Album Club Selection #6: Jackson Browne - Late For The Sky

@MagicRatAFC First off, I've been a bad album club member and I've fallen behind.

You have done better than some...

First off, I've been a bad album club member and I've fallen behind.

So, Jackson Browne is someone I've never really gotten into.

I've just never taken the time to explore his oeuvre.

Also, if I'm being honest, his voice has never really grabbed me.

So, to this album, it's a fascinating listen.

Obviously very personal, themes of death, loss, mortality.

This album was released in 74, so he was a very young man when he released it.

Death of a parent or a contemporary?

I'm wondering what motivated this record and I'll do some research.

My favourite track is probably the title track or "For a dancer".

Really good listen and I really must take the time to explore his work.

Obviously

This thread has made me revisit several Jackson Browne albums I used to listen to on regular rotation but hadn't heard for many years. And my goodness, they are as good, if not better, than I recall. As much as he is known for his Seventies records, my favourite albums are from later in his career. I'm Alive, for example, is a magnificent album from start to finish.

We all have that first great love that, for almost everyone, ends in tears and heartbreak. I spent a few months, to all intents and purposes, homeless, living out of my battered and beat up old dark blue Corolla 2 door liftback. At night I'd drive up and down the highway, stopping from time to time to sleep for half an hour at a filling station, get a crappy take away coffee and carry on. I would listen to this album over and over, and, especially, this song.

I remember putting it on a cassette, just this one song, on both sides, and slipping the tape under the front door of the cause of that first heartbreak at 2am on one such night of endless driving. I'll never know if she found it, or if indeed it had any effect, but I was glad I did.

Does any other artist have as many titles as Jackson Browne that begin with For A (fill in the blank)?

It was like his trademark for a while.

The vocal harmonies are outstanding. Both musically, and what they add lyrics wise.

Can any of you listen to his sweet voice and consume this poetic melancholy without being completely moved and feeling sentimental and blue?

If it's just me, I'm going to have to do something about it...

This album has ben great for decompressing each night after hour and hours of writing.

Haven't listened to this full album yet, but "Before the Deluge" is one I've been playing quite frequently since I first heard it a year or two ago. I think Bruce played it on his radio show.

The No Nukes version is masterful.

She could have turned out to be almost anyone

Almost anyone

With the possible exception

Of who I wanted her to be

Great lyrics. So many by JB, actually. Come to think of it, I would buy a 'Songs' type book by Jackson in a heartbeat.

One of my favourites:

Don't confront me with my failures

I have not forgotten them

And this by a man still in his twenties, at the time...

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light

You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight

I've only have two unexpected Springsteen appearances in my lifetime.

In 1994, I participated in the Love Ride charity run. I did it because the route was an awesome 50 mile ride and to see the Jackson Browne concert at the end. I was early enough in to not miss the beginning of his first of three sets. I almost left after the second set, because i had a long ride home, but I was too stoned to ride so I stayed for the third set too. And he brought out Bruce fucking Springsteen for Running On Empty. Later on , there were rumors Bruce rode in the pack, but I think if he had, word would have gotten around, and mark it down as after-the-fact bullshit.

I was fortunate enough to see JB at Sun City in 1996, on the Looking East tour.

Seeing Jackson and an excellent, excellent band perform The Pretender and For Everyman live are still two of the most amazing memories I cherish.

Truth - I had a kid in my high school named Jackson Michael Brown.

My favourite JB album, as I am sure I have previously mentioned, is The Pretender, which probably has more to do with the timing of its release at a particularly difficult period of my life.

However, on to Late For The Sky. I realised whilst listening yesterday that I don't play this album anywhere near often enough - it is just wonderful. My particular favourite tracks are Fountain of Sorrow, another guaranteed to bring tears to my eyes, For a Dancer, which is incredibly moving and After the Deluge, which was just so ahead of it's time in terms of the subject matter. I like your trilogy JF, intend to listen to those three together later.

A great choice for the album club as its reminded me how much I love Jackson.

This may be heresy, but, in spite of the great songs he's written, I always felt his voice was lacking something. Not beauty - more like character.

OK, OK, don't disown me

Excellent choice, @Brown Eyed Boy

Looking forward to more albums I don't know or that open my ears up to something new, but also love that I can go to my CD shelf and pick this album out and play it... Not quite my personal favourite JB album, but damn near flawless from start to finish and it will be a pleasure listening to it again.

An anecdote, how I got to know about him..

One of our singers, Andrej Šifrer, went to Nashville late 80s to record an album there. There is a line in one song

'you wanna be just like Jackson Browne' He was a fan, obviously..

I just needed to find out... 😊

I often play Before The Deluge/The Price You Pay/The Last Resort as a trilogy.

I should mention that I'm a great admirer of the cover art, from the photograph to the font. I remember a note in the credits that said something like cover concept by Jackson Browne hope it's alright with Magritte. This was back in the days when anything I wanted to investigate led me to the library. One of the librarians put me on the right track and I was exposed to this beautiful painting.