running on empty

Jackson Browne found solace on the road with this conceptual live album of new material and achieved the greatest success of his career.  'Running on Empty' was recorded while he was on tour for 'The Pretender' with the performances taking place on stage, in hotel rooms, and on the tour bus.  

Jackson looks back:  “That came more or less from the music first. It didn’t start out with an idea I’m gonna write a song about touring. I was touring at the time, and I don’t really remember coming up with that, what happened first with that…'Running on Empty' was an album that was much more successful than I thought it would be. It’s kind of a — one of the more famous records that I made, and I was just stalling for time while I wrote my “important” songs, what I thought of as my really significant contributions. I had this idea for a touring album that would be a bunch of songs about being on the road. It turned out to be much more interesting to people than what I thought of as my “important” stuff. So we went out and recorded this album live. It had stuff recorded in hotel rooms, on the bus …and I got to do a couple of other people’s songs, songs that I didn’t write.”

With Jackson Browne on guitar, piano, keyboard, and vocals; Rosemary Butler on vocals; Craig Doerge on keyboard; Doug Haywood on bass and background vocals; Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar on guitar, percussion, vocals, and harmony vocals; Russ Kunkel on drums, snare drums, cardboard box, and hi hat; David Lindley on fiddle, guitar, violin, steel guitar, vocals, and lap steel guitar; Leland Sklar on bass; and Joel Bernstein on background vocals; the sessions were produced by Browne with Greg Ladanyi on engineering, mastering at Merriweather Post Pavilion in  Columbia, MD; room 301 at Cross Keys Inn in Baltimore, MD; Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ; backstage "in the big rehearsal room" at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY; Holmdel, NJ; room 124 at Holiday Inn in Edwardsville, IL; Universal City, CA; and "on a bus (a Continental Silver Eagle) somewhere in New Jersey".  

Greg Ladanyi recalls:  "The sessions recorded in the bus, like 'Nothing But Time', were done in a little control room we had set up in the rear, with a Technics 12-channel mixer and a Revox two-track. It was a simple mix of Jackson and Danny on guitars, and Craig on Wurlitzer; we overdubbed bass drum — Russ playing a cardboard box — and other percussion after bouncing the two tracks onto the Studer 24. But the lead vocals and guitars were all live. There was a lot of low-frequency rumble on those tracks, but that's what it sounds like on a bus." 

'Running on Empty' reached number twenty-eight in the UK and number three on the US album chart, selling more than his previous three albums combined.  The title track made it to number eleven on the US pop chart and the single for 'Stay' was a hit around the world, going to number twenty in the US, twelve in the UK, and ten in New Zealand.  






http://www.jacksonbrowne.com/








'Running on Empty' 
full album:



1. Running on Empty - 0:00  (Browne)
2. The Road - 5:27 (Danny O'Keefe)
3. Rosie - 10:19 (Browne, Donald Miller)
4. You Love the Thunder - 13:59 (Browne)
5. Cocaine - 17:55 (Browne, Reverend Gary Davis, Glenn Frey)
6. Shaky Town - 22:50 (Danny Kortchmar)
7. Love Needs a Heart - 26:31 (Browne, Valerie Carter, Lowell George)
8. Nothing But Time - 30:02  (Browne, Howard Burke)
9. The Load Out - 33:13 (Browne, Bryan Garofalo)
10. Stay - 39:13  (Maurice Williams)