10 Great Rock Albums Recorded In Really Weird Ways
9. Jackson Browne - Running On Empty
Typically bands will release studio albums and live albums but rarely can a record be argued to be both. Jackson Browne’s fifth release is definitely a half-way house between as it contains all original songs that the Californian singer-songwriter had never released before, however recorded entirely in live settings.
Paying tribute to life on the road as a musician is a fairly common theme but few have gone quite to the extent that Browne did for Running on Empty. Performed and captured between August and September 1977, the album follows the artist through a tour that makes stops at Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and California. Some songs, such as the title track, are recordings from on-stage.
Some however peek behind the curtain and go deeper; taking his audience with him backstage, on the bus and even into hotels across the country. The Road is marked as having been recorded at Room 301 of the Cross Keys Inn in Columbia, MD and Nothing But Time was put to tape on the band’s bus between Maine and Jersey.
Running on Empty presents its concept of life on the road and lives it before our very ears.