1974 Top Ten: Late for the Sky (#2)

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No lie, I’ve been sitting here for ten minutes trying to decide which of these final two songs on the list should go first, and which should have the #1 spot. That close. Let’s just call it #1 and #1A. 1974 was a great year for music. Albums that are now 50 years old still get regular plays from me. Here’s “#1A” from half a century ago. #2: Late for the Sky - Jackson Browne There is no other Jackson Browne album even close to this one in terms of majesty. Happiness (“Walking Slow”), heartbreak (“For a Dancer”), and everything in between. I love the line on the Ultimate Classic Rock website about this album: “To paraphrase Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas, of all the Jackson Browne albums, this is the Jackson Browniest.” It’s not pretty in terms of his vocals (you’ll hear his voice crack on “For a Dancer,” a tribute to a friend who had died) or production. But it’s real. If you need a description of what the “70s introspective singer/songwriter” was all about, just listen to this album. Filled with great lines (“looking hard into your eyes there was nobody I’d ever known, such an empty surprise”), this song sets the tone for everything that follows on the album. Actually, for the follow-up album, too (The Pretender), as that album is about the suicide of his wife. Browne hasn’t matched this period before or since. To me, though, if he’d only made this album he’d still be a Hall of Famer. Late for the Sky Written by Jackson Browne Recorded by Jackson Browne From Late for the Sky, 1974 How long have I been sleeping: