NOT THE BEST "BEST OF", AUDIO-WISE
This is one of them.
Between Joe Walsh retrospectives and James Gang compilations, there are a plethora of "best of" CD's that have been released thru the decades.
However, strictly from an audio standpoint, all pale to the 1998 Repertoire remastered "Best Of" 2CD collection. This remaster is even superior to the individual MCA 1999 remasters, and the later BGO remasters.
Unfortunately, the Repertoire disc also has the abbreviated "Bomber Medley", which is an enormous sore point for JG fans. Also, Repertoire allotted a major portion of the set to the non-Walsh JG years; only 14 of the 40 tracks are Walsh-era material. I'm sure many JG fans will have their opinions over excluded tracks, but the selections were made with input from Jim Fox, who contributes a song-by-song synopsis of each track in the booklet. There is also probably the best essay on the history of the band of any JG CD ever released.
But what 14 tracks they are; the Repertoire set is the James Gang album you never knew you really wanted. All the muddy sound of the MCA discs is gone; the percussion is clear, the bass thunders and Walsh is there in all his distorted glory.
It's a shame that Repertoire didn't produce individual editions of the first three JG albums, because they would have blown away the lackluster MCA discs. I've heard just about every other JG "best of", and the Repertoire set towers above them all.
They Ruined "The Bomber"
Great to have "Country Fever" here. This is a fantastic collection of songs by an underrated group. My only complaint is that my absolute favorite James Gang song "The Bomber" has been ruined. I liked it WITHOUT Ravel's "Bolero" stuck between "Closet Queen" and "Cast Your Fate To The Wind. " It slows it down and blows the great transition from "Closet Queen" to "Cast Your Fate" - It ruins a great and powerful rock song by putting a classical dirge right in the middle of it. This is truly a case (IMO) where more made it less.
Will we ever get a remastered version of the 2-piece "Closet Queen" - "Cast Your Fate" Bomber? Probably never. I guess I'll just have to turn up the volume on my older non-remastered version of James Gang's 15 Greatest Hits to really rock out on "The Bomber. " (Update correction 5/2/08 - I just found out that the 1998 2CD remastered greatest hits set has the 2 piece "Bomber" - but you have to buy a whole CD of James gang minus Joe Walsh to get it).
Good grief, the James Gang did enough quiet songs like "Midnight Man," "Tend My Garden" and "Ashes, The Rain and I" that I would have thought they would have kept the power of "The Bomber" intact instead of adding an insipid piece of French impressionistic drivel to it. Oh well. I guess Joe Walsh has been hanging with the Eagles too long now and decided he wanted to make "The Bomber" into some kind of art piece (yea, yea I know that's how it was originally recorded - but the Bolero section should have stayed on the cutting room floor).
Now, if Joe releases a remastered version of his classic solo CD "Barnstorm" and we find that he has inserted a guitar version of "Eine Kliene Nachtmusic" somewhere in the middle of "Turn to Stone" then I'll know he's really gone deep Eagle. Geez - "Bolero" - unbelieveable!! .
Further proof that the Gang were America's Led Zeppelin
. . And that Joe Walsh was America's Jimmy Page--being that both were men just as capable of creative the most beautiful melodies as they were smashing you in the guts like a Metal sledgehammer with their identically equipped Gibson Les Paul guitars!
Too bad they never had the following that Led Zeppelin had! Although the James Gang is often linked with The Who, in that Pete Townshend took them under their wing and had them open for them in the early days, and even furnished them with The Who's tradmark "Hi-Watt" amps, Walsh's infinitely better-than-Townshend guitar soloing and Dale Peters' intricate John Paul Jones-like bass guitar tone and playing SCREAM Zeppelin like no other American group from the Woodstock era! And perhaps no one else from that period studied Led Zeppelin's style quite like the James Gang did. Reports I've heard of this group being the first to perform Led Zeppelin's entire first album for an early live gig are certainly no surprise to me--especially when I hear how Zeppelin influenced much of the music you hear on this compilation.
There are other James Gang compilations out there, but this one is truly the best stuff. And only on this particular collection--for the first time--you get liner notes that really explain the Gang's music, and what made them tick. Things about them that I had long wondered about are finally answered. And their music does make you wonder about what inspired it.
Now what makes this "greatest hits" so great? Well, unlike the previous "greatest hits" put out by ABC in the early 70s, wimpier songs like "Again" and "Yadig?" are outed for stronger tracks like "I Don't Have the Time" and "Asshton Park". And for the first time, you are treated to a previously deleted section of "The Bomber" only available on rare early copies of "James Gang Rides Again". On "The Bomber", the band takes you on the same intergalatic journey through the echoplectic atmosphere of Walsh's guitar, but this time at about the 3:30 mark, Joe hits you with a blazing inferno of feedback-laden "wah-wah", while Jimmy Fox lays down a cool marching beat as only Jimmy Fox can for a couple of minutes, until the song resumes it's normal course. This is the previously "edited-out" Bolero section of "The Bomber", and as you will see in the liner notes, there were some interesting copyright issues as to why it had to be edited from the original album. "The Bomber" was already my favorite James Gang song. But an extra slab of Walsh's guitar and Fox's drumming made my favorite James Gang song EVEN better!
But there's more to this disc that helps me look at the James Gang in a whole new light. On this collection, there are a couple of tracks the group performed for the rare movie soundtrack, "Zachariah"--"Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever"--that are avaialble nowhere else! Both are very different in places; even heavier and darker sounding than the usual James Gang sound. "Country Fever" is particularly interesting. According to the liner notes, this song introduced a new lead singer for the James Gang, Kenny Weiss--I suppose, so Joe Walsh could concentrate more on his guitar playing, which he did put to good use on this song. To paraphrase the liner notes "after the first album, Walsh finally decided he couldn't be the band's singer and guitar player at the same time". No explaination given for how they found Weiss to fill those temporary lead vocalist duties, but from the sound of things, the band might have gone a whole new direction, maybe pushed the boundaries of Heavy Metal music, gaining some Black Sabbath fans, had they kept Weiss. Apparantely, the group was looking for a "growler", someone who fit vocally between Paul Rodgers, Leslie West, and Janis Joplin. And on the song, "Country Fever", Joe Walsh was able to match Kenny Weiss's "growl" with his guitar's "roar", and almost virtually changes the way the entire band plays. With Walsh's darker, more de-tuned sounding guitar, still using his Mark Farner-like left-handed muting that sounds even better on a Gibson Les Paul, and Fox's different drum sound, using less snare, driving the rhythm, "Country Fever" sounds like the prototype of the song that Black Sabbath's, "Children of the Grave" would become.
Unfortunately, Weiss was out as lead singer almost as quickly as he came, and the group went back to their own sound with Walsh again on vocals. Walsh never was really a bad singer in the first place--The James Gang might not have been The James Gang without his unique, "wicked elf" sounding vocal style. So, again, the only thing I could conclude is that he might have thought bringing in a new singer would help him concentrate on his guitar playing and maybe help him expand and grow. It looked like it almost worked, as a new darker dimension to his already metallic guitar style on "Country Fever" gives evidence to. But then again, there might not have been a twangy "Walk Away" or "Funk 49" had Kenny Weiss remained as lead singer. However, there might still have been a song like "The Bomber".
Lastly, no other compilation of the James Gang will give you "live" versions of the James Gang, as "Stop" is a perfect example of. I always has an idea that this is the kind of band that would sound great "live", and they certainly don't disappoint. "Stop" sounded like a great little "R&B" number on the group's first album, but in concert--the Gang turn this song into a "metallic monster", with a full blast of Walsh's fuzzed out power chords emitting from those "Hi-Watt" amps cranked up to "11", and Walsh's previous whine becoming a scream--"STOPPP!" The Gang also don't stretch it out like they did on their debut album, which was probably a good thing, because the last 5 or 10 minutes on the studio version was just the band playing rhythm to some improvisational piano, which they thankfully didn't have in concert. Instead, they turn the song into a nice little segue into their next number--"You're Gonna Need Me", a chance to hear the Gang perform an Albert King-penned slow blues number exactly as Led Zeppelin (that influence-again!) would perform one on songs like "I Can't Quit You Baby" or "Since I've Been Loving You". Walsh also showing that he is not missing Kenny Weiss's singing at all, as he also belts out a blues voice that perhaps no one thought he had! Perhaps the only criticism I can make regrading these "live" tracks here is that the usually good production quality from Bill Szymczyk comes up lacking, running pretty close to the sound of their rival band from Michigan, Grand Funk Railroad, and their first "Live Album". But I can cut some slack, because these were the early days of unreliable PA systems and moody mobile studios sitting outside those live venues. But only makes me wish I could have heard "Stop" as it really was--"live at full blast"!
The only major criticism I could make about this whole compilation is that it's not in chronological order from the earliest recordings to the last. But as good as this compilation is, that oversight is easily forgiveable! Perhaps this could be more specifically titled; "The Greatest Hits of The James Gang, featuring Joe Walsh", because the band did continue long after his departure. Much like The Yardbirds in Britain, the James Gang was an incubator for future legendary guitarists-as Walsh was but one. (Interesting to note that they did perform The Yardbirds' "Lost Woman" on their debut album. ) But as the Yardbirds changed to Led Zeppelin, so the James Gang were not only the first evidence of American adaptation of their style, and that they didn't just imitate, but were clever enough to write and perform songs as they thought Led Zeppelin might perform them, so that they were far in advance of any other Zeppelin imitators out there.
In conclusion, when it comes to Joe Walsh-era James Gang, there are two that are most essential--this one, and their 1969 debut, "Yer Album". buy these two, and you will have the "complete" early sound of the James Gang. If you only ever purchase the James Gang for "Walk Away" or "Funk 49" for your iPOD, you are seriously missing out on what makes this band great. This is just another one of those groups who best music got lost in the 70s.
Some great songs but not worth buying the cd for
2 of them are well knowns played millions of times, Walk Away, funk #49
The REAL burners on is this are, Laguna Salada, Country Fever, and the best song of all is "You're going to need me, Live" oh man! if your only going to buy one song, this is it!! . only 5 songs worth anything the rest is all noise.
Surprisingly Effective as an Album
Putting aside the radio hits, this is a surprisingly effective and cohesive look at a creative rock trio in the late 60s and early 70s. I don't really like greatest hits packages, but this one does a nice job summarizes the first few albums that had Joe Walsh onboard. I especially like the slower songs, such as "Take a Look Around," which features plaintive singing, organ work, and sounds a lot like very early Todd Rundgren. "Ashes the Rain and I" is another quieter song that really works.
But the highlight is clearly "Bomber," which hits you over the head with multiphased songs, changes, and sequences, an epic tune that leaves you blissfully satisfied and ready for that final toke before you go to bed. . . . . .
You can see a complete list of all The James Gang discography, or go back to the The James Gang tabs
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