Late For The Sky 1974 Late For The Sky | Fountain of Sorrow | Farther On | The Late Show | The Road And The Sky | For A Dancer | Walking Slow | Before The Deluge Late For The Sky 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 have 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 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 Words and music by Jackson Browne © 1974 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved Fountain of Sorrow 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 Now the things that I remember seem so distant and so small Though it hasn’t really been that long a time What I was seeing wasn’t what was happening at all Although for a while our paths did seem to climb But when you see through love’s illusions, there lies the danger And your perfect lover 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 Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams But that magic feeling never seems to last And while the future’s there for anyone to change still you know it seems It would be easier sometimes to change the past I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you In my lessons at love’s pain and heartache school Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you There’s this loneliness springing up 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 Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light You’ve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight You’ve had to struggle, you’ve had to fight To keep understanding and compassion in sight You could be laughing at me, you’ve got the right But you go on smiling so clear and so bright Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved Farther On In my early years I hid my tears And passed my days alone Adrift on an ocean of loneliness My dreams like nets were thrown To catch the love that I'd heard of In books and films and songs Now there's a world of illusion and fantasy In the place where the real world belongs Still I look for the beauty in songs To fill my head and lead me on Though my dreams have come up torn and empty As many times as love has come and gone To those gentle ones my memory runs To the laughter we shared at the meals I filled their kitchens and living rooms With my schemes and my broken wheels It was never clear how far or near The gates to my citadel lay They were cutting from stone some dreams of their own But they listened to mine anyway I'm not sure what I'm trying to say It could be I've lost my way Though I keep a watch over the distance Heaven's no closer than it was yesterday And the angels are older They know not to wait up for the sun They look over my shoulder At the maps and the drawings of the journey I've begun Now the distance leads me farther on Though the reasons I once had are gone I keep thinking I'll find what I'm looking for In the sand beneath the dawn But the angels are older They can see that the sun's setting fast They look over my shoulder At the vision of paradise contained in the light of the past And they lay down behind me To sleep beside the road till the morning has come Where they know they will find me With my maps and my faith in the distance Moving farther on Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved The Late Show Everyone I've ever known has wished me well Anyway that's how it seems, it's hard to tell Maybe people only ask you how you're doing 'Cause that's easier than letting on how little they could care But when you know that you've got a real friend somewhere Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear Now to see things clear it's hard enough I know While you're waiting for reality to show Without dreaming of the perfect love And holding it so far above That if you stumbled onto someone real you'd never know (You'd never know) You could be with somebody who is lonely too (Sometimes it doesn't show) He might be trying to get across to you (words can be so slow) When your own emptiness is all that's getting through There comes a point when you're not sure why you're still talking I passed that point long ago (Long ago) Now I'm so tired of all this circling And all these glimpses of the end (You know it's useless to pretend) That's all the voices say: "You'll go right on circling Until you've found some kind of friend" I saw you through the laughter and the noise You were talking with the soldiers and the boys While they scuffled for your weary smiles I thought of all the empty miles And the years that I've spent looking for your eyes (Looking for your eyes) And now I'm sitting here wondering what to say (That you might recognize) Afraid that all these words might scare you away (And break through the disguise) No one ever talks about their feelings anyway Without dressing them in dreams and laughter I guess it's just too painful otherwise Look It's like you're standing in the window Of a house nobody lives in And I'm sitting in a car across the way (Let's just say) It's an early model Chevrolet (Let's just say) It's a warm and windy day You go and pack your sorrow The trash man comes tomorrow Leave it at the curb and we'll just roll away Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved The Road And The Sky When we come to the place where the road and the sky collide Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide They told me I was going to have to work for a living But all I want to do is ride I don't care where we're going from here Honey, you decide Well I spend my time at the bottom of a wishing well And I can hear my dreams singing clear as a bell I used to know where they ended and the world began But now it's getting hard to tell I could be just around the corner from heaven or a mile from hell I'm just rolling away from yesterday Behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet I'm going to get a little higher And see if I can hot-wire reality Now can you see those dark clouds gathering up ahead? They're going to wash this planet clean like the Bible said Now you can hold on steady and try to be ready But everybody's going to get wet Don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet I'm just rolling away from yesterday Behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet I m going to get a little higher And see if I can hot-wire reality Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved For A Dancer Keep a fire burning in your eye Pay attention to the open sky You never know what will be coming down I don’t remember losing track of you You were always dancing in and out of view I must’ve thought you’d always be around Always keeping things real by playing the clown Now you’re nowhere to be found Don’t know what happens when people die Can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try It’s like a song I can hear playing right in my ear That I can’t sing, I can’t help listening And I can’t help feeling stupid standing ‘round Crying as they ease you down Cause I know that you’d rather we were dancing Dancing our sorrow away Right on dancing There’s nothing you can do about it anyway Just do the steps that you’ve been shown By everyone you’ve ever known Until the dance becomes your very own No matter how close to yours Another’s steps have grown In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone Keep a fire for the human race Let your prayers go drifting into space You never know what will be coming down Perhaps a better world is drawing near And just as easily it could all disappear Along with whatever meaning you might have found Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around Go on and make a joyful sound Into a dancer you have grown From a seed somebody else has thrown Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own And somewhere between the time you arrive And the time you go May lie a reason you were alive But you’ll never know Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved Walking Slow Walking slow down the avenue Through my old neighborhood Don't know why I'm happy I've got no reason to feel this good Maybe it's because I'm all alone And I've got no place to go And everywhere I look I see Another person I'll never know I got a thing or two to say Before I walk on by I'm feeling good today But if I die a little farther along I'm trusting everyone to carry on Pretty little girl Running up and down the street with no shoes on I got a pretty little girl of my own at home Sometimes we forget we love each other And we fight for no reason I don't know what I'll do if she ever leaves me alone I got a thing or two to say Before I walk on by I'm feeling good today But if I die a little farther along I'm trusting everyone to carry on I'm puttin' down my left foot I'm puttin' down my right foot I got a thing or two to say Before I walk on by I'm feeling good today But if I die a little farther along I'm trusting everyone to carry on Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved Before The Deluge Some of them were dreamers And some of them were fools Who were making plans and thinking of the future With the energy of the innocent They were gathering the tools They would need to make their journey back to nature While the sand slipped through the opening And their hands reached for the golden ring With their hearts they turned to each other’s heart for refuge In the troubled years that came before the deluge Some of them knew pleasure And some of them knew pain And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered And on the brave and crazy wings of youth They went flying around in the rain And their feathers once so fine grew torn and tattered And in the end they traded their tired wings For the resignation that living brings And exchanged love’s bright and fragile glow for the glitter and the rouge And in the moment they were swept before the deluge Now let the music keep our spirits high And let the buildings keep our children dry Let creation reveal its secrets by and by When the light that’s lost within us reaches the sky Some of them were angry At the way the earth was abused By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power And they struggled to protect her from them Only to be confused By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour And when the sand was gone and the time arrived In the naked dawn only a few survived And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge Now let the music keep our spirits high And let the buildings keep our children dry Let creation reveal its secrets by and by When the light that’s lost within us reaches the sky Words and Music by Jackson Browne © Swallow Turn Music ASCAP All Rights Reserved