Today is the birthday of guitarist extraordinaire and onetime Presidential candidate Joe Walsh, or James Gang, Eagles and solo fame. I had an old bootleg 8 track of James Gang tracks when I was a teen, and loved it, but for some reason I was slow to pick up on Joes solo albums after he left the Gang, not helped by constantly hearing the live Rocky Mountain Way everywhere I went a few years later. My old stubborn kneejerk reaction to what was popular with everyone else hurt me in this case, because Walshs 70s solo albums (even into the 80s, while an Eagle) were really diverse affairs; all those pre-Eagle mid-70s albums like SO WHAT and THE SMOKER YOU DRINK, THE PLAYER YOU GET were full of not only guitar-rock like youd expect, but jazz, blues shadings, even full blown orchestral ballads like the unbearably sad Song for Emma. Eventually, I did twig on to them and Im happy I did; SMOKER (yep, the one with the studio Rocky) especially is an amazing set of songs. Its easy to not be able to look past the goofy mugging Walsh is fond of in his public persona, but when you do, youll find a lot to like. This Traffic-ish SMOKER track may just be my favorite thing hes ever committed to tape. Its melancholy, haunting, breezy, and beautiful. youtu.be/4D2jRl4oVE8
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 02:00:15 +0000
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