Taylor Hicks ~~ "Running on Empty"

Aren’t we all sometimes “running on empty?”

Taylor Hicks is a master at “tags.” In the middle of a raucous “Seven Mile Breakdown,” he puts out his hands to quiet the band. If you’ve been there, you know a “song within the song” is coming—a tag. Taylor may ease into a surprise or a familiar one.

Or there is no pause, and you are rolling “Eastbound and Down” before you know it!

Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” was a surprise—a new tag during “Seven Mile Breakdown” at an Epcot Center concert in October, 2010.

What makes a song resonate with you? Why can a song stop you in your tracks and touch a chord somewhere deep inside?

This is a road song—the title song from the album released in 1977 and recorded on the road, in hotels, on stage, and even on the bus by Southern California born and bred, Jackson Browne, and his touring band. It is life on the road with touring musicians. Taylor Hicks says that touring is in his blood, so is it any wonder it turned up as one of his tag songs?

I like road songs. They move like the rousing “Seven Mile Breakdown,” or they wind along like “Running on Empty.” But they take you somewhere.

Of course it is also a metaphorical road song—the road of life, looking back, looking on, and looking at how we’re doing.

Aren’t we all sometimes running on empty? And running behind? Just running on?

I don’t try to figure out what a song writer means with the lyrics. It is the artist’s song. When I hear it and it resonates with me, it becomes mine, and all that matters is what it means to me.

“Running on Empty” became mine from the first note. I think it brought back images of the flat fields and winding roads of the Midwest prairie. Growing up there as a teenager, running on empty meant different things. We weren’t really poor, but we didn’t have much more than necessities. The farm country was sparce, simple, and lonely even if you weren’t alone. I was in school with life ahead—just dreams, but hazy ones—on a road to where?

“Running on Empty” did make me think.

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

Remember when you were seventeen and running in the moment. Life was a California dreaming “running up one-o-one.” Life was all “summer fields.”

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

If your love is the music, is it a struggle to keep that alive and do what a singer must to survive?

Remember when you were 21 with your life ahead? Then somehow, you got to this road that you are on. Do you know how?

Running on - running on empty
Running on - running blind
Running on - running into the sun
But I’m running behind

No matter what, we keep running on, even on empty, even blind and into the sun like the moth into the flame. And it seems like, always 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 to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too

Holding on to friends once there. It is a shock to sometimes find that your rock—your friends—they are running too. And it can be heartbreaking…

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.


Funny thing is, I researched this song and album, read about Jackson Browne and the context in which the song was written, and found reviews from that time. Then, for me, some of that initial mystique and feelings for the song and Taylor’s performance were gone!

I questioned whether I had “gotten it right”…???

Then I watched numerous videos of Jackson Browne singing “Running on Empty,” and the magic came back!

Lesson learned: Own the music for what it is to you. “Information” doesn’t matter. The music does—wherever it takes you, whatever it makes you feel, however it touches you!

Own the music…it is a gift from the artist to you. It IS yours!

Thank you, Mr. Browne and Mr. Hicks, for “Running on Empty.”


A young Jackson Browne performs “Running on Empty” in 1977:




Over 30 years later, Jackson Browne is still a touring musician. With all the glam of today’s live performances or the simplicity of the acoustic stage, Jackson Browne performs his best selling single, “Running on Empty.” There are many videos on YouTube. This one from Montgomery, Alabama, in 2008 (I believe--it wasn’t dated) has good audio:

~~
If you would like to read a previous blog about Taylor’s music, here is the “dark horse” ~~ “I Live on a Battlefield,” from August, 2009:

http://thetaylorhickscommunity.blogspot.com/2009/08/taylor-hicks-i-live-on-battlefield.html


Next (I think): “The Fall,” with unpredictable lyrics and melodies, a beautiful song that seems to have come from deep inside a younger Taylor Hicks. Is it the song?

And sometime in the future (I think): “Somehow.” Is this the real “country” in Taylor Hicks? It sounded that way to me at first listen.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_on_Empty_(album)
http://www.jacksonbrowne.com/discography/album/running-on-empty
http://www.superseventies.com/brownejackson2.html
http://www.YouTube.com