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...

Back in 1993 when Denis Leary was teaching kids how to spell asshole, he also had a bit where he was lamenting how screwed up and upside down the world had become on his track "More Drugs." Judas Priest on trial "because my kid bought the record, and listened to the lyrics, and he got into Satan." Well, that's great! That sets a legal precedent. Does that mean I can sue Dan Fogelberg for making me into a pussy in the mid-70's? Is that possible, huh?  I have to admit I did laugh at the time, because let's face it, songs like "Longer" and "Leader of the Band" were pretty syrupy. They made the most maudlin songs by Jim Croce and Harry Chapin (okay it was really only "Cats in the Cradle" but let me have it). Dan was a heck of a player make no mistake, and despite how sucky those songs were, they were also really good. Did I have any of his records ... hell no. My girlfriend at the time did have The Innocent Age , and we'd si...

But Seriously Folks , released back in '78 was Joe's first solo album in a few years, and although I didn't know it at the time it was a pretty typical Joe Walsh record. ... that says nothing and makes no sense. Bear with me, I'm going to see what I can do with that and hopefully redeem myself. I have a pretty good idea what I meant. I'm just waiting for my coffee to kick in. Joe Walsh had been building his solo career after leaving The James Gang (I still remember going to the drive in theatre with my uncle Lloyd and my cousins where we saw Zachariah (if you know, you know) and The Holy Grail in a double feature. I'd see both movies more than once, and of those two I'd see one way more times than I should admit). While his first solo record Barnstorm did okay, it was his next two albums, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get and So What that would go gold. Joe was setting to be a pretty significant solo artist.  Then he joined the Eagles and put his so...

As a kid "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" was everything a rock and roll song needed to be. It was big, it was infectious and it was awesome, it had a lot of guitar. For many years this was all I needed to know about Rick Derringer. Then in the '80s I started seeing his name show up in weird places. Most notably "Weird" Al records. Of course being a wrestling fan back in the day when the curtain hadn't been pulled back to reveal the true nature of the business, I watched in awe as Hulk Hogan entered the ring to Rick Derringer's "Real American" and I knew this was Rick Derringer because they were schilling Rocking Wrestling , or The Wrestling Album , I don't know what it was called, and looking it up mid sentence just seems like a lot of effort. I did know that Rick was involved and I found that weird, and cool at the same time. Recently as I've been diving into a lot of records Rick's name kept popping up all over the place, from Bonnie ...

For number Four it's a mixed bag of five albums for your reading pleasure. Three out of five were new to me which is always an adventure. I think my favourite find in the bunch this time around was the Joe Walsh release. I do love me some Joe Walsh. Gotta say, four months in and holding steady. It's the last Sunday in May so without further ado ... Five for Fighting No.4 Joe South - Games People Play (1970?)  Moon Joyce - The Infinite Edge (1985)  Wang Chung - Points on the Curve (1983) Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (1973) Nestor Pistor - Nestor Pistor for Prime Minister (1978) Joe South - Games People Play (1970?) I was intrigued by the cover and figured this could be an interesting discovery and at worst I'd be out a buck. This was a re-issue on Pickwick, which meant it was licensed from Capitol and the songs were cobbled together from different releases. Not quite a greatest hits, but it was a mixed bag of pretty interesting tunes. Trying t...

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 ...

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 ...