Jackson Browne made the decision to record an entire album of original songs on the road. Not just in arenas, but also in various locations when he and his band were off-stage. He emerged with Running On Empty, one of the finest LPs of his career.
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Released in 1977, the LP contains some of Browne’s best-loved songs. You probably know them from their ubiquity on classic rock radio. But you might not know the stories that went into their making.
Fill It Up
The title track of Running On Empty immediately earned anthem status. Browne managed to equate the uprooted feeling of a musician on the road to the restlessness of his entire generation. But the song didn’t originate with some grand plan to make a bold statement. It was much more mundane than that. When Browne recorded his previous album, The Pretender, he didn’t have a long drive from home to the studio. As a result, he rarely put gas in his car, meaning that his tank was almost always near “E.”
Clandestine Covers
Browne and his band did such an amazing job of making the material come together seamlessly that it’s easy to overlook the fact that there were several songs on the LP that he didn’t write. “Cocaine” emanated from an early 20th-century blues song called “Cocaine Blues” (although Browne and Glenn Frey add new lyrics). Guitarist Danny Kortchmar wrote “Shaky Town”. And “The Road”, which summed up the album so well, actually dated back to a 1972 song from singer-songwriter Danny O’Keefe, from an album that included O’Keefe’s Top 10 hit “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues”.
Hit Those High Notes
One song that most fans immediately recognized as a cover was “Stay”, the closing track on Running On Empty. It forms the back end of a medley with “The Load-Out”, Browne’s ode to roadies. The original was a hit for Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs in 1960, written and recorded by Williams when he was a teenager. Browne sings lead on the track. But for the higher notes, he utilized backing singer Rosemary Butler and guitarist David Lindley. Lindley, in particular, did an amazing approximation of Williams’ falsetto.
Rosie’s Secret Identity
Browne co-wrote “Rosie” with Donald Miller, a longtime associate who eventually went on to become Browne’s manager. The song tells of a roadie who falls for a girl at a show, only for the drummer to come along at the last minute and steal her away. But who is this “Rosie” who gives the roadie comfort after his heartbreak? Well, her name and some lines from the song (“You wear my ring” and “I got to hand it to me”) provide the clues that the narrator is going to rely on self-pleasure that evening.
Turn Down the Engine, We’re Recording Here
It was bold enough for Browne to debut an entirely new set of songs in a live album. (Kind of what The Beatles planned to do with Let It Be, before it mostly fell through.) But the real stroke of genius came from his decision to record some songs in the offhand moments between shows. The locations ranged from backstage areas to hotel rooms. Wildest of all: The song “Nothing But Time”, which Browne and his musicians laid down while on a bus en route to the next show. You can even hear the engines if you listen closely enough.
Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns
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