Old Enough to Forget

When I first bought There Goes the Neighborhood I knew who Joe Walsh was, but other than a couple of songs on the radio I hadn't had the opportunity to hear any of his solo records. This was also true of the Eagles, but that's only tangentially related. The first Eagles record I'd pick up was Eagles Live in 1980 which more or less cemented my appreciation for Joe Walsh as a player. When Joe released There Goes the Neighborhood in '81 it would be my gateway into his solo career. I didn't quite know what to do with this one when I first heard it - this was a weird album. To me Joe Walsh was the rocker who wrote "In the City" for The Warriors soundtrack and was the guy who did "Rocky Mountain Way" and despite my teenage protestations that Triumph did it better - in the long run, Canada's other power trio couldn't hold a candle to the original. Of course "Life's Been Good" is pretty much the penultimate Joe Walsh song, but th...

Released in December of 1976, Hotel California would go on to become one of the best selling albums of all time. In the US it would go platinum twenty six times, and here in Canada it would move over a million units. As impressive as those numbers are, it would be Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) that was released at the beginning of 1976 that has over 44 million reported sales. If you're keeping score there have been ten albums in the modern era that have reported sales of over 40 million and the Eagles hold the number 5 and 6 spots. I finally bought my copy well after the shine had worn off and the band had splintered into little pieces with the members trying their hands at being solo artists. Some with more success than others. As a kid I'd heard the album quite a few times. Heck I remember sitting in my friend's bedroom while the record played and that was probably around 1980 and us kids were still listening to the album. Aside from the title track I loved "Life ...

Don Felder is a hell of a guitar player, and a passable singer when he stayed in his lane. By 1983 Mr. Henley and Mr. Frey were getting some traction with their solo careers, and Joe Walsh was doing his thing and seemed to be chugging along to his own little drummer (although things weren't as chipper as they appeared but that's another story, and one I frankly am not qualified to tell), so it seemed like it was Don's turn to try out a solo album. A couple years earlier Don Felder had provided the killer title track to the Heavy Metal soundtrack, and a year after that contributed "Never Surrender" to Fast Times at Ridgemont High and it was a decent song - I was eager to hear more from him. In 1983 he released Airborne and I ate it up. I thought this was an awesome record. The album opens with "Bad Girls" which always felt a bit like a reworked "Life in the Fast Lane" but I didn't care - it's a song I still really like. Vocally, Don ...

Of all their albums, this is probably the one I return to most often. A lot of the appeal is nostalgia, but also time and place. That, and I happen to really like this one. I was too young to fully appreciate Hotel California when it came out - I loved the title track, but I didn't get the album until many years later. When The Long Run finally dropped in the fall of 1979 the music I was listening to then was part of my most formative years, and this was fitted right in with a lot of my other favourite artists. New technology was starting to emerge as well, and the drum machine hand clap on "Heartache Tonight" was considered cutting edge. I heard a radio interview where Don Henley was explaining the drum sound and how they were going to replicate that in concert. Considering their last studio album, not counting the Christmas single, was a couple of years earlier it was an eternity between albums - and when they finally did get together to record the follow up to Hotel ...

By 1983 I was already a huge fan of Joe Walsh. He was the court jester who also managed to be the king of his castle. I knew he was an Eagle, and he and Don Felder were the wonder twins thanks to "Hotel California" but what sealed it for me was his 1979 contribution to The Warriors soundtrack "In the City" a song that hit me in the feels, and to this day is one of my desert island songs. The Eagles version was okay too, but didn't have the same kick in the happy sack as the original. Fast forward to the spring of 1983 and Joe Walsh released You Bought It - You Name It , which to me is one of his best releases - ever. As much as I like his other stuff when I go to a Joe Walsh album it's this one. Go figure. I guess I was primed for this one given that one of my favourite songs from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the same records that introduced me to Oingo Boingo) soundtrack was his throwaway track "Waffle Stomp." When I lost most of my records ...