“In sixty-nine I was twenty-one And I called the road my own I don't even know when that road Turned onto the road I'm on.... You know I don't even know What I'm hoping to find Running into the sun But I'm running behind.” Jackson Browne was very much an unsung poet laureate of the heart and soul of young America in the ‘70s, as exemplified by songs like “A Child in These Hills’ and the elegant ecology anthem “Before the Deluge.” Running On Empty, Browne’s fifth album, was in a sense the culmination of his early songwriting burst of brilliance that had started with “These Days” and evolved into remarkable albums like For Everyman, Late for the Sky, and the commercial break-out The Pretender. Here, however, though at the peak of his popularity, he was starting to run a little thin on ideas. Since his classic paean “Take It Easy,” cowritten with ...