Fountain of Sorrow

"Fountain of Sorrow"
"Fountain of Sorrow"
	7-inch DJ promotional mono single label
Single by Jackson Browne
from the album Late for the Sky
B-side	"The Late Show"
Released	1975
Recorded	1974
Length	4:37 – 7" version; 6:42 – album version
Label	Asylum Records
Songwriter(s)	Jackson Browne
Producer(s)	Jackson Browne, Al Schmitt
Jackson Browne singles chronology

"Fountain of Sorrow" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Released as the second single from his 1974 album Late for the Sky, at 6:42, it was the longest song on the album, and the longest song Browne had yet released ("For Everyman" was approximately 6:20). Two minutes were removed from the single release of "Fountain of Sorrow", but the song still failed to chart on Billboard's Hot 100.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Origin

The song is generally assumed to have been inspired by Browne's brief relationship with Joni Mitchell.

Reaction

Many critics have written of the relationship song (and the album it is from) as reflecting a larger, general zeitgeist for the post-Vietnam War, post-Nixon era Baby boomer audience, particularly the notable "You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight" line in the chorus. "The fondly reflective 'Fountain of Sorrow,' is typical of Browne's ability to make personal experience seem universal," said Gil Asakawa, in Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide.^[5] Indeed, Joan Baez immediately recorded her own version of the song for her 1975 solo album, Diamonds & Rust, placing it directly in the song listing after her title track, a remembrance song of her relationship with Bob Dylan in the 1960s and 1970s.^[6]

Reception

Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn said that "Fountain of Sorrow" "speaks of the perennial search for someone new – an effort that combines some renewed optimism with the lingering knowledge of past failures."^[7]

In his 1974 Rolling Stone review of Late for the Sky, Stephen Holden wrote that the song "develops parallel themes of sex and nothingness, fantasy and realism, as Browne, looking at the photograph of a former lover, recalls:"

When you see through love's illusion, 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...

"In the chorus, highly romanticized sexuality becomes a 'fountain of sorrow, fountain of light.' Later in the album the water images are developed into a larger metaphor for death and rebirth," wrote Holden.^[8]

Robert Christgau called the song the best on the album: "I admit that the longest is also the best, an intricate extended metaphor called 'Fountain of Sorrow.'"^[9] Cash Box said that Browne "uses his unique country-influenced balladry to his fullest about the highs and lows of love."^[10]

In his 2008 book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, Tom Moon wrote that Browne's lost seeker's "inquiry leads him into the minefields of memory" on "Fountain of Sorrow," in which "a photograph opens the floodgates".

Browne biographer Mark Bego called it "a beautiful and medium-paced ballad of lost love" that was Browne's "most masterful vocal performance to date."^[11] Bego said that "it has a nice lively beat" and that Browne is "reminiscing instead of lamenting."^[11] Bego says that in the lyrics, when the singer finds an old photograph in a drawer and remembers taking the picture, "he is finally able to put this failed relationship into perspective."^[11]

Music critic Gil Asakawa called it the best song on "Late for the Sky", describing it as "fondly reflective" and saying that it "is typical of Browne's ability to make personal experiences seem universal."^[12]

Glide critic Lee Zimmerman rated it as one of 10 Jackson Browne songs that should have been a hit. Zimmerman described it as "a brooding ballad and excellent example of Browne’s ability to draw on remorse and pathos" and said that "it offers enough optimism to ensure at least a semi-happy ending" but felt that "it may have been a bit too introspective to attain a wider reach."^[13]

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of The Very Best of Jackson Browne.^[14]

Jackson Browne – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Dan Fogelberg, Don Henley, JD Souther – harmony vocals
Doug Haywood – bass guitar, harmony vocals
David Lindley – electric guitar
Jai Winding – piano
Larry Zack – drums, percussion

Other versions

A live solo version by Browne at the piano is available on his 2005 release Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1.

Joan Baez – Diamonds & Rust, 1975.

Notes

^ Jackson Browne Chart History. Billboard.
^ Allmusic.com. Jackson Browne Awards.
^ Whitburn, Joel. Billboard Hot 100 Charts – The Seventies. Wisconsin: Record Research, 1990.
^ Paris, Russ. JACKSON BROWNE COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY. Archived August 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^ Asakawa, Gil. Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. 1996
^ ALLMUSIC.com. "Fountain of Sorrows" Versions Page
^ Hilburn, Robert (October 20, 1974). "Jackson Browne fulfills promise in latest album". Los Angeles Times. p. 64. Retrieved December 28, 2023 – via newspapers.com.
^ Holden, Stephen. Rolling Stone, Late for the Sky Review November 7, 1974.
^ Christgau, Robert. RobertChristgau.com, Late for the Sky Review.
^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. March 15, 1975. p. 38. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bego, Mark (2005). Jackson Browne: His Life and Music. Citadel. p. 84. ISBN 9780806526423.
^ Asakawa, Gil (1999). Graff, Gary; Durscholz, Daniel (eds.). Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Schirmer Trade Books. p. 164. ISBN 0825672562.
^ Zimmerman, Lee (October 9, 2018). "Jackson Browne at 70 – Looking Back at Ten Of The Songsmith's Should Have Been Hit Songs". Glide Magazine. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
^ The Very Best Of Jackson Browne (liner notes). Jackson Browne. Elektra. 2004. 8122 78091 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)