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Thread: Celebration of "So What"!

  1. #41
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Quote Originally Posted by Midnight Visitor View Post
    It's funny to hear So What? called an early album because I think of the James Gang as his early work!
    I regard Joe's pre-Eagles albums, released on the ABC/Dunhill label as his early works and his post Eagles, drunk and lost the magic, albums as his later stuff. Having said that, I love Songs For A Dying Planet.

    I didn't realize that the James Gang albums were significant until I saw the set list for the 1981 Reunion bootleg and realized he was still performing James Gang tunes, long after he left them.

    I suppose the fact that So What was the first Walsh album I bought and cherished, and Barnstorm and the James Gang album's were the last archive, Walsh albums I bought may have skewed my sense of history.

    Without the internet, I'd never have known that other people loved all these Joe Walsh albums too! I really thought I was the only one.

  2. #42
    Border Rebel Midnight Visitor's Avatar
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Quote Originally Posted by Funk 50 View Post
    I regard Joe's pre-Eagles albums, released on the ABC/Dunhill label as his early works and his post Eagles, drunk and lost the magic, albums as his later stuff. Having said that, I love Songs For A Dying Planet.

    I didn't realize that the James Gang albums were significant until I saw the set list for the 1981 Reunion bootleg and realized he was still performing James Gang tunes, long after he left them.

    I suppose the fact that So What was the first Walsh album I bought and cherished, and Barnstorm and the James Gang album's were the last archive, Walsh albums I bought may have skewed my sense of history.

    Without the internet, I'd never have known that other people loved all these Joe Walsh albums too! I really thought I was the only one.
    I love both of Joe's albums from the 90's! I'm happy to see someone else that loves Songs For a Dying Planet. The lyrics on that album are still appropriate today. Unfortunately! I agree with your assessment that Joe lost a lot of his magic thru out the 80's. I got a sense that he was desperately trying to be relevant and his art suffered because of that.

    I absolutely adore Joe's 3 James Gang albums. Incredible stuff from a 3 piece. He performed James Gang songs last night!

    Wintertime is a razor blade that the devil made
    It's the price we pay for the summertime - J.W. '69

  3. #43
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Quote Originally Posted by Midnight Visitor View Post
    I absolutely adore Joe's 3 James Gang albums. Incredible stuff from a 3 piece.
    Don't you mean 4 albums MV?

    The first two are great albums. In my opinion, Thirds displayed how much Joe was carrying, what was, the drummer's band. I'm really pleased he left the James Gang, especially when I learned that they toyed with a new lead singer.

    The James Gang Live In Concert could be Joe's finest hour, performance-wise on Vinyl.

    Just like so many others, when I first heard it, I thought it was at least a 5 piece band. Joe plays all the guitars, all the keyboards and provides all the lead vocals. Dale and Jim are pretty good too.


    When I first played Joe's So What album, I asked myself, where's all the guitars? I was very naive

    It's Joe's subtle use of guitars that puts him above other guitar heroes in my opinion. So What has just as much guitar as any other Walsh album, it just doesn't sound like a guitar virtuoso playing them.

    Maybe I was expecting an album of uptempo rockers. I wasn't expecting the piano ballad, the classical keyboard diversion or the prominent vocal harmonies but as with nearly every Walsh album, the more I played it, the more I grew to love it and every time I put it on the turntable, it never disappointed.

    The James Gang Live In Concert maybe an incredible Walsh tour-de-force but most of the time I'm very happy to listen to music without losing my breath or my jaw hitting the floor. Pleasantly uplifted will do for me and So What more than fits the bill with just the odd, well placed extrasensory highlight to upset my pulse rate.

  4. #44
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    So What really shows Joe's versatility, doesn't it? People don't give him enough credit as an artist. As brilliant as he is on guitar, it isn't his only talent.

    I love this album!

    Always in our hearts, Never forgotten

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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Quote Originally Posted by sodascouts View Post
    So What really shows Joe's versatility, doesn't it? People don't give him enough credit as an artist. As brilliant as he is on guitar, it isn't his only talent.

    I love this album!

    Unfortunately people give him almost no credit for his spectacular songwriting abilities. I really consider So What? the pinnacle of his songwriting. Those songs are pure magic.

    Funk 50 I guess I was referring to the 3 studio albums. I really don't enjoy that live James Gang album. His vocals are really off putting to me. I don't listen to it.

    Wintertime is a razor blade that the devil made
    It's the price we pay for the summertime - J.W. '69

  6. #46
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    One of my favourite things about Joe's pre-Eagles albums are the lengthy instrumental sections. When he performed Collage live for the first time, with the reformed James Gang, decades after writing it, he introduced it by saying this is a song I wrote before I realised if you wrote a whole lot of words you're going to have to remember 'em.

    The highlights of So What aren't the songs, they're bits of songs. The great guitar riffs, hooks, moods or even just odd noises.

    I wonder if Joe has ever considered performing, Turn To Stone live in the short, but still incendiary , form it's recorded. There are a lot of later Walsh songs that would probably benefit from the five or six minute instrumental section that always crops up during performances of Turn To Stone.

    I'd love to hear a 10 minute version of Analog Man.

  7. #47
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Oh gosh, I hope he never gets rid of that hot extended guitar solo on "Turn to Stone"! It's epic - a highlight of his live shows for me.

    Always in our hearts, Never forgotten

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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Quote Originally Posted by sodascouts View Post
    Oh gosh, I hope he never gets rid of that hot extended guitar solo on "Turn to Stone"! It's epic - a highlight of his live shows for me.
    I have to agree. I keep hoping for a tour w/Joe Vitale so the flute solo is put back in where it belongs!

    Wintertime is a razor blade that the devil made
    It's the price we pay for the summertime - J.W. '69

  9. #49
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    I agree with Soda and MV - the live version of Turn to Stone with the extended guitar solo makes a great song even better!

    "People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
    Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016

  10. #50
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    Default Re: Celebration of "So What"!

    Quote Originally Posted by sodascouts View Post
    Oh gosh, I hope he never gets rid of that hot extended guitar solo on "Turn to Stone"! It's epic - a highlight of his live shows for me.
    I'm instantly jealous. Love Vitale's flute too.

    I was thinking of the condensed version of Turn To Stone as opposed to it not being played at all. We either get the full 10 minutes or it's not performed. I think the album version would be a perfect way to liven up the first half of an Eagles show.

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