This, That, and the Other

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song that made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jim even helped us out by pointing us to Dave’s Music Database, which lists all of the songs that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The list is in alphabetical order by artist, so I scrolled down to one of my faves, Jackson Browne, and was surprised that he had only one song on the list, “Late for the Sky.”

“Late for the Sky” was the title song for American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne’s third studio album. It was released in September 1974. Interestingly, while “Late for the Sky” is the one Jackson Browne song that is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was never released as a single.

Browne says that this is one of his most personal songs. “It’s 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,” he explained.

The song deals with the feelings of loneliness and regret felt when a relationship has ended. The lyrics focus on the singer looking back on the relationship and realizing the mistakes he made. He is filled with the feeling that he has been “sleeping” and “drifting” for too long. In the end, he hopes that if he closes his eyes and tries hard enough, he may still be able to make things right, but he knows that’s not actually possible.

Browne said, “I remember writing the lines, ‘Now, for me, some words come easy, but I know that they don’t mean that much, compared with the things that are said when lovers touch.’ That kind of broke me down right there, and it’s very emotional.”

Browne says the first glimmer of the song came to him after he made a casual remark to a woman he was seeing at the time. Racing out the door to catch a flight, he blurted out: “I’m late. Late for the sky.” That unexpected phrase inspired a title. That led to a song, which led to an album, which led to a signature moment in a career that saw Browne inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.

An interesting factoid about the song is that when Martin Scorcese first heard it , he thought it was so powerful and so moving about a relationship gone wrong that he used it in a pivotal scene in his 1976 movie, Taxi Driver. The title character, Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro in an Oscar-nominated performance, stares forlornly at a black-and-white television as teenagers slow-dance to “Late for the Sky” on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. The look on Bickle’s face, coupled with the lyrics and the searing melody, suggest loneliness and alienation more gut-wrenchingly than anything else could.

Here are the lyrics to “Late for the Sky.”

All the words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasn't right
And still we continued on through the night
Tracing our steps from the beginning
Until they vanished into the air
Trying to understand how our lives has led us there

Looking hard into your eyes
There was nobody I'd ever known
Such an empty surprise to feel so alone

Now for me some words come easy
But I know that they don't mean that much
Compared with the things that
Are said when lovers touch
You never knew what I loved in you
I don't know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody
You were hoping I might be

Awake again I can't pretend and I know I'm alone
And close to the end of the feeling we've known

How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting
Alone through the night
How long have I been dreaming
I could make it right
If I closed my eyes
And tried with all my might
To be the one you need

Awake again I can't pretend and I know I'm alone
And close to the end of the feeling we've known

How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting
Alone through the night
How long have I been running
For that morning flight
Through the whispered promises
And the changing light
Of the bed where we both lie
Late for the sky