Track Listing

1. Running on Empty
2. Road
3. Rosie
4. You Love the Thunder
5. Cocaine
6. Shaky Town
7. Love Needs a Heart
8. Nothing but Time
9. Load-Out
10. Stay

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2371 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Recorded onstage, backstage, in three different hotel rooms, and on a Continental Silver Eagle tour bus during a cross-country 1977 tour, Running on Empty is a paean to life on the road. Jackson Browne's sense of camaraderie extended to the road crew, if "The Load Out," a love song to his roadies, is to be believed. Browne is much more blithe here than in his earlier outings. But Empty also represents a fleeting lighthearted moment for the singer-cum-poet whose concerns became more political than personal after its appearance. Beneath its flippant surface, this disc is a look at the lengths Browne and his friends went to avoid facing the demands of the touring life. What with the frequent drug references, misogynistic references to on-the-fly pairings with women, and the sobering line in the title track--"I look around for the friends I used to pull me through / Looking into their eyes, I see them running, too"--one realizes that Browne was much more comfortable on the road than off. --Jaan Uhelszki

Customer Reviews

Best Roadie CD EVER!
When this album came out in 1977 I was a roadie on tour with another artist. We heard this record when we came home on a short break a few weeks after it was released and I couldn't believe it...an album that commemorated life on the road. Although "Running on Empty" has been played to death it still holds up as a great rock anthem. The best song on the CD is definitely "Rosie" which captures the true essence of the roadie life (losing the girl to the drummer). The sleeper track is "The Road" a melancholy reflection on the horrible loneliness that is prevalent on the road. Finally the song "Cocaine" hits WAY to close to home for those of us that were seduced by its charms back then. Running on Empty is a must have CD for anyone that experienced the concert scene in the 70's (or wishes they could have). I give this CD 5 stars (attached with gaffer's tape)

A great live album
Jackson Browne has always been one of the best songwriters of his time, and with his live album, Running On Empty, he really proved it. He certainly wasn't running on empty when he released this album, because it is spectacular. The whole time I was listening to it, I felt a peace of mind, and I saw why he used to be so popular and why he was such an influential artist. One thing's for sure, if you ever want an album that is good while you're driving, this is one of them. All the songs are great, and Jackson Browne seems like a great live singer. It has two big hits with "Runnin' On Empty" and "Stay." My favorites from the album are those 2 songs, "Love Needs A Heart, "The Road," and "Shaky Town." I liked all the songs, but those were the best ones in my opinion.

If you like classic rock, great live albums, or good driving music, you need to get Running On Empty, it's a classic in my book.

Album that took Browne to the big arenas and concert halls
Until Running on Empty, Jackson headlined in mid level arenas. For the Running on Empty Tour, with a tremendous assist from his opening act Karla Bonoff, Browne moved into the big sports arenas playing to 20000 a night. Running on Empty was his highlight from a financial standpoint.

An interesting concept at the time and some of the songs, like Running on Empty and the Load Out/Stay became big hits. Load Out/Stay is the mandatory end to a Jackson Browne concert, as it was when Bruce Springsteen and the E street band performed the song along with Jackson at the No Nukes concert in 1980.

You Love the Thunder, with Rosemary Butler as a tremendous backup voice, is a good song and Rosie, despite its unique subject matter, is a decent song that gets a lot of airtime still.

I could probably do without the song about big 18 wheelers but it fit the concept.

The album is only not great when compared to other Jackson Brown albums. Late for The Sky, Pretender and For Everyman are masterpieces and Running on Empty is a notch below that. I think the hard core Jackson Browne fan was glad when the Running on Empty frenzy died down and you could see Jackson in a concert hall, where he belongs.

Don McNay...