This, That, and the Other

My theme for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge is classic rock songs. Each day during the month (except for the first four Sundays, I will post a classic rock song: a video from YouTube, along with a brief bit of background about the song and the recording artist(s).

This is much more difficult than I thought it would be. For every letter of the alphabet there are dozens of fantastic classic rock songs to choose from and picking just one song for each letter is maddening. But this is what I signed up for.

My R song is “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne.

This song is very special to me. My first date with my then future wife was on August 27, 1976. The very first concert we went to together was a concert at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, on October 26, 1976, where Orleans opened for Jackson Browne. She wasn’t that familiar with Jackson Browne before that concert, but after that concert she became as enthusiastic a fan as I had been for a while.

On our one year anniversary of our first date, on August 27, 1977, I took her to see Jackson Browne in concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. It was at that concert that “Running on Empty,” the title track of his 1977 live album of the same name, along with “The Load-Out/Stay,” were recorded. And we were right there in the audience. A year later, we got married.

“Running on Empty” was written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. It was a number 11 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as a single, spending seventeen weeks on the chart. The phrase “running on empty” is a popular metaphor for being exhausted, but it had a much more literal meaning for Browne. He wrote it while he was driving back and forth to the studio each day to make his album The Pretender. He told Rolling Stone: “I was always driving around with no gas in the car, I just never bothered to fill up the tank because, how far was it anyway? Just a few blocks.”

Browne, a very prolific song writer, released four studio albums from 1972-1976, a hectic pace, but one that was typical for artists in the ’70s. To catch a break while still honoring their obligations to their labels, acts would often put together a live album every now and then, which saved them the trouble of recording new songs. That was Browne’s plan, except he wanted to include some new songs as well. Stops on Browne’s tour during the summer of 1977 were recorded for the album, and when they started compiling it, Browne and his crew decided that it sounded best with all new songs, and that “Running on Empty” would make a great title track. When the album was released, it was a landmark: The first live rock album with all new songs.

Interesting factoid: in August 2008, Browne filed a lawsuit against then Republican presidential candidate John McCain, after the politician used a portion of this song in a presidential campaign TV ad without permission. Browne’s lawyer said: “Not only have Senator McCain and his agents plainly infringed Mr. Browne’s copyright in ‘Running on Empty,’ but the Federal Courts have long held that the unauthorized use of a famous singer’s voice in a commercial constitutes a false endorsement and a violation of the singer’s right of publicity.” Browne was — and is — a lifelong Democrat.

Here are the lyrics to “Running on Empty.”

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 on 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, into 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
Look around for the friends that I used to turn to 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

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