The Late Show Lyrics

Lyric discussion by dainapoo 

Cover art for The Late Show lyrics by Jackson Browne

If I may... I've listened to this song a thousand times, and I agree with what's been written here so far. I also believe what he is referring to in that last part when he writes:

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... etc..

Is that, knowing all that we know about how far from truth life and people can be, which, therefore, makes it even easier to be cynical, we can still have the real thing. That seems pretty straightforward. But if you substitute "LIFE" for "HOUSE", you can see he is saying "your life can be empty", (a house nobody lives in) "but here I am, right across the way. Leave your sorrows behind and we can just roll away and 'build a new life' (a new "house") together."

Maybe you all have already thought of that, but I only recently really saw that connection, and I think I'm right, and it's made the song even more meaningful to me.

My Interpretation