Today’s classic song of the day is “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne. It was the title track of his album of the same name and, when it was released as a single in January of 1978, went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the Cash Box Top 100.
Running on Empty, the album, was a terrific record. I listened to it a lot my sophomore year at good old Indiana University. (In retrospect, I marvel at the ability of a relatively broke college student to buy so many albums back then.) In addition to the title song, the album included tracks like “The Road,” “You Love the Thunder,” and “The Load-Out/Stay.” The album was recorded entirely on the road, either onstage or in hotel rooms between gigs. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 album chart and sold more than 7 million copies. (That’s a Platinum seller.)
Jackson Browne got the title when he was driving to the studio each day to record his previous album, The Pretender. In his own words:
“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.”
Like most of the songs on the Running on Empty album, the song “Running on Empty” was recorded live in concert, in this instance on August 27, 1977, at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. His band at that concert consisted of Danny Kortchmar on electric guitar, David Lindley on lap steel guitar, Craig Doerge on piano, Leland Sklar on bass, and Russ Kunkel on drums. Background vocals were by Rosemary Butler and Doug Haywood.
That was a hell of a rhythm section to tour and record with. In fact, Kortchmar, Sklar, and Kunkel became known as The Section and were very much in demand for studio dates. I’ve also liked and sometimes copies Russ Kunkel’s drumming on this one, which leads us to today’s daily bonus video of the day. It’s an older but no less powerful Russ Kunkel showing us what exactly he played on this song—and how he played it. My drummer friends should appreciate this one.
