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Late for the Sky by  ReleasedSeptember 13, 1974Recorded1974Studio : Elektra Sound Recorders Hollywood Sound Recorders Length40:38Jackson Browne,  chronology
(1973)Late for the Sky
(1974)
(1976) from Late for the Sky ""
Released: January 1975 ""
Released: 1975

Late for the Sky is the third studio album by American singer–songwriter , released by  on September 13, 1974. It was nominated for a  in 1975. It peaked at number 14 on 's Pop Albums chart.

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,  founder  required him to complete this next album quicker and at less cost. Browne decided to use his touring band of , Doug Haywood, Jai Winding, and Larry Zack. It was also decided that , an engineer on , 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 , , and  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 . "Before the Deluge" was later covered by  on her 1979 album ; 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 ,  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 's .

In 2003, the album was ranked number 372 on  magazine's list of , 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  (RIAA).

Cover

Browne has publicly acknowledged that the cover art for Late for the Sky was inspired by the 1954 painting , by Belgian surrealist . 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 , home. Designer and front cover photographer  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 Retrospective professional reviewsReview scoresSourceRatingB–4/5

Reviewing for  in 1974,  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 , 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 , 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."  was more critical in  (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 . The song was played at memorial services for both  and  (by Browne at the Hartman service).

The title track appears in a scene in the movie .

The title track is included as essay twenty in  (published in the United Kingdom as 31 Songs) by Nick Hornby.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Jackson Browne.

Side one "Late for the Sky" – 5:36 "" – 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 "" – 3:50 "Before the Deluge" – 6:18