Thursday, June 20, 2013

Give It A Giggle, Instead Of A Sigh



[Purchase]

His second album since parting ways with the James Gang, Joe Walsh's The Smoke You Get The Player You Get went Gold on the strength of the #23 hit "Rocky Mountain Way" --which became one of the first songs many a young bass player would learn in the decades to follow thanks to the fact it has...one note.



Most of the album is not riff heavy rock n roll ( there are a lot of acoustic numbers) and it's not really a Joe Walsh solo album. His band Barnstorm contributes more than back up. In fact I've just realized my deep cut choice, " Happy Ways",  is written and sung by bass player Kenny Passarelli. Apparently he can do a lot more than play one note (fretless) bass.


Walsh followed up this album by playing on Dan Fogleberg's Souvenirs and then his own So What, which featured "Song For Emma", a tribute to his four year old daughter who died in a car accident earlier that year. In 1976, he joined The Eagles in time to play on their best album Hotel California. His 1978 solo But Seriously Folks got me through high school.



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