Whilst acknowledging records such as ‘Live At Leeds,’ ‘It’s Too Late To Stop Now,‘ and ‘Rock of Ages‘ are not only outstanding examples of the ‘live album’ genre but exceptional recordings in their own right, as a whole the ‘in concert’ LP no matter how good, bad or indifferent, generally adheres to the ‘greatest hits in front of an audience’ format – the release an easy cash-in of recent studio or touring success.
On occasion the live album has proved an invaluable stopgap between brilliant new material, but for every ‘Get-Yer-Ya-Yas-Out‘ or ‘Live Bullet‘ there are fifty formulaic double sets that offer little else than easy money for the artist.
All of which serves to make ‘RUNNING ON EMPTY‘ by Jackson Browne the most original and imaginative live album in existence. In some ways this is no great surprise as by the time it was released in late 1977, Browne, by now four excellent studio albums into his career, was being described by Rolling Stone magazine as ‘the most accomplished lyricist of the decade‘ – an assessment difficult to contradict given the astonishing high standard of his output to date.
What makes ‘Running On Empty‘ so engrossing and unique is that Browne eschewed putting out live renditions of his best-known work in favour of ten songs (including a number of cover versions) he had not previously recorded – conjuring an ‘on tour’ song cycle depicting life of the road; the performances recorded in hotel rooms, at rehearsal, before an audience, even the tour bus.
In going against the norm, Browne may have initially incurred displeasure from Asylum Records who, like everyone else, had seen Peter Frampton score big the previous year with ‘Frampton Comes Alive,’ an agreeable if somewhat unadventurous set that became a surprise best-seller – Browne selling more albums up to that point and having an infinitely superior back catalogue to the English singer-songwriter/guitarist.
Asylum, however, were rewarded in backing their man in his desire to do something different, ‘Running On Empty‘ going on to become the most commercially successful album Browne would ever make – and despite its late in the decade appearance would become the 23rd highest-selling album (US sales) of the 1970s.
Sales were boosted by his cover of ‘Stay,’ (an early 60s success for Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs) that became a worldwide hit single, Browne’s reputation as a first-rate wordsmith further enhanced by the gloriously rocking title-track, a sharply drawn lyric conjuring the uncertainties of post-Watergate America with humility and fortitude – with Jackson Browne it was ever thus.
One of the first artists signed to Asylum Records, David Geffen scouring early-70s LA seeking acts for his fledgling label, JD. Souther, the Eagles, Ned Doheny and in time Linda Ronstadt joining a roster who set largely introspective lyrics to soft-rock melodies with country overtones.
By the time Browne, then 24 and a native of Los Angeles, came to record a self-titled debut album, his literate, personal songs had been covered by acts ranging from The Byrds and Nico to the Jackson Five. Containing material that was already familiar, ‘Jackson Browne‘ (1972) was a remarkably assured first outing, the follow-up ‘For Everyman‘ (1973) no less impressive.
Addressing personal emotions and political concerns with great candour, ‘Late for the Sky‘ (1974) was another tour de force, his perspectives finding their strongest platform yet on ‘The Pretender‘ (1976) – a brilliant, if at times harrowing auto-biographical collection, some of which was recorded following the suicide of wife Phyllis Major earlier in the year.
In response to his distress and ‘The Pretender‘ attaining gold record status, Browne hit the road with the cream of LA session players. Known collectively as ‘The Section,’ Danny Kortchmar (guitar), Russell Kunkel (drums), Craig Deorge (keyboards) and Leland Sklar (bass), boasted numerous studio credits, most notably with Carole King, Crosby & Nash, James Taylor and Browne himself – the troupe completed by oft-used fiddle and lap steel collaborator David Lindley, backing vocalists Rosemary Butler and Doug Hayward, with Browne completing the line up on guitar and piano.
Ironically, given the unfamiliar nature of what follows, the album begins with random shouts from the audience for some of his most renowned material, only for those at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, Colombia on August 27, 1977, to be regaled with the track giving the LP its name – Browne, atop of a melody that rocks sure and true, ‘looking back at the years gone by like so many sown fields.’
Like ‘Night Moves‘ by Bob Seger, another superb depiction in song of the restlessness felt by thirty-something Americans as the 1970s began drawing to a close, Browne infuses ‘Running On Empty‘ with sensibilities of the time:
‘I look around for the friends I used to turn to to pull me through/Looking into their eyes I see them running too.’
Yet for all the cleverly crafted, unambiguous lines describing the journey from innocence to experience, when in the bridge he sings ‘I don’t know about anyone but me,’ Browne has been credited with foreseeing the rise of 80s Yuppie culture – a decade when the interdependence he espoused came under attack from Reganonmics and self-interest, Browne attacking these attitudes with gusto on albums such as ‘Lawyers in Love‘ (1983) and ‘Lives In The Balance‘ (1986).
However, the line is interpreted (given the context of the song he could just be saying ‘I may write songs people relate to, but the only person I can truly speak for is me’) ‘Running On Empty‘ is a magnificent piece that combines first rate lyrical imagery with great ensemble playing – the experienced studio hands reveling in the opportunity to cut loose.
The essence of what Browne was aiming for is well-served by his cover of ‘The Road‘ a folk parable of touring life written by Danny O’Keefe, a singer-songwriter who never made it beyond cult status, despite being blessed with a smart turn of phrase. The first half of the song is recorded in a Maryland hotel room, the second before an audience in New Jersey, the two spliced together in order to create an effective contribution to the narrative.
Recorded in a backstage rehearsal room at Saratoga Performing Arts Centre, ‘Rosie‘ – co-written with tour production manager Donald Miller – finds Browne at the piano with Hayward and tour photographer Joel Bernstein for company, the two adding vocal harmonies at the chorus. Describing the opening chords as ‘Mozart at six years old,’ Browne keeps things light through this engaging account of an ‘on tour’ romance (not his he has often stressed when introducing the song in concerts since), Browne ultimately concluding, ‘it’s who you look like, not who you are.’
One of only two originals written solely by Browne (the title-track being the other), up-tempo country rocker ‘You Love The Thunder‘ was recorded before a New Jersey audience on September 6, 1977. Alluding to a fleeting relationship during the advent of touring (‘And you can dream, but you can never go back the way you came,’), the piece once more finds his musical cohorts in superb form, Butler and Hayward excelling with their harmony vocals.
Given the proliferation of cocaine in the music scene of 70s LA, it would have been no surprise to hear oblique references to the drug on an album set during a tour of the time. Browne, however, deals with the issue head on, so to speak, in ‘Cocaine‘ – a reworking of ‘Cocaine Blues’ by the Reverend Gary Davis, featuring updated lyrics written by Browne and Eagle Glenn Frey.
Browne (acoustic guitar) and Lindley (fiddle) perform the piece in an Illinois hotel room, Browne later admitting he was under the influence while they were recording – the tape left running to capture a humorous if cautionary conversation with regard to cocaine between Browne and Lindley that reflect lines, no pun intended, in the song:
‘I was talking to my doctor down at the hospital (what’d he say)/He said Son it says your twenty-seven but that’s impossible/Cocaine/You look like you could be forty-five.’
Performing the song in concert many years later Browne would change various phrases from the 1977 version to mock his own use of the drug and political dispositions of the era. At one superb 2006 London show, he altered the ‘You take Sally and I’ll take Sue/There ain’t no difference between the two‘ refrain to ask the question: ‘You take Nancy and I’ll take Ron/What kind of drugs were those two on?’
Room 124 of the Holiday Inn, Edwardsville, Illinois was also the recording location of ‘Shaky Town‘ a sombre lament to the life of a touring musician written by guitarist Kortchmar, who provides noteworthy support on guitar and background vocals.
Written in conjunction with Little Feat slide guitar maestro Lowell George and in-demand backing vocalist Valerie Carter (both of whom had appeared on ‘The Pretender‘), ‘Love Needs A Heart’ is a plaintive piano ballad taken from a September 1977 performance by Browne at the Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City, California.
The poignant verses, bearing similarity to the haunting ‘Long Distance Love‘ George contributed to the 1975 Little Feat ‘The Last Record Album‘ set, suggest they could be his work, although Browne brings an aching tenderness to his reading of the song, the lines, ‘I can cry with the best, I can laugh with the rest, but I’m never sure when its real,’ particularly emotive in light of his recent personal tragedy.
Assembled on the tour bus (at that moment moving through New Jersey), a background gear change and sound of the vehicle accelerating can be heard as members of the band strike up ‘Nothing But Time.’
Many rock bands have amused themselves in such a way, but none had captured their efforts in this manner before. Browne and tour manager Howard Burke pen an observational piece based on the vagaries of touring, Browne delivering the key couplet, ‘Well it’s a rock and roll band or a movie you can take your pick/And it ain’t bad work if you can get it/But you gotta make it stick,’ while drummer Kunkel plays snare, hi-hat and cardboard box with foot pedal.
Introducing ‘The Load-Out‘ (recorded the same night as ‘Running On Empty‘), Browne informs the audience, ‘I’d like to do a song I’ve never played in public before. Brand new song, it’s kind of a tribute to the friends of mine who come out here on the road and to you too.’
Modesty no doubt prevents him adding that with the possible exception of ‘Stage Fright‘ by The Band, it is also the best song ever written about touring, so SAMTIMONIOUS.com will do that on his behalf.
In simple but wonderfully poetic language, Browne puts the gloss on all that has gone before on this album, accompanying himself on piano in describing scenes from road life. He evokes the crowd rising to acclaim the performers but also the sound of ‘slamming doors and folding chairs‘ in an empty auditorium, heralding the commitment of the road crew who by the end of verse three are being implored:
‘But when that last guitar’s been packed away, you know that I still want to play/So just make sure you’ve got it all set to go/Before you come for my piano.’
As he moves into a piano break gasps can be detected in the audience on hearing such a vivid account, Browne going on to describe the seemingly endless nature of a tour (‘We’ve got to drive all night and do the show in Chicago. Or Detroit. I don’t know, we do so many shows in a row‘). At the end of the fourth verse, he and his fellow musicians have reached the point of going on stage for the next show:
‘Til those lights come up and we hear that crowd and we remember why we came.’
With the band returning to make their presence felt, Browne leads them through two more verses, stating how slowly the hours pass in relation to, ‘the only time that seems to short is the time we get to play.’
In the end, however, the concert experience for artist and audience alike is a fleeting one, Browne informing the citizens of Columbia, Maryland, ‘Cause when that morning sun comes beating down/You’re gonna wake up in your town/But we’ll be scheduled to appear/A thousand miles away from here.’
But at the moment ‘The Load-Out‘ reaches an apparent conclusion it segues neatly into ‘Stay.’ With Browne changing the words in order to fit his theme (‘People stay just a little bit longer, We want to play just a little bit longer/Now the promoter don’t mind/And the union don’t mind,’) the high vocal harmonies of the Maurice Williams/Zodiacs original are replicated in ‘a rare vocal appearance by David Lindley.’
Given the vast number of outstanding compositions he had written, the irony was surely not lost on Browne that a cover version (and tongue-in-cheek one at that), should bring him widespread attention – ‘Stay‘ climbing high in singles charts across the globe during the summer of 1978.
On release ‘Running On Empty‘ was, for the most part, greeted rapturously, critics warming to its audacity and accomplishment. In their review Rolling Stone declared it ‘the most ambitious live album project ever attempted,’ bestowing laurels on Browne label-mates the Eagles would never receive from the magazine – in much the same way Neil Young was feted by Rolling Stone who in turn had little more than contempt for Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Indeed, when Rolling Stone published its ‘Record Guide‘ the following year, for his five LPs to date Browne received a combined tally of twenty-two stars (from a possible twenty-five) ‘The Pretender‘ and ‘Running On Empty‘ each receiving five star accreditation. As if to emphasise their admiration of him, but indifference toward Henley, Frey & co, the Eagles were awarded fifteen stars spread across the same number of albums.
Yet even for Browne favourable treatment from the rock press could not last indefinitely and after the Eagles were rounded on for ‘The Long Run‘ (1979), he suffered a backlash when his first studio album in four years ‘Hold Out‘ (1980) met with a lukewarm response.
In hindsight, ‘Running On Empty‘ was the final paragraph in a glorious chapter for Asylum, who in the preceding years had been home to such excellence as ‘Late For The Sky,’ ‘The Pretender,’ ‘Hotel California,’ Linda Ronstadt’s ‘Prisoner In Disguise,’ ‘Small Change’ by Tom Waits, the stunning ‘No Other‘ solo outing from former-Byrd Gene Clark and the equally breathtaking Warren Zevon debut.
Jackson Browne closed this era of high artistic achievement with the last word in just how imaginative, in the right hands, a live album could be.
JACKSON BROWNE – ‘RUNNING ON EMPTY‘ (released December 6 1977):
Running On Empty/The Road/Rosie/You Love The Thunder/Cocaine/Shaky Town/Love Needs A Heart/Nothing But Time/The Load Out/Stay;
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback as an Amazon Kindle book.
