We continue our look at the music of 5o years ago….
There are those musicians that stand out from a crowd. Whether it be the sound of their voice…or how they play their instrument…or that indescribable something that makes them not like anybody else. Joe Walsh is one of those guys. His final studio album with The James Gang came out in 1971 and although he, bassist Dale Peters and drummer Jim Fox were starting to fall out, the LP “Thirds” still delivered some quality stuff…including one of those singular Walsh moments.
Walk Away is the first cut on the LP and is a great rock & roll song with that unmistakable Walsh guitar work although he describes the ending in the liner notes as a “trainwreck”. Here is a live version of the song that appears on the final Walsh LP with the band which came out later in the year.
The rest of the LP is kind of a letdown after that rousing start. Midnight Man is OK and the jazzy instrumental “Yadig” is kind of interesting. But the time was right for Walsh to head out on the solo trail where he would deliver some really good LPs and one iconic song in Rocky Mt Way before joining the Eagles later in the decade.
There is only one Joe Walsh. Enjoy this slice of him!
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