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Joe Walsh Carries On
The way Joe sees it, he's just come full-circle. Since emerging in 1969 with the three-piece James Gang, Walsh has fronted an ever-changing variety of lineups under his own name, flown to the top of the charts with the Eagles, and worked as a studio sharpshooter for artists as diverse as B.B. King, Steve Winwood, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. now, with Got Any Gum?, he returns to his original trio format. "It's a good kick in the ass for me," he says in an exaggerated Midwestern drawl. "It's very hard to do, but I'm good at playing lead/rhythm. You have to compensate, and that has a lot to do with my style." Got Any Gum? contains all the earmarks that make Joe's two-decade body of work so appealing. The wry, deadpan sense of humor that made 1978's "Life's Been Good" the satirical anthem of the rock star/yuppie generation resurfaces in "Malibu" and "Fun." Tender ballads, "Memory Lane" and "Half Of The Time" would fit on Joe's mid-70s solo projects. While he's a maestro of licks and a mighty capable rhythm player, at the heart of his guitarmanship are memorable solos that are melodic enough to sing. He soars on slide--a style he learned firsthand from the late Duane Allman and turned into his own signature sound--and hauls out a talk box for the jaw-harp inflections of "Half Of The Time." He injects the title track with backwards guitar, and handles most of the LP's keyboards. The chairman of Elektra/Asylum, Walsh's former label, once astutely observed: "With a guitar, the guy's a genius. Take the guitar away, and lunacy is a guy named Joe." Indeed, Walsh's wide-eyed view of life and ever-present humor seems to color his every word. "I was born on November 20, 1947, in a place called Wichita, Kansas," his resume states. "I was 0 years old. Wichita is almost exactly in the middle of the continental United States, if you ignore Alaska and Hawaii. Most folks in Kansas do. Kansas is also where Dorothy and Toto lived once." A footnote points out that, translated to its origins, the name Joe Walsh means, "tentatively holy white Rhine." His list of "the things that I have done that are nice" reads: "Produced albums for Dan Fogelberg and Ringo. Ran for President of the United States. Played on everybody's albums. Flown in the Concorde. Met Robert Mitchum." On the same page, his "things that might be interesting to know about me" states: "I attended Kent State University regularly over a six-year period without graduating. One time I crashed In a Boeing 727. Yes, on occasion I do saw up hotel rooms with chain saws and throw the pieces out the window--why not? I have absolutely no idea whether I have a Maserati or not...probably; it would seem logical. No, I do not need a new nose. I prefer B.B. King to Don Ho." His hobbies? "Amateur radio (since 1962), blacksmithing (honest). Arguing all night about politics (or for that matter, anything). Hooking stuff up to see if it works, and beer." Joe's musical saga begins in his early youth, when he heard his mom practicing classical piano. He played oboe and clarinet in high school, and took up bass as his first stringed instrument. He switched to electric guitar while an undergraduate of Ohio's Kent State University. "I became the phantom of Kent State," he recalls, "taking electronics, music theory, welding--all these weird courses that nobody could understand." His perpetual practicing paid off in 1966, when he replaced Glen Schwartz to become the star attraction of the James Gang. Working a five-state area, the James Gang gathered enough of a roots following to land a contract with ABC/Dunhill in 1969. The first release, Yer' Album spotlighted Walsh originals and covers of tunes by the Yardbirds and Buffalo Springfield, while 1970's James Gang Rides Again yielded a smash hit--"Funk#49"--and became a Top-10 album (to this day Joe counts it among his best work). The same year, Joe sat in on B.B. King's Indianola Mississippi Seeds sessions. On Pete Townshend's recommendation, the James Gang opened for the Who's European tour, after which it issued 1971's Live in Concert. Joe's last ride wit the trio, Thirds, struck gold with "Walk Away." Joe moved to the mountains of Colorado, where in 1972 he recorded Barnstorm. On this debut solo release, he refined the James Gang's harder approach by adding layers of acoustic and electric guitars and vocal harmonies. His bandmates--drummer Joe Vitale and bassist Kenny Passarelli--returned for 1973's The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get. A million-selling hit, "Rocky Mountain Way" pushed Joe to the forefront of post Duane Allman slidesters and introduced the voice box to mainstream rock and roll. His lushly layered follow-up, So What, featured Dan Fogelberg on guitar and several of the Eagles singing backup. During 1974 Joe also produced and played on Fogelberg's Souvenirs, and a year later he collaborated on the first of five albums by ex-Spirit vocalist Jay Ferguson. Ferguson returned the favor by playing piano in the big band revue that backs Joe on 1976's You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind, a concert album reprising several of his earlier hits. By the time the record hit the stores, Joe had joined the Eagles. Replacing Bernie Leadon, he was called on to arrange, songwriter, double on guitar and keyboards, and help keep everyone in good spirits. his first project, Hotel California, went straight to #1. Joe climaxed the hit title track with a signature guitar solo, co-wrote "Life in the Fast Lane," and played piano on "New Kid in Town." The Eagles spent more than two years and a million dollars making their final studio album, 1979's The Long Run. Meanwhile, Joe finished up his solo album But Seriously Folks, scoring a #12 hit with his self-mocking "Life's Been Good." He then announced his candidacy for President, campaigning on a "free gas for everyone" platform and the assurance that he's "never lied to the American public." The Eagles covered "Life's Been Good" on its two-record swan song, Eagles Live. Walsh and Vitale returned to a trio format in '81 to accompany Who bassist John Entwistle on Too Late The Hero. Since then, Joe has issued a solo album about every two years: There Goes The Neighborhood in '81, followed by You Bought It, You Name It, The Confessor and Got Any Gum?. His latest session credits include solos on Steve Winwood's "Split Decision," Richard Marx' "Don't Mean Nothing," and Jimmy Davis and Junction's "Are We Rockin' Yet." Joe estimates that he's lived in some 20 places--from Queens, New York, to Coconut Grove, Florida, from Nederland, Colorado, to Los Angeles, from "in Irving Azoff's car" to "Ringo's house." Today he happily resides in Memphis, Tennessee, where he spends most of his time recording and preparing for a tour that's scheduled to begin around press time. You seem to remain true to your own rock and roll vision. Several Got Any Gum cuts would be at home on So What. I agree. Got Any Gum? was a good album for me. I really thought I hit the essence of my guitar playing. I also thought that it's a very valid statement of where I am artistically for right now. I get told a lit, "Hey, Joe, when are you going to play guitar like you did in the James Gang?" But if anybody really listened, I pretty much do. Like you say, a lot of the guitar work on Got Any Gum? is similar to So What. I usually say to those people, "Well, have you heard my last two albums? Have you sat down and listened to 'em?" And they say, "Well, no, not really." And I say, "Well, then, that's a pretty unfair statement." What inspired you to go back to working with just a bassist and a drummer? Full circle. I went through my songwriting phase and the very melodic stuff and I realized that I really do have a style, and I can play three-piece. when you have two keyboardists or another guitar player, you play a certain way. I found myself saying, "Okay, here comes the lead part," and then I got out of the way when the lead part was over and went back to playing rhythm. I realize that three-piece is very hard to do, but I'm good at playing lead/rhythm. And that way you can stop playing lead to go back to rhythm, because it falls apart. you can't stop playing rhythm to play lead, either, because it falls apart if you're the only melodic instrument. So you compensate, and that has a lot to do with my style. I'm not done yet, and I'm good at what I do, so I figured it would be a real good kick in the ass for me to get back to playing three-piece for a while. Is it natural for you to sing and play guitar at the same time? Yeah, it didn't used to be, but in the James Gang I didn't have much choice. I couldn't sing at all, but I could sing better than the other guys, so I just ended up being the singer. Also in a three-piece group, I had to sing and play lead. So I did. But I probably wouldn't have to. Your soloing is very song-oriented. You always seem to be playing for the song rather than showing off your chops. Thank you. that's jus the way I am. At this point, I am really a musician, besides being a guitar player. I hear a lot of things in a keyboard format. I hear a lot of tones and texture and such. I know I'm known mostly for my guitar work, but in terms of being a musician there are other vehicles that I am quite capable of playing, and sometimes that ain't guitar. The song tells me what to play. Do you have any advice for people who find themselves overplaying? Yeah. In my experience, when you're playing in a big hall--a 10,000 seater or some thing--at some point the flashiness, playing incredibly fast, and being technically capable starts to be a blur. I've found that, in general less is more. For example, Albert King can blow Eddie Van Halen off the stage with his amp on standby, even though technically Eddie Van Halen is probably the most over-whelming guitar player alive. You know, Eddie Van Halen can pretty much play circles around anybody existing. But Albert King can blow him away with two notes. I have nothing but respect for Eddie; I can't even comprehend what he does. But why would anybody want to play like that? After two or three solos it's a blur. Heavy metal is one format, and the important thing there is to really kick ass. It takes time, but after a while, you should just settle down and get your intellect out of the way and just let the guitar play itself. What are your favorite Joe Walsh solos? I would think the overall guitar work in "Rocky Mountain Way," especially the talk box. I used the talk box that was worked on by Bill West, who is Dottie West's husband and a pedal steel player. Pete Drake used it on the song "Forever," and then nobody used it. I went down to see Dottie and Bill when I played in Nashville once, and Bill gave me tat talk box. I have it put away; that's going into the Rock and Roll Museum. Then Peter Frampton asked me how to use it, and he went and got rich wit hit and never even thanked me. I suppose that "Funk 49" has a certain uniqueness to it--the opening lick and the middle lick after the percussion break. I guess I'm known for that. My problem is that I've played that song for 20 years. I can play it upside-down backwards inside-out in my sleep. I'm very proud of the guitar work in "Hotel California." I pretty much had to deal with the planning and organization of that. Don Felder brought in the descending chord structure, so I can't say that I had anything to do with writing "Hotel California." I was commissioned as a specialist to arrange the order of the solos. I had free run of the arrangement and progression of the solos--who played what where, who went up high, it was tough figuring how much momentum we needed to start with compared to what we were going to end up with at the end of the song. When the solos stars, it's just here we go, and it goes all the way to the end of the song. Felder is tremendously underrated. How do you compose solos? Well, there's two ways. One is to conceive what it is you want to accomplish--you hear it in your head before you record it. That's a technical way of going about it. Then there's the absolute spontaneity of a first take--not locking into anything, but just going for the magic of what happens when you really nail something. My slide work on the studio version of "Rocky Mountain Way"--I did that in one take. I was sitting on an old tweed Fender Champ amp at Criteria Studios, just warming up. I didn't even know that they were recording. I figured that they were getting headphone mix. At the end of the song, I said, "Okay, let's try one." Joe Vitale and (engineers) Ronnie and Howie Albert said, "Hey man, you're done." I said, "Come on, man, don't mess around. I want to really get this." And they said, "Honest to God, you're done." That's an example of a spontaneous solo. now that doesn't happen all the time, but when the magic is there--and when it is, it is, and when it ain't--that's beautiful, beautiful stuff. What about something like the "In My Car" solo on Got Any Gum? Totally spontaneous. I usually record the track with a pilot guitar, which is for the musicians to key off of as a kind of foundation. So I do a lead/rhythm part, and then I'm aware of that as I'm recording the song. Then I go back and fix up a thing or two. You know, as the song takes shape--as we get other parts and overdubs on--usually I end up with two or three parts that were my favorite parts that I wanted to do when I conceived the song, but at some point they become obsolete. They don't belong in the song anymore. It's the transition between what you hear in your head and the way it finally comes out when it's recorded. So you go through a process of editing? Yep. And they may have been very important parts--maybe even the reason why I wrote the song in the first place. I could have been a groove or something that made me hear the song. It's real hard to admit to yourself that your favorite part ain't going to go on. I guess that's what a producer is for. A producer's job is to tell you when you're done. And say that 100% of the time--unless it's something like "Funk 49" where the lick is the song--I put on a lead part that's completely spontaneous. Do you know what you're doing musically? Yeah, but I try not to be aware of that when I'm playing leads. I try to close my eyes and--here's a favorite saying--try to get my intellect out of the way and let my hand play the guitar. It's best to be spontaneous and not try to say, "Okay, what's coming up next? Is this gonna be a 9th or a 7th? Do I have to be here because it's a major 7th chord?" The first thing I figure out is where I'm going to end up--where I need to be at the end of the solo. It's very important to know how you're going to come out of it. What happens next? Are you going back into vocals or a breakdown? Once I know where I'm going to end up, I think backwards: How long do I have to develop the solo? Gradually I think back to the beginning, and then I just go for it. Since I know where it's going to end up, it doesn't really matter where I start, as long as the solo develops. Like "In My Car," I just started low which seemed like a very logical way to come out of the melodic content of the song. I gradually worked my way up the fingerboard and found out where I needed to be on the last note. Will you do several takes? Usually the first two or three solos I do are the ones. I might spend an hour or two trying to top it, but at some point, it's not any better. It's just different. When I get to that point, that's the solo. I think, "Darn, I'd like to do it again" or "Heck, I had a totally different idea"--but hey--that's what I played, and it worked. When you get the other musicians and the producer and the engineer all telling you that that's great, man, you have to listen, because that's a good indication of your performance. And that's what lead solos are all about. More times than not, I have to sacrifice my original idea for a performance. When you get it, you gotta dig it. That's what you played. If the song's at peace with it--if that's what belongs there--tough luck for you. What's your all-time favorite guitar setup? A vintage Les Paul. I'm partial to a '59 or a '60; it depends. '58s are fun. I'd run that into a wah-wah pedal and then into an original tube-model Echoplex. That would go into a pair of Fender Super Reverbs with four 10s, except only one top. I would put them on metal folding chairs that are about knee-high. Standing about eight to ten feet in front of those, you can actually move around and find different areas to sustain any note that you want. It's also incredible because eight 10s pull the impedance of the amp down to like 4 ohms, and that's where you really get your sweet sound--when the amp is screaming before it blows up. My other favorite thing is a pair of Vox AC-30s. That is tremendous for Fender guitars. The Super Reverbs are tremendous for humbucking configurations, like on the Les Paul. A Strat or a Tele through two Vox AC-30s is just the best. Why are the late 50's and 1960s Les Pauls so appealing? The pickups. There is actually more copper wound around the magnets on the older guitars. The wood was better. It was fine, fine wood. I don't like a lot of brand new things. I hate technology. Those guitars ages, and they were made of the finest curly or flamed maple. The tops were made off the same piece of wood, cut in half with one seam. Now they're laminating and trying to match up three pieces of wood in the body. I also like the vintage ones because the necks are actually part of the body. There was no chrome four-screw plate where you screw on the neck. It was actually joined and glued. Les Pauls just really make it for me. I do love Strats and Teles, though. What guitar works best for slide? A vintage Les Paul with a raised bridge. When I set a guitar up for slide, I usually raise the strings way up. I take the bridge off and put on three of the little thumbscrews that are under the Tune-O-Matic bridge--the ones that you turn to move the bridge up or down. I screw all three of them right on down to the body. That way, it transmits your vibrations to the body. The pins don't bend, because if you really raise the action, it could get jammed n the case or something. Photographs show that Duane Allman strung his Les Paul so that the strings wrapped over the top of the bridge. Right. The purpose is sustain. You transmit more of the vibration of the string to the body of the guitar much more efficiently. That makes the wood resonate, and that's important. How do you wear a slide? I wear it on the "fuck you" finger. I have huge hands. I can't even play mandolin, because up at the 12th fret my finger covers two frets. So it works best for me to put a Coricidin bottle--the longer ones. When I heard that they were going to be supplied in plastic, I went to a drug store and bought cases of Coricidin. The pharmacist looked at me really funny. He said, "What are you going to do with that??" I said, "Hey man, you can have the pills. I just want the bottles!" HE scratched his head on that one. What pickups work the best for slide? The upper pickup is very nice for melodic songs, when you want a sweeter sound. For something like "Rocky Mountain Way." I usually find it works the best to use the rhythm pickup, the upper one. I went back to playing three-piece this past year, and while the treble pickup will usually cut through, it's a bit thin when you're the only guitarist. I like to screw the rhythm pickup down a little bit, so it doesn't overload. The upper pickup can get really massive and almost saturate your amp and your speakers. Do you always play with a pick? Pretty much, even for slide guitar. How do you eliminate unwanted string ringing? With the outside palm of my right hand. I other words, it's like the knife hand in kung fu-the side that goes right along your pinkie. I put that on the strings just in front of the bridge, and lift it now and off. That's how I use strings and control my sustain. The slide part in "Fun" has that classic So What era sound. Yeah. That's probably a Boss mono chorus. I don't use a stereo chorus so much. What's the best way to get your sound on record? I pretty much use what I know works live. As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing is that anybody who goes direct is out of his mind. Why in the world would anybody want a direct guitar sound? You may as well play a Gibson ES-335 in your bedroom and mike that. I just don't see any point in it. Now, acoustic guitar is different. But I never once got a direct electric guitar sound into a board that I would ever want to be a component of my guitar sound, unless I was George Benson, I just don't see any reason for it. How many mikes do you typically have on an amp? If it's a stereo amp, I'll have two, or a stereo mike. If it's a regular amp, I usually have two. Ill have one up close, pointing right at the cone, and another one back maybe six feet. Another important thing is to get the amplifier up off the floor. Put it on a piano bench. Even if you put it on a 2 x 4, that's fine. But you've got to get it up off the floor, because otherwise the amp radiates the floor. It makes the floor acoustically sensitive, and it adds all kinds of things that aren't really there in the amp. It's really hard to explain, but my experience says that's what to do. What's your favorite acoustic guitar for recording? I'm very partial to Takamines, which are Japanese-made guitars. They have a built-in pickup that's underneath the bridge. Your sound in "In My Car" suggests that you mike the acoustic near your hand, too. Yes. The guitar was miked, and the pickup also went into a mono chorus. Do you play standing up or sitting down in the studio? Usually I sit on a stool. I almost always record in the control room and run a cable out to wherever the amp needs to be. Sometimes I put the amp top in the control room and run a long speaker wire out to the speakers. I like to be in the control room. I don't perform as well out in the room with the headphones on, because it blows my head off and I don't like that. The other thing that's important is the mikes that you select. Any suggestions? Just try 'em till you like 'em. So many times the frustration is that you go out into the room and listen to the amp, and it sounds tremendous. But in the control room, it sounds horrible. Two mikes really work best--one up close, and one not so close. It balances it. What amps do you use for solos like the ones in "The Radio Song" and "Fun"? I like a 100-watt Marshall up pretty loud, except there's so much darn hum, especially with a single-coil pickup. I a studio recording situation, there's a certain way you have to point your guitar, so that it's on a plane that's a certain degree off from facing the speakers. Marshalls have so much gain, and they are prone to having a nice radio station in there, too. I don't really like the Rockman directly into the board, although a lot of people use that. I have the best luck with a Fender Super Reverb. Are your distorted chords--the opening of "Fun", for instance--the product of an overdriven Fender amp? That was probably a Fender and a Marshall, up pretty loud. When I want to get sustain and severe power, I'll go out and stand in front of the amp. But it's ungodly loud, and after a while you get saturated. It just fries you. It's not so much the volume, it's the sound pressure. You're moving so much air, it can really shock you. It gets into your inner ear, and you can't think. I like to be in the control room, turn the mix up on the big guys (monitors), and play along to it. Otherwise, you get into the darn headphone mix--"A little more this, a little less that, and I can't hear this"--and the contact with the recording engineer or the producer is also really hard. Like I said, I hate technology. Have you ever used new high-tech electric guitars with locking whammies? Yeah. That don't get me off. Steinberger is pretty nice, but Floyd Roses are just a bit much. You're one of the few major-league rockers who appears onstage with a Bigsby. I use it a bunch. The Bigsby, to me, is the truest tremolo setup. By that I mean that it won't go out of tune. I just don't see it in the cards for me to use it in the Eddie Van Halen or heavy metal approach of taking strings all the way loose and all the way up. I like a Bigsby because it's a finely machined piece of metal, and I just like that Ventures sound. On a Fender guitar, it's all up to the springs and how the thing's adjusted. But the Bigsby--with heavier strings, of course--gives me the most sustain. It transfers the resonance of the strings to the body the best, because it's bolted down. I do the best with a Bigsby. It comes back up right in tune, and I just like the way that it feels, it fits my hand, and it's very fine. How do you bend notes? If the guitar is strung with heavy strings, I'll back up whatever finger I'm using with the finger behind it. I usually use a .010 E going down t about a .052 low E. I beat if up pretty good, and I have trouble intonating on the upper neck. My hands are so strong that if I squeeze light strings too hard, I pull it sharp. It stays in tune better and sounds better with heavier strings. Back when you were playing around Cleveland in the early '70s, you were one of the first guys to introduce effects--the talk box and phase shifter, for example. Do you still stay on top of technology? Oh yeah. I have the Roland GR-700 synthesizer and the guitar that comes with it (G-707). I use that--it's real nice and all--but I'm kind of an old timer, and I'm set in my ways. I do, though, think it's very, very important to keep up with technology, and I pay attention and am aware of a whole bunch of it. But, hey, man--I like to plug in and roll the tape. Somebody count off, and I'll meet ya at the fade! The synthesizers and all that kind of stuff are for overdubbing and such. It's so hard to get the guitar synthesizers to track right, and three's nothing like a good rock and roll guitar part. That's what the musicians get off on. I get the best performance from them when I'm kicking ass and staying right in the pocket with the drummer. Do you play in any styles that aren't represented on your records? I'm quite fond of sitting down with an acoustic and entertaining close personal friends. I get frustrated sometimes because there is a softer, melodic part of me that's not really a major component of what I'm known for. If I'm in a huge hall and I want to play something a little softer on acoustic when everybody's partying and it's Friday night, it's "Hey, Joe, 'Funk '49'! Boogie! Cut the pretty stuff!" That's really what I have to do, because those are my people, and if that's what they want to hear, fine. But I do feel a little handicapped, and I would love to play some softer stuff and be known for some of my compositions where flashy lead guitar wasn't particularly the focal point, Like "Pretty Maids All in A Row" on Hotel California--I love that song, but it's awful hard to do when there's five guys fighting in front of you in the audience. Can you fingerpick? Oh yeah. I never really studied that or banjo technique or anything. I don't really get into the folk stuff. My favorite kind of pattern is something like "Dear Prudence". I'm not really that good at fingerpicking. I'm not really that good at flatpicking either, like Bernie Leadon or Clarence White. Are you playing much these days? A lot. I play something every day, but I don't really practice in terms of scales or anything. I don't get very much done when I say, "Okay, I'm going to practice for a half-hour every day. "If I picku p a guitar when I really want to play it, I get a lot more work done. I'll go a couple of hours. What can you advise struggling musicians? Get out and play in front of other people. Otherwise, you can end up being a legend in your parents' basement. You could be great rehearsing, but when you get in front of people, you freeze up. You have to get in front of people and find out how to do it and how to fix your own stuff when it breaks. Was there more of a camaraderie among guitarists back in the '60s than there is today? Yeah, a little bit more. The way I got to know most of the guitar players that are part of the old-time camaraderie was at gigs. We would all be playing, and I would see people regularly because there were three- and four-act shows. But anymore with the economy and all, you don't see people unless you're on the road. Everybody is so darn busy. Back in the '60s, the bulk of the jamming was backstage. While somebody else was on, we'd get together and jam and warm up. It seems that now--and this is one of the reason I'm in Memphis--people don't get together anymore to jam unless they have to. One of my bitches with LA is that people don't get together and sing old Beatles songs and work out harmonies and stuff. Everybody has made it and they're very busy or spoiled rotten session men. It's not like the old days, and I miss that a lot. But I do see Townshend and Clapton from time to time , and it's always a pleasure. Mostly it's just hanging out. We get more done just talking about this and that--"How did you do that?" than actually sitting down and jamming. But there's nothing like a good, old couple of guitar players jam to blow out the cobwebs. What is the best band lineup you've ever worked with? The Eagles. That was a fine, fine band. We were a damn good band for a while. I'm proud of having been a part of that and Hotel California. Besides the royalties and everything, just the fact that that was a special album for a lot of people on the planet. I feel that I was part of a true band, and that we made a very valid musical statement for the generation that we represent. That makes me feel really good. Jas Obrecht
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