Celebration of "But Seriously Folks..."

[Tiffanny Twisted]

Wow I'm getting old cause it feels like just yesterday .......


Great album

[WalshFan88]

Great record.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Just listened to this album again, it's currently the only Joe Walsh solo album in my collection (although I intend to at the least acquire Smoker and So What, so it shouldn't remain this way for long).

Overall it's a very good album, and I would certainly recommend it as an introduction to Joe, especially for anyone who is already an Eagles fan. I love the opening four tracks, with Second Hand Store probably being my pick of the bunch (I love Felder's pedal steel on this track). I also really like the guitar a lot on Over And Over. At The Station is probably the hardest rocking of this quartet and I really like the rhythm section on it, while Indian Summer perhaps has my favourite lyrics from this group, they are very personal to Joe but are very recognisable. Does anyone else think the acoustic guitar intro sounds a bit like Certain Kind Of Fool though? Not that's there anything wrong with that, just a funny little coincidence.

I like Tomorrow, although not quite as much as the first four. Having said this the Eagles harmonies are strong and the lyrics again are decent. I concur with F50 in liking the instrumental reprisals throughout the album and also in loving Theme From Boat Weirdos - great slide guitar by Joe and it has a very cool atmosphere. I would happily create a Boat Weirdos movie simply for the sake of using the Theme as the soundtrack!

This leaves of course the small matter of the closing song. It's difficult to add anything new about LBG, there's great guitar and the humorous yet reflective lyrics. In some ways I kind of prefer the single version though, I think it's a bit punchier and although the extended guitar solos on the album version are very good I don't think the sub-5 minute radio edit misses them as badly as some other songs miss the lost sections in their radio edits (compared to say Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon, where Lindsey Buckingham's guitar is muted and loses his guitar solo, making the single edit a vastly inferior song IMO).

I don't mind the inclusion of 'A Flock Of Wah-Wahs' on the album although I dislike the way it was tacked onto the end of Life's Been Good as part of the same track - it's easy enough to skip but it would be easier to ignore if it was a separate track. It's annoying if I make a playlist for the car because if I put on the full version of LBG then I also get the unwanted wah-wahs. In general if songs are added onto to later CD editions of albums originally released on vinyl I prefer the songs to be added onto the end of the album (e.g. I would be fine if GYITM was added onto the end of the Eagles LP, but I hated the way Silver Springs was put into the middle of Rumours with Songbird being moved to the end).

Had to laugh when I read about the radio playing A Flock Of Wah-Wahs after Life's Been Good though. To think of all the times I've had to put up with inferior radio edits of songs and in that case you get more than you want... I've heard LBG on UK radio but it was only the single version.

One final comment I would make about But Seriously Folks is that it is very cohesive and holds together well as a group of songs, perhaps because of the consistent tone of the songwriting (even LBG is somewhat introspective). In some ways I think it's greater than the sum of its individual parts even though most of the songs by themselves are strong.

[Funk 50]

That's a great revue JCL, thanks for sharing it.


After Life's Been Good, Indian Summer, performed acoustically and Over And Over are the songs Joe's performed the most live from But Seriously Folks!

Indian Summer does have a very riff to Certain Kind Of Fool. I prefer Indian Summer.

The Theme From The Boat Weirdos was actually recorded on a boat. When Joe and his band/crew went ashore to get provisions, the locals would refer to them as the "boat weirdos".

All Joe's Vinyl albums are masterfully constructed, always much more than a bunch of songs. There are tracks where you can't tell where one song ends and the next one starts eg. Inner Tube and Theme From The Boat Weirdos which is a bit of a bugger when you put it on random play.

[sodascouts]

Thanks for posting your thoughts!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I agree Soda. It's nice to hear opinions from some of our more recent members. And I'm rather late, but ...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BUT SERIOUSLY FOLKS!!!

[jwalk87]

I'm planning on giving this album a spin the whole way through. Of course everyone knows Life's Been Good, but I've had Indian Summer stuck in my head for weeks now.
The best line in Indian Summer is "not a lot smarter, but another year old." Classic Joe. I think we have all felt this way at one point or another!
Also really enjoy At the Station...it's great. So much energy.

[WalshFan88]

Awesome album.

Life's Been Good is still my favorite Joe song, and I still prefer the version on Eagles Live but if it wasn't for this album it wouldn't exist.

[AlreadyGone95]

Happy 38th anniversary to But Seriously Folks

[shunlvswx]

Happy 38th Birthday to But Seriously Folks. This album, So What and Analog Man are my favorites of Joe's.