CoronaVinyl Day 318 (W): So What by Joe Walsh

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As a heads up, I'm not going to be posting anything tomorrow, as I'll be indisposed for nearly the entire day.  But before then, today's CoronaVinyl category is "W," and we're listening to Joe Walsh's third solo studio album, 1974's So What.  As you can see, Walsh was very much in his nudist aviator phase when he made this record.

Though Walsh is probably best known as a member of the Eagles, he was a successful artist in his own right before he joined them in 1975.  He got his start as the guitarist and sometimes lead vocalist of the power trio James Gang, whose songs "Funk #49" (which is an absolute delight) and "Walk Away" were AOR hits.  He left the band in late 1971 and formed Barnstorm, which operated as his backing band for his first two solo albums.

So What was kind of the bridge between Barnstorm and the Eagles for Walsh.  It's a mix of the harder rock that he made with James Gang and Barnstorm and some softer, more introspective stuff that was more reminiscent of the Eagles.  And his future Eagles band mates Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Randy Meisner sang backing vocals on several tracks.  Also, singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg played guitar and sang backing vocals on one track.

The album is pretty good.  As expected, I like the harder songs more than the softer ones, although I would be remiss if I didn't mention the touching last song on the album, "Song for Emma," which Walsh wrote in memory of his daughter Emma, who was killed earlier in 1974 (a few weeks before her third birthday) in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.

The album went to #11 on the Billboard album chart, though it only had one song that sniffed the Billboard Hot 100 -- "Turn to Stone," which reached #93.  Early pressings of the album (including mine) have the message "THAT'S NO BANANY, THATS MY NOZE" written on the inner runout groove of the album.

This was Walsh's last solo album before he joined the Eagles in 1975, replacing Bernie Leadon.  Walsh brought a harder edge to the band, and his first album with the band was Hotel California in 1976, followed by The Long Run in 1979, before the band broke up for 15 years.  In the meantime, Walsh was releasing solo material while he was with the Eagles, and he had his biggest solo hit "Life's Been Good" in 1978 (#12) while he was still a member of the band.

In addition to his work with the Eagles, James Gang, Barnstorm, and his solo work, Walsh has been a member of Ringo Starr's All-Star Band -- and is actually Ringo's brother-in-law, as Walsh married Ringo's wife's sister -- and he has contributed his talents to many an artist as a session musician, from B.B. King to Foo Fighters to The Beach Boys to Bob Seger to Billy Preston to Andy Gibb to Warren Zevon to Wilson Phillips, among many others.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Eagles in 1998.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Time Out"
This song starts out with a nice riff, and all in all, it's a solid '70s rock song.  These are the types of Walsh songs that I like.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Turn to Stone"
"Turn to Stone" was a Barnstorm track that was previously released on the 1972 Barnstorm album.  I don't know if you'd call this a cover or a re-recording, but whatever it is, the song is a solid, brooding hard rock song with the heaviest riff on the album.