Fretplay.com Joe Walsh CD reviews Joe Walsh guitar tabs Joe Walsh CD reviews Joe Walsh tabs The Best of Joe Walsh


Joe Walsh - The Best of Joe Walsh Audio CD

A fair review of the Joe Walsh "The Best of Joe Walsh" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Joe Walsh reviews here, or go back to the Joe Walsh tabs.

Joe Walsh Band: Joe Walsh
Title: The Best of Joe Walsh
Rating:
Release Date:
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Turn to Stone 2: Mother Says 3: Help Me Thru the Night 4: Rocky Mountain Way 5: Meadows 6: County Fair 7: Funk #49 8: Time Out 9: Walk Away

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.


One More Track

That'll bring it to ten tracks and more reasonable (ie CD) length. Just tack on "Life's Been Good" (if you like that sort of thing).
That song and album were released almost concurrently with this.


Re-Issue of the Classic Vinyl
I still have my copy. Obviously most of the other reviewers are so young that they do not realize that this short, nine-song compact disc is simply a re-issue of Joe Walsh's Greatest Hits that was originally released on VINYL! That's one of those 12" black plastic looking things that maybe your parents have some of. That's how I recognised the cover. This was released in 1978, and yes it does concentrate on Joe's early '70's period. So quit complaining about how short it is, a long play (LP) record can only fit about 50 minutes of music on it. Just take it for it is. If you're like me, and wanted a wider selection of Joe's work, get the Compact-disc-only version of his Anthology.


Track listing
Funk No. 1. 48
2. Collage
3. Take a Look Around
4. The Bomber
5. Funk No. 49
6. Tend My Garden
7. Ashes, the Rain and I
8. Walk Away
9. Midnight Man
10. Yadig?
11. Mother Says
12. Comin' Down
13. Here We Go
14. Rocky Mountain Way
15. Bookends
16. Meadows
17. Turn to Stone
18. Time Out
Total running time - 77:26.


Great Joe Walsh
It features his best 70s cuts, with none of the clutter that affected his later work. THE BEST OF JOE WALSH is just that. "Turn To Stone" features lyrics that seem cautionary and a portent of trouble on the way, and "Rocky Mountain Way" is a sports anthem that still inspires me to set new records for myself in swimming and other exercise. It's missing some good songs like "Tend My Garden", but THE BEST OF JOE WALSH is still a great collection of early Joe Walsh.


You can see a complete list of all Joe Walsh discography, or go back to the Joe Walsh tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

Search guitar tabs

#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
[ Search tabs | Guitar tabs | Bass tabs |
Easy guitar tabs | Guitar solo tabs |
Acoustic guitar tabs | Guitar chords |
How to read guitar tabs ]
Forum topics
Music forums
- Bands and artists - Songwriting and lyrics - Tablature talk - Promote your band
Instrument forums
- Guitar basics - Gear & accessories - Bass guitar
Community
- The pit - Site Feedback - Reviews
[ User survey | About us | Privacy statement ]