Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This guy was killer in his day. Just full of energy and he could sing in addition to being a great guitar player.
I mean look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDsSqQO8MQg

I just love this guy. I need some sleep right at the moment but I'll post some interesting information and thoughts about him and his career as soon as I am able.

Loved the James Gang. They were practicly considered a local band in Detroit [ late 60's ], where I lived.
Although I don't really understand how he ended up in The Eagles, he does a great job and has apparently beatten the devil drink.

Mr. Joe Walsh. Thank you for bringing him to the fore. I could write for hours about this man and his fabulous contribution to music, but instead of me writing all I know about him, how about I start you off with a few brain teasers?

Rocky Mountain Way was a huge hit for Joe. What band actually recorded this massive hit?

Joe was great friends with a very very funny man and even made a cameo appearance in one of his films. What part did Joe play and in what scene did he appear in the film?

Joe and a couple of his Eagle band mates were studio musicians for an artist in 1987. The song was a hit record. Who was the artist and what was the song? Which Eagle band mates also appeared on that record?

I have to tell you Brian I'm stumped on all those questions...
All I know is growing up listening to that early Joe Walsh was nothing less than one of the reasons I started playing guitar. Great energy in his work.
He'll always be a favorite of mine.

Here are the answers then.

The band was Barnstorm featuring Joe Walsh.

He was best friends with John Belushi and appeared in a cameo role in the film The Blues Brothers. He acted as an inmate and he is the first to get on the cafeteria tables during the song Jailhouse Rock.

Joe reunited with former Eagles bandmates Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmit as studio musicians on the 1987 Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing"

Thanks Brian,
I should catch up on some of the behind the music stuff. I spent many hours grinding away at record albums learning some of those great tunes as a young teenager.
I'm going to have to rent that movie again just to see Joe. Thanks for the info. I'm enjoying this section of the forum thanks to your contributions.

Hi Kevin,

I am doing what I can to keep the threads that I post as interesting as possible and have a bit of a business slant to them.

I really appreciate those of you who also participate with threads that interest you and/or make contributions to the topics presented, since this forum is not about me or what I think.

At the end of the day, it's a place to share our collective experience and our knowledge. Your very kind comment though, is deeply appreciated.

Back to our topic,

Joe Walsh was successful in his own right. So why would he leave a band where life was fairly simple (and it paid well enough obviously) to join the Eagles a band who's inner tension and rivalries are legendary?

Any thoughts?

Rocky Mountain Way was not actually credited to Barnstorm, but to Joe Walsh himself. Joe's first album post-James Gang was entitled Barnstorm. While the band (Walsh, Joe Vitale and Kenny Passarelli) didn't actually have a name, everyone fell into calling them Barnstorm. When Joe's second album was released, enitiled The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get, Joe, Joe and Kenny had added Rocke Grace on keyboards. This is the album that Rocky Mountain Way was on. Both of these albums, as well as later solo albums, were credited as Joe Walsh for the artist.

The James Gang were always just a stepping stone for Joe Walsh to get his name out. After three albums (Yer Album, Rides Again and Thirds), Joe left the group to start his solo career. I believe his decision to join the Eagles was a further attempt to put his name into more mainstream music.

Thanks Chris for that bit of background on Joe.
He had a Hot Licks video or something like that where he shows how to play slide ....It is a trip to say the least.

From Wikipedia

"In 1969, he replaced Glen Schwartz as lead guitarist for the James Gang, an American power trio. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. In November, 1971, Walsh left the group and formed the group Barnstorm, although their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut, the eponymous Barnstorm in 1972. The album was a critical success, but it only sold moderately. The follow-up The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973) was a commercial breakthrough. The first single "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached #23 on the US top 40 charts. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a true solo artist."

This is also my longstanding understanding of their "arrangment" as a band, but Kris may well be correct for all I know.

I love his early playing, being James Gang and the early solo period. I believe that back in the day, he was every bit the guitarist that his more lauded contemporaries were, just overshadowed IMHO. I still get a charge listening to the outro of Walk Away; sonic perfection! It was many years before I really started listening to his playing and I had to wonder why I'd tuned him out as a kid.....go figure. A sadly overlooked player by a lot of folks, Joe Walsh.

1973-74 is when Joe produced, co-wrote, played guitar on, etc. the Souveniers album by Dan Fogelberg.[ Dan's second album] I read some where that Dan said Joe asked him the question,' If he could have any musicians he wanted for this album who would they be? ' . Then Joe got on the phone and made it happen. Fogelberg, ofcourse was greatful for all Joe's assistance. After Dan's first album had failed, Joe's help may have saved his friend's recording deal. This may be an insight as to why Joe later was concidered worthy, dispite his personal demons, to join the Eagles.
I always thought Fogelberg was the more obvious choice to join the Eagles. Maybe he was just to mentaly stable
But seriously check out Souveniers for some tastey 'early Joe'.

For those that have heard all the early James Gang albums with Joe Walsh, there are a few songs that for years were rarities. These have now become available on Greatest Hits, released in 2000.

The first is the full version of The Bomber, which contains about a minute of Ravel's Bolero sandwiched in between Closet Queen and Cast Your Fate Into the Wind. Evidently the band had not secured rights to use the song, so after the first pressing of the Rides Again album, subsequent pressings had an edited version of The Bomber.

The other two songs were for years only available on a short-lived soundtrack album for the movie Zachariah. They are Laguna Salada (an instrumental) and Country Fever (with Kenny Weiss on vocals).