You Love the Thunder

"You Love the Thunder"

7" Picture Sleeve
Single by Jackson Browne
from the album Running on Empty
B-side "The Road"
Released Early 1978
Format 7"
Recorded August 27, 1977
Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel, New Jersey
Genre Rock
Length 3:57
Label Asylum Records
Writer(s) Jackson Browne
Producer(s) Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne singles chronology
"Stay"/"The Load-Out"
(1978)
"You Love The Thunder"
(1978)
"Boulevard"
(1980)
Running on Empty track listing
"Rosie"
(3)
"You Love The Thunder"
(4)
"Cocaine"
(5)

"You Love the Thunder" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne from his 1977 live album, Running on Empty, recorded at a concert at Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, on September 6, 1977. Released as the third single a full year after the album came out, it only reached #109 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, though it received increased Album-Oriented Rock airplay, as well. The B-side of the U.S. single was "The Road," however, the B-side for the British single was "Cocaine."[1][2]

History

The lyrics seem to describe the relationship of a musician and a spouse or girlfriend who comes along on tour, keeping with the theme of the Running on Empty album, but they can be read more universally, as well:

You love the thunder, and you love the rain —
What you see revealed within the anger is worth the pain.
And before the lightning fades and you surrender,
You've got a second to look at the dark side of the man.
You love the thunder and you love the rain —
You know your hunger like you know your name.
And I know you wonder how you ever came
To be a woman in love with a man in search of the flame...

In his 1978 review of the album, Paul Nelson wrote: "In 'You Love the Thunder,' Browne forges a temporary relationship with a kindred spirit, only to realize 'You can dream/But you can never go back the way you came.'"[3]

Chart positions

Chart (1978) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 9

Notes

External links