A long time ago, I’d set my alarm clock for 1:30 in the morning, (sometimes two alarm clocks), and peeled my body out of bed to load delivery vans for UPS. As packages were conveyed down the line for me to load into the trucks, folks sorting the boxes listened to WZLX, “Boston’s Classic Rocker.” Every night. I listened to a lot of Eagles, and Jackson Browne over the two years I worked there.
“Running on Empty,” is probably my favorite Jackson Browne song and it lands at number 496 on Rolling Stones’s list of 500 Greatest Songs. It’s another song which mostly hangs its melody over a mere two chords. (I’m beginning to feel like I use too many chords). Last week’s song, “Miss You,” kept itself going through sheer groove and feel. Running On Empty uses other rhythmic and harmonic tricks to keep moving. In the sheet below I’m able to focus in on one or two of them. Can you find more?
The Prompt:
The Musical Idea:
Here’s a downloadable pdf of the worksheet above:
timmyr.com 