I got the all-night laundromat blues……
Joe Walsh leaves Kent State University to join The James Gang just a year before “tin soldiers and Nixon coming.” The power trio releases “Yer’ Album” in 1969, followed by “Rides Again” a year later and “Thirds” in 1971. Singles “Funk #49” from the second album and “Walk Away” from the third barely make the charts but both LP’s go gold. Both songs are now recognized for their groundbreaking guitar riffs and heard daily in classic rock formats around the globe.
Walsh launches his solo career with "Barnstorm" in 1972, followed in 1973 by "The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get" featuring the monster hit “Rocky Mountain Way.” This establishes him as a major star.
Everything gels on the 1975 release "So What." Guitar work, vocals, production, and arrangements all come together in one of the finest rock albums ever. “Welcome to the Club,” “Falling Down,” and the reimagining of “Turn to Stone” from "Barnstorm" are as good as rock gets. Need more proof? Check out “Welcome to the Club.”
In this same year, knowing guitar genius when they hear it, The Eagles recruit him to replace founding guitarist Bernie Leadon just in time for "Hotel California."
Joe Walsh maintains his career outside The Eagles and scores his last major solo hit in 1978 with the hilarious confessional “Life’s Been Good,” a deadpan take on how tough it is to be a rock star. After Linda Ronstadt’s former backup band goes from superstar to supernova in 1980, Walsh continues to tour and record on his own, rejoining The Eagles on their many comebacks.
So what is old Smokin’ Joe Walsh doing at age 65? Releasing an album of songs about his life and how he sees the world. "Analog Man" is a really good album. And like much of his work, it took a number of listenings before I figured that out (just as I had to listen to "So What" for a couple of years before I had the “ah ha!” moment.)
The title cut is geezer protest music: “Welcome to cyberspace, I’m lost in a fog, everything’s digital, I’m still analog.” “Lucky That Way” is an updated “Life’s Been Good” 30 years later. And to prove he has not lost his sense of the absurd after all these years, “Fishbone” is a moving tale set to a lumbering hard rocking beat about his girlfriend and the fishbone stuck in her throat. “Band Played On” is a riff on the Titanic and bemoans the fact that too many people can’t see the icebergs threatening the world, too many others are just ignoring the dangers around us, and too many more are lying about the fix we’re in. Glug, glug.
Watch the title cut and more at Guitar Center Sessions.
Two songs on "Analog Man" are of particular note and reflect the perspective of age and experience, maybe even approaching wisdom.In “One Day at a Time,” Walsh notes his 20 years of sobriety and celebrates the way he got sober. “I got help from something greater that me.” I can just see that meeting in the basement of some Hollywood church and somebody standing up and saying “I’m Joe, and I’m an alcoholic.”
My favorite song is “Family.” Neither sentimental nor maudlin, Joe Walsh, fantastically successful rock star, finds that what he was always looking for and what he now treasures above all else is his family.
Listen and see if this doesn’t resonate with your life. It certainly does with mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment