Joe Walsh's gratitude toward Pete Townshend appears to be genuine. By coincidence I also recently completed my James Gang CD collection. Also, by coincidence I ran across another unrelated Joe Walsh article today. Walsh had been attempting to learn the guitar to "And Your Bird Can Sing." Ringo walked in and told him one guitar couldn't do it. That George and Paul had both played guitar on that song.
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/james-gang-james-gang-rides-again-album/
So how do you like Newborn? Between the Walsh and the Bolin era, that album fell under the radar, yet is one of their strongest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrE3zdkH_ag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuWT-jwYEkQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Zy9ZTpKJc
There is a parallel between James Gang and The Who: both bands were instrumental three-pieces (in case of The Who with an additional singer) with songwriters/musical directors (in the case of the Gang: Walsh, with The Who: Towshend) who eventually outgrew that confining (they at least thought) concept and needed a larger line-up to transport their music.
It's what Sting once said why he gave up The Police: "Playing in a trio, for all the freedom and creativity, means painting with essentially the same three primary colors all the time."
And both the Gang's Live In Concert and The Who's Live At Leeds sound to my ears like the presentation of live music that would have benefitted from a few more players.
When Joe Walsh joined the Eagles, I wondered how someone who had been the sole guitarist in his own band would now settle in with a group with another (very good) lead guitarist (Felder) needing his space and an additional rhythm guitarist (Frey) to boot. "It can only be the money." I thought. I only realized later that Joe Walsh actually enjoys playing in a larger line-up where not all the focus is on him. He's totally fine at Eagles gigs to just strum along with an acoustic guitar.
Quote from: uwe on July 26, 2022, 06:35:04 AM
So how do you like Newborn? Between the Walsh and the Bolin era, that album fell under the radar, yet is one of their strongest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrE3zdkH_ag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuWT-jwYEkQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Zy9ZTpKJc
I like Newborn. Watch It is also one of my favorite songs. I disagree with critics who called it run-of-the-mill, etc. It stands out as a unique James Gang album.
Joe Walsh may give off the impression that he is more of an attention-seeker than he really is. Just in that article you get the impression that there were humble aspects to his personality. Blending in with the Eagles may have been a more natural thing than people might think.
From what I've heard, both Dale Peters and Jim Fox - even as young men - were very set in their ways and adamant about the trio format and the affiliated dos and don'ts. It was not that Joe Walsh went flying out on his ego, he just felt constrained and wanted to explore other directions. Troiano and Bolin wasn't too happy with the two either.
Quote from: uwe on July 26, 2022, 03:39:27 PM
From what I've heard, both Dale Peters and Jim Fox - even as young men - were very set in their ways and adamant about the trio format and the affiliated dos and don'ts. It was not that Joe Walsh went flying out on his ego, he just felt constrained and wanted to explore other directions. Troiano and Bolin wasn't too happy with the two either.
I had heard about Bolin not being happy with them, but not Troiano.
Tommy had his own demons, he wasn't happy with Purple either and people in the Tommy Bolin Band were unhappy with him because they could all see where it was going.
Troiano wasn't really a rock player (and never claimed to be), he was a white RnB and jazzy funk guitarist, just listen to his solo album he released during his tenure with the Gang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeAS3dkMUSc
And the music he played post-Gang with likewise Gang-alumni Roy Kenner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Z0gGOAJKQ&list=RDEMrxfMUjx6CS596sMjIqOayQ&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NvA0_F6-zg&list=RDEMrxfMUjx6CS596sMjIqOayQ&index=2
Peters and Fox wanted him to be more "rock", he did not oblige - enter Tommy Bolin (who wasn't that much of a true rock player either, but live more flamboyant than the laid-back Troiano).
Maybe Peters and Fox should have simply asked a young Ted Nugent whether he could have been their lead guitarist? ;) Or someone like John Nitzinger ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt5wfuxdYhU
Here is a tribute to Domenic Troiano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2j_CZxQ6Ko
Troiano, of course, had a cool Italian look to him. Nowadays, when I listen to Italians playing rock, it's more likely to be something like this. This is Frozen Crown's new line-up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJA8wjpI_Nk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEzdWik86q8
Why do they all have to look like extras from Game of Thrones? The music is fine, but somewhat interchangeable, it's a style that has become popular. I'm happy when girls play guitar so well rather than just wiggling their butt in time.
This fashionable collective obsession with the medieval world (and earlier) or early middle-age inspired fantasy scenarios and all that Viking nonsense (I found the series incredibly dreary and stopped watching it) is beyond me. It was an age of intellectual darkness, hardly anyone could read or write, there were no dragons ever goddamit and all the druids and magicians were friggin' failures. Never did the West lag behind so much and was so sluggish in development as in this period. It was a huge setback compared to Classical Antiquity (Romans, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians) or other developed civilisations such as the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas.
Rant over (well, almost ...). Like all Germans, I like Italians. The saying goes that Germans love Italians, but don't really respect them, and that with the Italians it's the other way around! In the part of Germany where I live, Roman civilisation left (luckily) an indelible mark. I can't stand it if people celebrate the Teutoburg Forest Battle victory of Germanic tribes against the at this point overstretched Roman Empire in 9 AD, it's like commemorating Taliban or Isis victories today. All Hermann/Arminius did (no insult intended, Dave) was set Northern Germany's development back for a couple of hundred years. More taking craps in forests, less plumbing. More dancing around oaks, hop(p)ing for a good harvest, less sensible irrigation. Spare me. >:(
I didn't watch Game of Thrones, either. But I don't object to that genre. It's like a romanticized fantasy sci-fi genre as far as I know. I never spent more than a few minutes at a time watching any of it. But usually people either like that kind of thing or they don't. It reminds me a little of "The Outpost" which recently concluded on the CW. I liked it, but it wasn't widely popular. That kind of thing definitely doesn't appeal to a lot of people. I might have liked Game of Thrones, too, but the whole thing seemed a little out of my usual sphere of interest. The Outpost, something similar but still different, definitely appealed to me way more than Game of Thrones. But all of these things are just highly romanticized and fictional accounts of medieval times, obviously. I hope no one thinks life was ever really like that. That's also a fantasy world that Frozen Crown has created in their lyrics, obviously.
When I think of Italian female-fronted metal, I immediately think of Lacuna Coil. I've been listening to them for years. I'm sure that when a band such as Frozen Crown gets started, they have to be influenced at least a little by Lacuna Coil. Here is LC doing an R.E.M. cover--of all things.
What's really important, however, is that just moments ago I was finally able to order the James Gang's live CD. Now my collection really is complete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD7RHcp1wvc
"What's really important, however, is that just moments ago I was finally able to order the James Gang's live CD. Now my collection really is complete. "
My condolences. That is not always a good thing and - speaking from experience - the sense of closure is fleeting!
:mrgreen:
Quote from: uwe on July 27, 2022, 10:47:56 AM
"What's really important, however, is that just moments ago I was finally able to order the James Gang's live CD. Now my collection really is complete. "
My condolences. That is not always a good thing and - speaking from experience - the sense of closure is fleeting!
:mrgreen:
Being obsessive about completing album collections probably isn't a good thing. That's true. I've been trying to cut down on it and have had some success, but not much. But that James Gang CD really has been one of the very hardest to find.
Quote from: uwe on July 27, 2022, 08:21:06 AM
...
Rant over (well, almost ...). Like all Germans, I like Italians. The saying goes that Germans love Italians, but don't really respect them, and that with the Italians it's the other way around! In the part of Germany where I live, Roman civilisation left (luckily) an indelible mark. I can't stand it if people celebrate the Teutoburg Forest Battle victory of Germanic tribes against the at this point overstretched Roman Empire in 9 AD, it's like commemorating Taliban or Isis victories today. All Hermann/Arminius did (no insult intended, Dave) was set Northern Germany's development back for a couple of hundred years. More taking craps in forests, less plumbing. More dancing around oaks, hop(p)ing for a good harvest, less sensible irrigation. Spare me. >:(
I take it that you won't be attending this year's Hermann Fest, then.
https://hermannmonument.com/
Quote from: uwe on July 26, 2022, 06:35:04 AM
Between the Walsh and the Bolin era, that album fell under the radar, yet is one of their strongest.
Ah, but the Joe Walsh/Blackmore connection(because there MUST be one).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpBkc0If4s4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP9My5P5_eE
The first vid is unavailable, what connection is there except for Bolin being the successor to both?
Actually James Gang's Bang and Deep Purple's Come Taste The Band have exactly the same vibe. You can't really like the one without the other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av_7OgrEPT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhg75ranE0o
Quote from: uwe on July 31, 2022, 04:44:01 PM
The first vid is unavailable, what connection is there except for Bolin being the successor to both?
Actually James Gang's Bang and Deep Purple's Come Taste The Band have exactly the same vibe. You can't really like the one without the other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av_7OgrEPT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhg75ranE0o
The first video is Joe Walsh's "Meadows". There was some speculation about who stole the riff from who. Walsh says he had the riff for years before turning it into a song, Blackmore said he got the idea from Cats Squirrel by Cream (I don't really hear it) and others have opined that both got it from the middle section of "She's Got Everything" by The Kinks.
I was lacking the Purple reference - you mean Woman From Tokyo (WFT)! That riff can very well be borrowed, Ritchie, who had been down with hepatitis, was running out of ideas when Purple's Who Do We Think We Are (the swan song of Mk II) was recorded, so he might have very well "remembered" a few riffs while he was recuperating with chicken soup, the only thing his body would accept at the time. I can hear the origins both in the Kinks middle eight and in Cream's number, Blackmore just altered the rhythm of the riff. He always considered WFT a bit of a throwaway number and it was never played live with the laid back orchestral part in the middle (one of the best parts of the song) while he was still in the band. (He did mention once that WFT is one of his few riffs in a major key and that he finds it difficult to write in major, being naturally attracted more to minor keys - Purple were generally a minorish band when Ritchie was still around, that all changed under both Bolin and Morse who as Americans were less major key-averse.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-4pms3VPqc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvTTsSysmo8
A lot of Ritchie's riffs were borrowed and he's never made no bones to hide that, YouTube is awash with his selfdeprecating comments on where he "loaned", "borrowed" or "stole" riffs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOWOdKs6KUo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlODWd4GeM
He says he got the Black Night riff from Rick Nelson,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSngzjqMF38
but I think The Blues Magoos might have refreshed his memory a few years before Black Night was hastily recorded (and produced) at a very drunken session in the wake of the In Rock recordings because the record company did "not hear a single" among the In Rock tracks. It was supposed to be a rock dance number, hence the handclaps and the tambourine added to the snare beat.
Back to Woman From Tokyo: The recording of Who Do We Think We Are was fraught with strife, Blackmore hated Gillan's increasingly outlandish vocal melodies so much, he refused release of this number (with a riff not entirely dissimilar to Woman From Tokyo) from the sessions, it only saw the light of day years later (and against his will).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_9PHHrd2k
I liked it actually, but by that time Blackmore was looking for a bluesier and more conventional singer in the Paul Rodgers vein (Gillan always liked to constuct vocal melodies that defied expectations) ... enter David Coverdale! And some people even say the WFT riff was recycled by the new Mk III line-up once again, this time carried by the organ!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZGxOBeESnY
The original James Gang will be reuniting for what is billed as "One Last Ride" for a VetsAid concert in Ohio in November. A number of other Ohio performers will also be there.
https://www.billboard.com/music/concerts/2022-vetsaid-concert-lineup-1235120856/
Well, that's a nice closure - last time they played it was for Bill Clinton's inauguration, wasn't it? And he wanted Rocky Mountain Way because he thought it was a James Gang song - they obliged.
I didn't realize it had been that long since they played together. This probably really will be their last ride.