Late For The Sky(jmj) by jmjiloveyou

jmjiloveyou - Late For The Sky(jmj)

jmjiloveyou

Jul 18, 2025 09:07am

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/JacksonBrowneLatefortheSky.jpg" alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/JacksonBrowneLatefortheSky.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/j1Yu6KB.jpg">Late for the Sky is the third studio album by American singer–songwriter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Browne" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jackson Browne</a>, released by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Asylum Records</a> on September 13, 1974. It peaked at number 14 on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Music_Charts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Billboard</a>'s Pop Albums chart.In 2020, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Library of Congress</a> and selected for preservation in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recording_Registry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Recording Registry</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a><h2>Background</h2>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, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Asylum Records</a> founder <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Geffen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David Geffen</a> required him to complete this next album quicker and at less cost. Browne decided to use his touring band of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lindley_(musician)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David Lindley</a>, Doug Haywood, Jai Winding, and Larry Zack. It was also decided that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Schmitt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Al Schmitt</a>, an engineer on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Everyman" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">For Everyman</a>, 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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Fogelberg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dan Fogelberg</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Henley" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Don Henley</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Souther" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">JD Souther</a> contributed harmony vocals. There were only eight songs on the album, five of them longer than five minutes.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-JB-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky_(song)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">title track</a> was used in the 1976 Martin Scorsese film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_Driver" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taxi Driver</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[3]</a> "Fountain of Sorrow" was covered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Joan Baez</a> on her 1975 album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_%26_Rust" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Diamonds & Rust</a>; "Before the Deluge" was covered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Joan Baez</a> on her 1979 album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honest_Lullaby" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Honest Lullaby</a>; 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.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-JB-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a>In his speech inducting Browne into the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bruce Springsteen</a> called Late for the Sky Browne's "masterpiece" and referred to the car doors slamming at the end of "The Late Show".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[4]</a>In 2000 it was voted number 594 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Larkin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colin Larkin</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Time_Top_1000_Albums" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">All Time Top 1000 Albums</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-Larkin-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[5]</a>In 2003, the album was ranked number 372 on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rolling Stone</a> magazine's list of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_500_Greatest_Albums_of_All_Time" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the 500 greatest albums of all time</a>, Browne's highest ranking. In a 2012 update it ranked at 377.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[6]</a>The album was certified as a Gold record in 1974 and Platinum in 1989 by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recording_Industry_Association_of_America" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Recording Industry Association of America</a> (RIAA).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[7]</a><h2>Cover</h2>Browne has publicly acknowledged that the cover art for Late for the Sky was inspired by the 1954 painting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empire_of_Light" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">L'Empire des Lumieres ("Empire of Light")</a>, by Belgian surrealist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">René Magritte</a>. 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,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[8]</a> about 10 miles southwest of Browne's childhood home, the Abbey San Encino, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Park,_California" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Highland Park, California</a>. Designer and front cover photographer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Seidemann" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bob Seidemann</a> 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."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[9]</a><h2>Reception</h2>Reviewing for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rolling Stone</a> in 1974, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Holden" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stephen Holden</a> 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."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-RS2-16" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[16]</a>In a retrospective review for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllMusic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AllMusic</a>, 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."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_for_the_Sky#cite_note-AM-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[10]</a>