Late for the Sky

David Geffen asked Browne to finish this album faster and more cheaply than For Everyman, which had been expensive to make. Browne began writing at Abbey San Encino and recorded with his touring band of David Lindley, Doug Haywood, Jai Winding and Larry Zack. Al Schmitt, who had engineered For Everyman, co-produced. It was finished in six weeks for $50,000, half the cost of its predecessor. Dan Fogelberg, Don Henley and J.D. Souther sang harmony. There are eight songs, and five run longer than five minutes.

The cover was inspired by Rene Magritte's painting L'Empire des Lumieres, and the credits read "cover concept Jackson Browne if it's all reet with Magritte." The album peaked at number 14, was certified gold in 1974 and platinum in 1989, and was selected for the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2020. Rolling Stone ranked it number 372 in 2003, Browne's highest placing on that list.

Stephen Holden called it Browne's "most mature, conceptually unified work to date" in Rolling Stone in 1974. Inducting Browne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen called it his masterpiece and mentioned the car doors slamming at the end of The Late Show. Robert Christgau was more critical in 1981, writing that Browne's millenarianism was self-indulgent.

For a Dancer was played at the memorial services for John Belushi and Phil Hartman, and the title track was used in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver. Joan Baez covered Fountain of Sorrow on Diamonds & Rust in 1975 and Before the Deluge on Honest Lullaby in 1979.