without dreaming of the perfect love
And holding it so far above
That if you stumbled onto someone real you'd never know
(You'd never know)
You could be with somebody who is lonely too
(Sometimes it doesn't show)
He might be trying to get across to you
(words can be so slow)
When your own emptiness is all that's getting through
There comes a point when you're not sure why you're still talking
I passed that point long ago
(Long ago)
Now I'm so tired of all this circling
And all these glimpses of the end
(You know it's useless to pretend)
That's all the voices say:
"You'll go right on circling
Until you've found some kind of friend"

I saw you through the laughter and the noise
You were talking with the soldiers and the boys
While they scuffled for your weary smiles
I thought of all the empty miles
And the years that I've spent looking for your eyes
(Looking for your eyes)
And now I'm sitting here wondering what to say
(That you might recognize)
Afraid that all these words might scare you away
(And break through the disguise)
No one ever talks about their feelings anyway
Without dressing them in dreams and laughter
I guess it's just too painful otherwise

Look
It's like you're standing in the window
Of a house nobody lives in
And I'm sitting in a car across the way
(Let's just say)
It's an early model Chevrolet
(Let's just say)
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

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
5. THE ROAD AND THE SKY
When we come to the place where the road and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
They told me I was going to have to work for a living
But all I want to do is ride
I don't care where we're going from here
Honey, you decide

Well I spend my time at the bottom of a wishing well
And I can hear my dreams singing clear as a bell
I used to know where they ended and the world began
But now it's getting hard to tell
I could be just around the corner from heaven or a mile from hell

I'm just rolling away from yesterday
Behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet
I'm going to get a little higher
And see if I can hot-wire reality

Now can you see those dark clouds gathering up ahead?
They're going to wash this planet clean like the Bible said
Now you can hold on steady and try to be ready
But everybody's going to get wet
Don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet

I'm just rolling away from yesterday
Behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet
I m going to get a little higher
And see if I can hot-wire reality

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
6. FOR A DANCER
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I dont remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I mustve thought youd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now youre nowhere to be found

Dont know what happens when people die
Cant seem to grasp it as hard as I try
Its like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I cant sing, I cant help listening

And I cant help feeling stupid standing round
Crying as they ease you down
Cause I know that youd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
Right on dancing
Theres nothing you can do about it anyway
Just do the steps that youve been shown
By everyone youve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Anothers steps have grown
In the end there is one dance youll do alone

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Dont let the uncertainty turn you around
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But youll never know

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
7. WALKING SLOW
Walking slow down the avenue
Through my old neighborhood
Don't know why I'm happy
I've got no reason to feel this good
Maybe it's because I'm all alone
And I've got no place to go
And everywhere I look I see
Another person I'll never know

I got a thing or two to say
Before I walk on by
I'm feeling good today
But if I die a little farther along
I'm trusting everyone to carry on

Pretty little girl
Running up and down the street with no shoes on
I got a pretty little girl of my own at home
Sometimes we forget we love each other
And we fight for no reason
I don't know what I'll do if she ever leaves me alone

I got a thing or two to say
Before I walk on by
I'm feeling good today
But if I die a little farther along
I'm trusting everyone to carry on

I'm puttin' down my left foot
I'm puttin' down my right foot

I got a thing or two to say
Before I walk on by
I'm feeling good today
But if I die a little farther along
I'm trusting everyone to carry on

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved
8. BEFORE THE DELUGE
Some of them were dreamers
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge

Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers once so fine grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged loves bright and fragile glow for the glitter and the rouge
And in the moment they were swept before the deluge

Now let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by
When the light thats lost within us reaches the sky

Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
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

Now let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by
When the light thats lost within us reaches the sky

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved