Jackson Browne Running On Empty CD

Also available with JACKSON BROWNE (SATURATE BEFORE USING) on 1 cassette.
Personnel: Jackson Browne (vocals, guitar); Danny Kortchmar (guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar, fiddle); Craid Doerge (keyboards); Leland Sklar (bass); Russ Kunkel (drums); Doug Haywood, Rosemary Butler (background vocals).
Recorded live in 1977.
Personnel: Jackson Browne (vocals, guitar, piano); Danny Kortchmar (guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar, fiddle); Craig Doerge (keyboards); Russ Kunkel (drums); Doug Haywood, Rosemary Butler (background vocals).
Liner Note Authors: Anthony DeCurtis; Cameron Crowe.
Having acknowledged a certain creative desperation on The Pretender, Jackson Browne lowered his sights (and raised his commercial appeal) considerably with Running on Empty, which was more a concept album about the road than an actual live album, even though its songs were sometimes recorded on-stage (and sometimes on the bus or in the hotel). Unlike most live albums, though, it consisted of previously unrecorded songs. Browne had less creative participation on this album than on any he ever made, solely composing only two songs, co-writing four others, and covering another four. And he had less to say -- the title song and leadoff track neatly conjoined his artistic and escapist themes. Figuratively and creatively, he was out of gas, but like "the pretender," he still had to make a living. The songs covered all aspects of touring, from Danny O'Keefe's "The Road," which detailed romantic encounters, and "Rosie" (co-written by Browne and his manager Donald Miller), in which a soundman pays tribute to auto-eroticism, to, well, "Cocaine," to the travails of being a roadie ("The Load-Out"). Audience noises, humorous asides, loose playing -- they were all part of a rough-around-the-edges musical evocation of the rock & roll touring life. It was not what fans had come to expect from Browne, of course, but the disaffected were more than outnumbered by the newly converted. (It didn't hurt that "Running on Empty" and "The Load-Out"/"Stay" both became Top 40 hits.) As a result, Browne's least ambitious, but perhaps most accessible, album ironically became his biggest seller. But it is not characteristic of his other work: for many, it will be the only Browne album they will want to own, just as others always will regard it disdainfully as "Jackson Browne lite." ~ William Ruhlmann
An audacious concept album about life on the road, this is a mix of in concert performances and informal sessions taped in various hotel rooms (see "Shaky Town," although it's hard to believe that Browne, by then a major star, was actually staying at a Holiday Inn). It's very '70s--the overall aura of cocaine-fueled decadence is almost palpable--but it works far better than you'd expect, and the songs are consistently memorable, even if Browne didn't write them all.
High points include a stunning half hotel/half concert version of Danny O'Keefe's "The Road," still the best song ever written about the life of a travelling musician, and the closing medley of the roadie anthem "The Load-Out" and Maurice Williams and the Zodiac's doo-wop classic "Stay." The hard rocking title tune features typically lyrical yet stinging slide guitar from long time associate David Lindley.
An audacious concept album about life on the road, RUNNING ON EMPTY is a mix of in-concert performances and informal sessions taped in various hotel rooms (see "Shaky Town," although it's hard to believe that Browne, by then a major star, was actually staying at a Holiday Inn). It's very 1970s--the overall aura of cocaine-fueled decadence is almost palpable--but it works far better than you'd expect, and the songs are consistently memorable and sung with restrained conviction, even if Browne didn't write them all.
High points include a stunning half-hotel/half-concert version of Danny O'Keefe's "The Road," still the best song ever written about the life of a travelling musician, and tUncut (p.88) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "At the center, in splendid isolation from the surrounding cast of characters, are Browne's boyishly earnest voice and its constant shadow throughout the decade: the keening lap-steel and doleful violin of David Lindley."
Dirty Linen (p.63) - "Writing rock songs about life on the road has long been a cliche, but the topic was never treated with such verve and condor as it was on Jackson Browne's 1977 album RUNNING ON EMPTY..."