jackson browne - late for the sky poll

But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just 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
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes but now you're all right
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight

knew this would be a brad bay signal. I’m really into the title track rn

Easily my favorite Jackson Browne album. I've seen him in concert twice. Once in 2019, and surprisingly he didn't do any songs from the album. Then I saw him in July and he did half the album (the best half, IMO) - title track, "Fountain of Sorrow," "For a Dancer" and "Before the Deluge" - and it was awesome.

I probably played side one of this as much as anything in grade 11 (1977). Definitely the title track, in part because of Taxi Driver.

https://topshelfmovies.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shot72.jpg

fountain of sorrow

love this whole record of course

i love this record. gotta be the title track tho, one of his best songs for sure. the late show my next fav tho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzZ8hSZU0k

One strange oddity about this record - apparently there's an alternate version of "For a Dancer" that's currently on The Very Best of Jackson Browne (the two-CD collection) and it has also popped up on some earlier CD releases like Retrospective. (It may have been accidentally used on the first CD release of Late for the Sky though I don't have one to confirm it myself.)

Apparently a knowledgeable fan asked Browne himself about, and Browne told him the alternate version was originally made to accompany a TV montage for the Olympic Games (I think for the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles). Apparently they did it because they needed to "beef up" the recording to suit the television broadcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeeO8yS4VDQ

Easy to spot due to the added echo (especially on Browne's vocal) and the likewise prominent '80s snare doused in echo. It's not bad but I can't say it's an improvement.

Voted "Before the Deluge" because "When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky" takes my breath away every time I hear it.

first side is perfect, The Road And The Sky feels like the record company said "uuuuuh Jackson can we have something upbeat pls for a single" and is fairly bad. thankfully picks up again for the end of side 2.

One of the best things about these album polls is that they give me a chance to re-listen to records I might not have heard for a while. Picking one song from this one is a challenge.

One of the many things that impress me about this one is its production--it's immaculate.

I don't think I have heard this before, going to throw it on in the next couple of days and vote.

I could do without the jug on "Walking Slow."

Sad how people have turned their backs on jugs and washboards. They helped keep music alive, dammit!

I have nothing against them in general, but on this album it sounds like someone making fart noises.

The only part I like on this record is the subtle crescendo at the climax of "Fountain of Sorrow". Nothing but dullness otherwise.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

this is "for a dancer" for me all day. when he sings "I don't know what happens when people die" it gets me every time. kind of the best moment of his "I'm laying some wisdom on you" schtick, which when I'm not buying it grates, but here it never does.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

One of my favourite album covers. Could very well be that I first saw the cover in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock--one of the large cover images, almost half-a-page--and that's what got me to buy the album.

It really is a beautiful cover, more or less a contribution to René Magritte's series of Empire of Light paintings.

FWIW https://www.rene-magritte.com/empire-of-light/

Magritte--yeah, I think did know that...Maybe C. Grissom can ID the car; it makes me think of some guy picking up his date for the prom in the early '60s.

I don't think I voted for it, but I actually thought "For a Dancer" would win this.

the opening of "Fountain of Sorrow" is such perfect storytelling, beautiful sentences:

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
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