Jackson Browne and the album ‘Late for the Sky’

Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, Jackson Browne released his third studio album Late for the Sky on Friday, September 13th, 1974. The album was added to the National Recording Registry for preservation in 2020. The registry is maintained by the Library of Congress of the United States of America. Browne’s style on this album has been classified as pop/rock, contemporary pop/rock, singer/songwriter and soft rock.

(Cover art for Jackson Browne‘s third studio album, Late for the Sky).

As quoted by Songfacts here back to an interview in Mojo Magazine, the song Late for the Sky is “about a moment when you realize that something has changed, it’s over, and you’re late for wherever you’re going to be next.” The song would later be played in the movie Taxi Driver (1976) when character Travis Bickle, portrayed by Robert De Niro, sinks into a dangerous depression.

Fountain of Sorrow was the second single from the Late for the Sky album. A Mojo Magazine article quoted by Songfacts here identifies Jackson Browne as saying the song “talks about disappointment, but in a forgiving way…It acknowledges that people are always looking for something in each other that they may not find, and says that not only is that OK, but what’s more enduring is the goodwill and acceptance of each other’s right to be on this search and to make your own choices, and that one’s longing or sorrow is part of your own search, not a byproduct of somebody else’s.”

(Fountain of Sorrow was the second released single in support of Jackson Browne‘s album Late for the Sky).

Farther On is quoted at Old Time Music here as an “attempt [by Browne] to find hope and purpose amidst the chaos and uncertainty of existence.  The song’s central message encourages individuals to push through hardships, embrace change, and continue moving forward, despite the challenges that may come their way.” These points feel correct to me, despite the website’s misidentification of the album where this song is released.

The Late Show offers a consoling viewpoint of human nature and the massive amounts of people you encounter who cannot open their hearts and help to seeing you through your life journey. The further point is that the consolation comes not in the support of large numbers of people but in the quality comfort of friends willing and able to offer friendship in moments of need.

(Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, Jackson Browne of Heildeberg, Germany wrote all the songs on his Late for the Sky album).

The Road and the Sky offers further evidence that Jackson Browne feels things spiritually while contemplating those feelings with substance. The Road and the Sky tells of Browne‘s desire for a partner in his spiritual journey that allows him to experience feeling without the demand for being the only person choosing the road that should be taken in continuing to exist.

In a 2016 interview quoted here, For a Dancer was written “for a friend of [Browne’s] who died in a fire…He was in the sauna in a house that burned down, so he had no idea anything was going on. It was very sad. He was a really interesting guy.” The strings and piano accompaniment included with this song are quite beautiful.

Walking Slow was the first song released in support of the Late for the Sky album, though didn’t chart of its own accord. The song gets into nostalgia for Jackson Browne‘s past while celebrating what was a sense of security with his family, his home and his career. The uplifting tone of the song stands out in comparison to other songs on the album.

(Released in support of the 1974 Jackson Browne album Late for the Sky, Walking Slow was the initial single released in support of that album).

Before the Deluge has more meaning to me than the point-of-view indicated by Old Time Music here. While certainly there is temptation to see strictly “a vivid picture of a world on the brink of destruction, exploring themes of societal decay, environmental devastation, and the desperate need for change,” I sense a moral call that invokes the biblical tale of Noah and the Flood in the Old Testament book of Genesis.

Beyond writing the music and singing the songs on Late for the Sky, Jackson Browne played acoustic guitar, piano and slide guitar. Additional musicians included David Campbell with string arrangements on Late Show, Joyce Everson, Beth Fitchet Wood, Dan Fogelberg, Don Henley, Terry Reid and J.D. Souther with harmony vocals, Doug Haywood (aka John Douglas Heywood) on bass guitar and harmony vocals, David Lindley (aka Perry Lindley) on electric guitar, lap steel guitar, fiddle and harmony vocals, Fritz Richmond on jug for Walking Slow, Jai Winding on piano, organ and keyboards, Clarence White on keyboards, Larry Zack on drums and percussion and H. Driver, Henry Thome and Michael Condello on handclaps.

Matt – Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Margaret Atwood and the book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Canadian writer, literary critic, teacher, environmental activist and inventor Margaret Atwood wrote the book The Handmaid’s Tale, originally published in hardback in 1985. “The book, set in New England in the near future, posits a Christian fundamentalist theocratic regime in the former United States that arose as a response to a fertility crisis,” as quoted from the Encyclopædia Britannica.

(Alternate covers for the Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid’s Tale).

Offred, the primary protagonist responding to the world around her, narrates The Handmaid’s Tale in a manner that alternates between her present life and memories of her past. The memories frequently include added commentary and explanation that offers context and depth to what she discerns and how she, Offred, makes sense of the world that she inhabits. The world is one where a military coup killed the president and most members of the United States congress, leaving a country that became the Republic of Gilead.

(Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, which was first published in 1985).

The book picks up from a point shortly after this change to a dystopian republic, with the freedoms, decision-making and autonomy of women systematically curtailed in cruel and demeaning ways. The novel works to humanize how this would feel, and the ghastly and corrupting damage to women and society that experiencing this firsthand can have, should the worldview come to pass.

(Margaret Atwood, the writer of The Handmaid’s Tale, was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada).

In addition to severely curtailing women’s freedoms in the name of male control, the novel also addresses assigning women to various classes. The classes included “childless Wives of the Commanders; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the Wives and are called by the names of their assigned Commanders. Ranked under the Commanders are Guardians, who have police powers, and the society is permeated with government spies called Eyes. Those who cannot conform are sent to the Colonies,” as correctly mentioned by this Encyclopedia Brittanica reference. Further, African Americans (presumably as children of Noah‘s son Ham from the Bible), were additionally resettled.

(Other notable books written by Margaret Atwood include Surfacing, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake and The Testaments).

The depth of the story that follows the framework above addressed tortuous household conditions regarding reproduction, life with Offred’s commander, Fred, grocery shopping with Ofglen, a handmaid to a separate commander, sightings of executed prisoners left hung in public, beastly reproductive rituals, and an odd interpersonal attempt to connect between Fred and Offred that adds depth to the narrative value for how stilted and repressive life really becomes in this world based in the not-to-distant future.

(Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. The Testaments, first published in 2019, is Atwood‘s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale).

The premise of The Handmaid’s Tale is interesting. The narrative being primarily firsthand aids the engagement of the tale, with the message a timely one given political realities of the United States currently. That the narrative of this book expresses a fear for what lies behind much of what fuels the underlying disagreements about the decision-making in play is presented in an understandable and forthright manner. I rate The Handmaid’s Tale as written by Margaret Atwood at 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Monday, May 23, 2022