LYRICS FROM THE ALBUM "LATE FOR THE SKY"

                         All songs by Jackson Browne

LATE FOR THE SKY

Now 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 lead 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've 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 I've 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
In the bed where we both lie
Late for the sky

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


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 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 childhood 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, 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 awhile, our path did seem to climb

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

Now for you and me it made 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's 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
Theres 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 alright
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

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


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

Now 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 we're 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 'til the morning has come
Where they know they will find me
With my maps and my faith in the distance

Moving farther on

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


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 doin'
'Cause that's easier than letting on how little they can 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
If you stumbled on to 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"

Well I saw you through the laughter and the noise
You were talking with the soldiers and the boys
While they scuffled for your weary smile
I thought of all the empty miles
And the years I've spent looking for your eyes

(Looking for your eyes)
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
Trash man comes tomorrow
Leave it at the curb and we'll just roll away

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


THE ROAD AND THE SKY

When we come to place where the road and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
They told me I was gonna 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 ringing 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 a wheel of a stolen Chevrolet
Gonna get a little higher
And see if I can hotwire reality

Can you see those dark cloud gathering up ahead
They're gonna wash this planet clean like the bible said
Now you can hold on steady, try to be ready
But everybody's gonna 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
Gonna get a little higher
And see if I can hotwire reality

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


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 always thought you'd be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song playing right in my ear
That I can't sing
I can't help listening

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)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(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
And let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know 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
(The world keeps turning around and 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

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


WALKING SLOW

Walking slow down the avenue through my old neighborhood
Don't know why I'm happy, I got no reason to feel this good
Maybe it's because I'm all alone and I 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 feelin' good today
But if 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 feelin' good today
But if I die a little farther along
I'm trustin' everyone to carry on

I got a thing or two to say
Before I walk on by
I'm feelin' good today
But if I die a little farther along
I'm trustin' 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 feelin' good today
But if I die a little father along
I'm trusting everyone to carry on

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC


BEFORE THE DELUGE

Some of them were dreamers, 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 hearts for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge

Some of them new pleasure, 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
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by
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

Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by
By and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky

(c) 1974 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC