Jackson Browne-Running On Empty (1977)

 

Artist: Jackson Browne

Title: Running On Empty 

Label: Asylum

Format: LP

Cat #: 6E-113

Year of Release: 1977

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1977 PRC pressing

Sold Price: $3.49

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 11/21/20

Discogs Last Sold: 11/18/20 G+/VG $2.99

Low: $1.49

Median: $5.99

High: $28.00 NM/VG+ A little ring mark on cover and small signature on front cover, almost unnoticeable. Record in great conditions. Includes insert.

Current low price: $1.75 VG+/G+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 179

Have/Want: 12878/396

Where Sold:  North Little Rock, AR

Time it took to sell: 5 years

Where and When Bought: Worcester That's Entertainment early 80's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go?: No

Although this may very well be his biggest seller, there are 3 Jackson Browne albums from his glory years that I know way better.  My mom played Late For The Sky and The Pretender incessantly in the mid to late 70's, but never bought this one.  I bought Hold Out for my number one album collection and got this one used a couple years after that, probably because it was canonized with a 5-star first or second edition Rolling Stone Record Guide rating.  I played it once, as I played everything at least once,  and filed it away.

Funny the Pinch Point editor found this cassette sitting atop an errant stack in storage, lost to the ages.  It seemed like an odd dream to him that The Reverse Collector (TM) would dare ponder such an uncool release.  But who gives a shit when you've passed 50?

So anyway as far as the record goes it ain't Late For The Sky, which I like quite a bit (dance scene in Taxi Driver anyone?).  I prefer Hold Out as well.  The final Browne album I paid any attention to.  The Pretender, which I think was literally groove worn by my mom, I honestly never liked much and would give Running On Empty the nod for third place.  The concept was fairly bold at the time: record an album of new songs live as an arena act and present it as a studio record.  The Boss did this again a few years later with The River.  That one was a better take on the concept. 

This deviance from convention means that the album opens with about 30 seconds of ambient live patter that is cut off the title track you can't escape on (now "classic") "rock" radio in the US of A.  The "concept" is a bit insufferable, stretching out what Seger did with "Turn The Page" throughout an album.  A nice cover of Rev. Gary Davis "Cocaine," though Dylan did it better and frequently in his late 90's live shows as well as a young man.  So you get a lot of road songs from the perspective of the performer.  Girls and blow.  8-tracks and cassettes in stereo.  Richard Pryor on the video.  The grand finale of The Load Out and Stay is still inescapable on AOR radio to this day, and was also a #20 straight top 40 hit.  Not as big as the #11 title track, but this is ALBUM ROCK, not TOP 40, though it indeed crossed over.

Nowadays they call him AMERICANA or SINGER/SONGWRITER, but he falls somewhere between The Boss and The Gord in terms of general respect.  This would place him in-gasp-Don Henley territory.  A songwriter of the Dave Marsh canon.

The people that sniff the hardest probably like the Taxi Driver scene.

Or at least the movie.