Running on Empty

Jackson Browne | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1977
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002GW5
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  DVD Audio  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #715 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #2 in Music > Pop > By Decade > 1980s
  • #7 in Music > Rock > Singer-Songwriters
  • #35 in Music > Pop > Singer-Songwriters

Track Listings

1. Running On Empty

2. The Road

3. Rosie

4. You Love The Thunder

5. Cocaine

6. Shaky Town

7. Love Needs A Heart

8. Nothing But Time

9. The Load-Out

10. Stay

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description

Hit the road with Jackson Browne! Load Out ; the title track, and more!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a DVD Audio NOT a DVD Video December 2, 2005

By K. Parker

Format:Audio CD

This is a DVD AUDIO release so don't make the mistake of expecting to see video footage like an earlier reviewer did. DVD Audio is all about the sound - much higher resolution than CD plus a choice between stereo or 5.1 surround. If you've got a DVD-Audio player and you're a Jackson Browne fan, consider this purchase essential. The 5.1 surround mix is like hearing the album for the first time. Consider the still images a bonus but buy it for the music.

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Roadie CD EVER! June 3, 2004

By Karl F. Kuenning

Format:Audio CD

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)

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Album that took Browne to the big arenas and concert halls January 29, 2003

By Don McNay

Format:Audio CD

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...