Discography
Running On Empty
Remastered: 2018
This time, Browne has consciously created a documentary, as brightly prosaic as it is darkly poetic, with a keen eye for the mundane as well as the magical. Running on Empty is a live album of new material about life on the road as conceived and recorded by a band of touring musicians in the places they spend most of their time (onstage, backstage, in hotel rooms, even on the bus). Since there are two separate concepts here, the audience gets an unprecedented double feature: ten songs they've never heard Browne sing, and a behind-the-scenes look at "the show they didn't see." As impressed as I am with Jackson Browne's art, I'm even more impressed with the humanity that shines through it. Maybe they're inseparable, but I doubt it. (RS 258-260)
Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 1978
- 1.RUNNING ON EMPTYRUNNING ON EMPTY
Jackson Browne
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-o-one
I don’t know where I’m running now, I’m just running on
Running on—running on empty
Running on—running blind
Running on—running into the sun
But I’m running behind
Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive
In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don’t know when that road turned onto the road I’m on
Running on—running on empty
Running on—running blind
Running on—running into the sun
But I’m running behind
Everyone I know, everywhere I go
People need some reason to believe
I don’t know about anyone but me
If it takes all night, that’ll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don’t know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too
Running on—running on empty
Running on—running blind
Running on—running into the sun
But I’m running behind
Honey you really tempt me
You know the way you look so kind
I’d love to stick around but I’m running behind
You know I don’t even know what I’m hoping to find
Running into the sun but I’m running behind
© Copyright 1977 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP.
All rights administered by WB Music Corp.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 2.THE ROADTHE ROAD
Danny O’keefe
Highways and dancehalls
A good song takes you far
You write about the moon
And you dream about the stars
Blues in old motel rooms
Girls in daddy’s cars
You sing about the nights
And you laugh about the scars
Coffee in the morning cocaine afternoons
You talk about the weather
And you grin about the ruin
Phone calls long distance
To tell how you’ve been
Forget about the losses, you exaggerate the wins
And when you stop to let ‘em know
You’ve got it down
It’s just another town along the road
The ladies come to see you
If your name still rings a bell
They give you damn near nothin’
And they’ll say they knew you well
So you tell ‘em you’ll remember
But they know it’s just a game
And along the way their faces
All begin to look the same
And when you stop to let ‘em know
You got it down
It’s just another town along the road
Well it isn’t for the money
And it’s only for awhile
You stalk about the rooms
And you roll away the miles
Gamblers in the neon, clinging to guitars
You’re right about the moon
But you’re wrong about the stars
And when you stop to let ‘em know
You got it down
It’s just another town along the way
© Copyright 1971 Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. and Road Canon Music BMI.
All rights administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 3.ROSIEROSIE
Jackson Browne And Donald Miller
She was standing at the load-in
When the trucks rolled up
She was sniffing all around
Like a half grown female pup
She wasn’t hard to talk to
Looked like she had nowhere to go
So I gave her my pass
So she could get in and see the show
Well I sat her down right next to me
And I got her a beer
While I mixed that sound on stage
So the band could hear
The more I watched her watch them play
The less I could think of to say
And when they walked off stage
The drummer swept that girl away
But Rosie you’re all right—you wear my ring
When you hold me tight—Rosie that’s my thing
When you turn out the light—I’ve got to hand it to me
Looks like it’s me and you again tonight Rosie
Well I guess I might have known from the start
She’d come for a star
Might have told my imagination not to run too far
Of all the times that I’ve been burned
By now you’d think I’d have learned
That it’s who you look like
Not who you are
But Rosie you’re all right—you wear my ring
When you hold me tight—Rosie that’s my thing
When you turn out the light—I’ve got to hand it to me
Looks like it’s me and you again tonight Rosie
© Copyright 1977 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP.
All rights administered by WB Music Corp.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 4.YOU LOVE THE THUNDERYOU LOVE THE THUNDER
Jackson Browne
When you look over your shoulder
And you see the life that you’ve left behind
When you think it over do you ever wonder?
What it is that holds your life so close to mine
You love the thunder and you love the rain
What you see revealed within the anger is worth the pain
And before the lightning fades and you surrender
You’ve got a second to look at the dark side of the man
You love the thunder and you love the rain
You know your hunger like you know your name
And I know you wonder how you ever came
To be a woman in love with a man in search of the flame
Draw the shade and light the fire
For the night that holds you and calls your name
And just like your lover, knows your desire
And the crazy longing that time will never tame
You love the thunder and you love the rain
You know your hunger like you know your name
I got your number if it’s still the same
You can dream
But you can never go back the way you came
© Copyright 1977 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP.
All rights administered by WB Music Corp.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 5.COCAINECOCAINE
Rev. Gary Davis
(Additional Lyrics By Jackson Browne & Glenn Frey)
You take Sally and I’ll take Sue
There ain’t no difference between the two
Cocaine, runnin’ all ‘round my brain
Headin down Scott, turnin up Main
Looking for that girl who sells cocaine
Cocaine, runnin’ all ‘round my brain
Late last night about a quarter past four
Ladanyi came knockin down my hotel room door
Where’s the cocaine—
It’s runnin’ all ‘round my brain
I was talking to my doctor down at the hospital
He said, “Son, it says here you’re twenty-seven,
But that’s impossible
Cocaine—you look like you could be forty-five”
Now I’m losing touch with reality and I’m almost out of blow
It’s such a fine line—I hate to see it go
Cocaine, runnin’ all ‘round my brain
© 1968 Chandos Music ASCAP
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 6.SHAKY TOWNSHAKY TOWN
Daniel Kortchmar
I’ve witnessed those one night stands
Must have played in a thousand bands
But I’m just here tonight, tomorrow I’ll be gone
Seen folks show their blacker sides
Seen them die just for foolish pride
And those drivers always ask to hear that same old song
That’s a big ten-four
From your back door
Just put that hammer down
This young man feels
Those eighteen wheels
That keep turning ‘round to take me down to Shaky Town
I’ve heard all those hard luck tales
From all of your U.S. males
I’ve heard you tell those lies about the love you’ve known
And I’ve followed those highway signs
And I’ve run down those thin white lines
Like those drivers this old road is all I call my own
That’s a big ten-four
From your back door
Just put that hammer down
This young man feels
Those eighteen wheels
That keep turning ‘round to take me down to Shaky Town
© 1977 Kortchmar Music ASCAP.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 7.LOVE NEEDS A HEARTLOVE NEEDS A HEART
Lowell George, Valerie Carter And Jackson Browne
Maybe the hardest thing I’ve ever done
Was to walk away from you
Leaving behind the life that we’d begun
I split myself in two
Proud and alone, cold as a stone
Rolling down that hill into the night
I could see the surprise and the hurt in your eyes
From behind each flashing city light
Love won’t come near me, she don’t even hear me
She walks past my vacancy sign
Love needs a heart, trusting and blind
I wish that heart was mine
Proud and alone, cold as a stone
I’m afraid to believe the things I feel
I can cry with the best I can laugh with the rest
But I’m never sure when it’s real
And it may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done
But apart from all that I hope to find
Where’s the heart that’s been looking for mine?
I hope it finds me in time
Love needs a heart and I need to find
If love needs a heart like mine
© Copyright 1977 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP, Naked Snake Music BMI & Vanilla
Grits Music BMI. All rights on behalf of Swallow Turn Music administered by
WB Music Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 8.NOTHING BUT TIMENOTHING BUT TIME
Jackson Browne And Howard Burke
Rolling down 295 out of Portland, Maine
Still high from the people up there and feeling no pain
Gonna make it to New Jersey, gonna set it up and do it again
I got a bottle of wine (pass it over)
I got a broken white line (I’m still sober)
There ain’t nothin but time between this Silver Eagle
And that New Jersey line
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
But getting any kind of sleep on this rolling motel—that’s the trick
It’s just a bottle of wine (pass it over)
It’s just a broken white line (I’m still sober)
It’s just a whole lot of time in the twilight zone
Between me and these friends of mine
© Copyright 1977 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP.
All rights administered by WB Music, Corp.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 9.THE LOAD OUTTHE LOAD-OUT
Jackson Browne, Bryan Garofalo
Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They’re the first to come and last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
They’ll set it up in another town
Tonight the people were so fine
They waited there in line
And when they got up on their feet they made the show
And that was sweet—
But I can hear the sound
Of slamming doors and folding chairs
And that’s a sound they’ll never know
Now roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get ‘em up them camps
‘Cause when it comes to moving me
You guys are the champs
But when that last guitar’s been packed away
You know that I still want to play
So just make sure you got it all set to go
Before you come for my piano
But the band’s on the bus
And they’re waiting to go
We’ve got to drive all night and do a show in Chicago
Or Detroit, I don’t know
We do so many shows in a row
And these towns all look the same
We just pass the time in our hotel rooms
And wander ‘round backstage
Till those lights come up and we hear that crowd
And we remember why we came
Now we got country and western on the bus
R and B, we got disco in eight track and cassettes in stereo
We got time to think of the ones we love
While the miles roll away
But the only time that seems too short
Is the time that we get to play
People you’ve got the power over what we do
You can sit there and wait
Or you can pull us through
Come along, sing the song
You know you can’t go wrong
‘Cause when that morning sun comes beating down
You’re going to wake up in your town
But we’ll be scheduled to appear
A thousand miles away from here
© Copyright 1977 Swallow Turn Music ASCAP & Gianni Music BMI
All rights administered by WB Music Corp. on behalf of Swallow Turn Music
All rights administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. on behalf of Gianni Music. Used by permission. All rights reserved. - 10.STAYSTAY
Maurice Williams
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
If we take a little time
And we leave it all behind and sing
One more song—
© Copyright 1960 Cherio Corp. BMI.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.