Jackson Browne

One of the most refined singer-songwriters in rock history, a writer of music and lyrics as profound as they are memorable, Jackson Browne can be considered the missing link between the disarming purity of Nick Drake and the untamed asceticism of Neil Young. Esteemed and respected in America (his adoptive homeland), overlooked in Italy, he set out from a lofty folk-rock and moved ever closer to an existentialist "chamber" ballad style, steeped in faint, seductive guitar work.

After collaborating in the '60s with Nico, Tim Buckley and the Byrds, and in the very early '70s with the Eagles and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, he arrived at his solo debut in 1972 with a self-titled album.

"Late For The Sky" is his third album, the one marking the definitive maturation of a cultured, sensitive musician. Backed by a superb band (David Lindley on guitar, Doug Haywood on bass, Larry Zack on percussion and Jai Winding on organ), Browne crafts a record that is played and arranged impeccably, thanks in no small part to Lindley, one of the most inspired guitarists in rock history, who on an instrument usually the most narcissistic in rock chooses instead to lavish his skill on exquisite sonic embroidery and inlay rather than give in to empty exhibitionism.

The opening of the title track is one of the most touching ever recorded, with a mournful organ and Browne's voice clear and melancholic, and then those few piano notes where all of human loneliness seems to coalesce, and by contrast, an inexplicable need for love. Finally, Lindley's solo, who plays guitar as Orpheus played the lyre, capable of melting the hearts of even the beasts of hell. "Such an empty surprise to feel so alone" sings Browne in what is perhaps the most beautiful song of love and loss ever written.

"Fountain Of Sorrow" doesn't break from the elegiac tone of the opening track, and although the tempo is (gently) more upbeat, Browne's melancholy and pure voice remain, that of a last prophet of feeling. On "Further On" David Lindley reaches the peak of his guitar style: his instrument doesn't play; it literally weeps. His is a work of patient chiseling around the desperate melody sung by Jackson at the piano.

The album's midpoint arrives with the polished "The Late Show", a choral hymn of mystical, almost ecumenical depth, with Lindley's indelible guitar triumphant in the finale. "The Road And The Sky" is a carefree ride on the road, a noble slice of rock'n'roll, with the guitars turning rougher for the first time on the record, while the piano's earlier composure gives way to a frantic boogie. We return to sorrow, indeed to real pain, with "For A Dancer", a song for a departed friend, where the mournful mood is beautifully conveyed by the violin, once again played by the indispensable Lindley.

With "Walking Slow", the tribulations of the previous track are exorcised through dance: the bass winks at funk, the clapping drives the rhythm, and Lindley's fiery guitar solo seals the track.

The album closes with the anti-nuclear manifesto "Before The Deluge": "Some of them were dreamers/ Some of them were fools", the opening line is an epitaph on the grave of hope, the total collapse of the hippie illusions Jackson Browne had once championed, and at the same time an extreme warning to a humanity teetering on the edge of catastrophe. A requiem for organ and viola depicting the desolation of a world that closes on a redemptive gospel note: even at the bottom of the abyss, there is still hope.

With this record Jackson Browne establishes himself as a chronicler of everyday life, of society and community; his sorrows and melancholies are, at bottom, everyone's, united by the same joys and miseries. "Late For The Sky" is a popular record in the strictest sense of the word: it belongs to everyone because it is felt by everyone. Only Dylan before him, and Springsteen after, have managed to create works of similar stature.

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07/03/2007