We took those jams and wrote words to them, and that was really the first and second James Gang albums. At some point we had six or seven of those sections, and we didn't need to cover other people's songs anymore. There's still some more stuff I want to say."īefore we really started writing our own songs in the James Gang we'd play covers, and then in the middle of them we'd go for a jam for four or five minutes. But, he added, "I don't think I'm done yet. "It's a pretty good list of songs," he remarked about the ones discussed here. He checked in with RS from a (presumably intact) hotel room in Arkansas to look back on his roughly half century in music. He released a well-received album, Analog Man, in 2012, and is currently out playing sheds on a co-headlining run with Bad Company, on the aptly named "One Hell of a Night" tour. Now 68 and sober for more than two decades, Walsh has righted his course. "I never imagined how far down one could go," Walsh told Rolling Stone recently about his years of abuse. If the brilliance of this performance does nothing else, let it serve as a reminder that from 1969-71, the James Gang were one of the best power trios in rock music history.Joe Walsh has called himself an "ordinary average guy," which is something of a stretch for a man who's written some of rock's greatest riffs, from the James Gang's "Funk #49" to the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane" and his own "Rocky Mountain Way." Walsh's offstage exploits are similarly the stuff of legend: He's hung with Hendrix, freaked out Elton John, leveled hotel rooms with the likes of Keith Moon and John Belushi, and even ran for president (his platform: Free Gas for Everyone) – all while consuming enough vodka and cocaine to fell an elephant. The group reminds me a bit of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, some in Walsh’s guitar playing, some in Fox’s obvious debt to Mitch Mitchell. (Please note the stagehand at :18 repositioning Fox’s cymbals after Hulk smashed). Walsh was so talented he could play rhythm parts and lead parts simultaneously, but it was comforting to have DP on bong-rattling bass and Jim Fox destroying the kit. And if all that weren’t enough, what a rhythm section! Nasty guitar and bass tone, with Joe’s leads from 2:07-2:26 and 2:35-3:11 being particularly ridiculous. Great vocal in a Fogerty/ Cobain kinda way. For example, this version of “Walk Away” from July 1971 - four months before Walsh left to Barnstorm - cannot be topped. Rides Again and Thirds are very good studio albums, but the James Gang were meant to be heard live. If that was a wreck, they should’ve wrecked more. But, the star of the song is Walsh and his ten or so guitar tracks ending in a Yardbirds-esque martian guitar scrum, which he called a “train wreck” in the Thirds liner notes. I love how he lays back in the verses and then propels the beat forward in the chorus. “Walk Away” features an all-time guitar riff, a great vocal, and the unheralded Jim Fox throwing down on drums. In between were some of the swampiest, funkiest rock songs of the era. Dale Peters joined on bass in late 1969, just in time for the Rides Again sessions, and Walsh went solo in late 1971. ![]() It’s hard to believe the classic James Gang lineup was only together two years. And you know what goes great with adolescence? Joe Fucking Walsh. ![]() The common imagery is probably accidental, but it’s interesting that both songs use the teenage mustache as a signifier for an adolescent rite of passage. We’re sittin’ in the parking lot at Anaheim Stadium” Extra credit for the lyrical hat tip to Thelonious Monster’s “Sammy Hagar Weekend”: My face is breaking out just thinking about it. Jeff Johnston sings only four lines over a rudimentary piano figure, but it brilliantly captures a singular moment of adolescence. We’ll get to the James Gang in a second, but first some love for Austin’s Li’l Cap’n Travis.
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