Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh tabs Joe Walsh discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Joe Walsh guitar tabs

CD reviews

20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Joe Walsh

Joe Walsh - 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Joe Walsh Audio CD

A fair review of the Joe Walsh "20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: 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.

Band: Joe Walsh
Title: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Joe Walsh
Rating:

Release Date: 2000-03-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Walk Away - The James Gang, Joe Walsh 2: Funk #49 - The James Gang, Joe Walsh 3: Midnight Man - The James Gang, Joe Walsh 4: Mother Says 5: Turn to Stone 6: Here We Go 7: Meadows 8: County Fair 9: Help Me Thru the Night 10: Rocky Mountain Way

20th century masters Joe Walsh
The cd covers tracks from his time with the James Gang all the way through his solo career. This CD captures all of the hits that has made him a legend. Songs like Turn to Stone and Rocky mountain way is a must have in any collection. Highly recommended!!!.

Good collection though not complete

All the usual suspects are here, including many of his hits with the James Gang. Very nice career retrospective of Rock n' Roll artist Joe Walsh. This is a great buy for anyone just getting into Joe Walsh or the casual listener. My only gripe with this collection and for that matter ANY collection that currently exists for Joe, and there are many is that "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" from the "You Bought it, You Name It" album is not on any of them.

It was a modest hit when it came out in the 80's and I'm hard pressed to figure out why with all the numerous Joe Walsh greatest hits cds, that this particular song and hit is not on any of them. Strange ain't it. Oh well, this is the music buisness I suppose. Peace everyone.

the pay you less, the get you more

That being said, I've always been a sucker for Walsh's guitar playing. I just love getting a CD with great music that costs less than the postage to send it! While I would like to own 'Life of Illusion' in addition to some of the thoroughly wonderful tracks laid down here, a copy of Walsh's other compilation, 'Little Did He Know', would have cost me three times as much, and frankly I'm not that absorbed in a lot of Joe's lesser accomplishments to justify the expense. There is nothing in Walsh's vocal delivery to set him apart, except to say that it seems well suited to the mood and lyrical content of his music (indeed, it is difficult to imagine other artists covering much of his music, for whatever reason, though Stephen Stills pounded out a convincing 'Rocky Mountain Way' on a live release). He has, however, composed and recorded some of the finest guitar riffs imaginable, easily on a par with anything done by Eric Clapton, The Beatles, even, dare I say it. . . Jimi Hendrix. Though few in number, those recordings possess massive appeal and staying power.

Walsh's best work was produced in the very late 1960's and early 1970's, heading up the James Gang and Barnstorm, and this era serves as the focus for this 10 track mini resource library. The disc opens with THE 3 essential (tha-tha-tha-tha- that's all folks) James Gang recordings, 'Walk Away', 'Funk #49', and 'Midnight Man'. While 'Midnight Man' is the closest the Gang ever got to a serenade, and a fine serenade at that, 'Walk Away' and 'Funk #49" are studies in hard rock artistry. The songs are reminiscent of the sonic explosion exemplified in two compositons by Walsh's contemporaries Ray Davies and The Kinks, 'All Day and All of the Night' and 'You Really Got Me'. It's not possible to listen to any of these songs without cranking up the volume and allowing your brain and body to liberate themselves from death to life. They possess the power to move ya'.

There are some lesser contributions from Barnstorm included on this disc, in particular 'Mother Says' and 'Here We Go'. It's not that these songs are weak, but they pale in comparison to the remaining selections. 'Turn To Stone', the anthem 'Meadows', 'Rocky Mountain Way', and to a lesser extent 'County Fair', are some of the finest pieces of rock music anyone ever committed to disc. What sets them apart, again, is Walsh's occasional genius with a guitar. The lyrics are compelling, the music is sublime, and it all comes together in a stellar mix that testifies rock and roll will never die. Some artists just say it, others like Joe Walsh play it.

There is one remaining track, the familiar 'Help Me Through the Night', which is a sweet diversion, helping you catch your breath between 'County Fair' and the closer/clincher 'Rocky Mountain Way'. The song served as a segue for Walsh as he reinvented himself in the mid-1970's as the beak and talons of the Eagles. Walsh used several Eagles, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Randy Meisner for background vocals on the number, and soon after took Meisner's perch with the band. To me it represents Walsh's evolution from primordial to prima donna. I prefer primordial, and 'Millenium' is certainly that.

Nothing New here!
As such it does a very good job of summarizing Walsh's early carrier. This is really just a slightly beefed up re-issue of the 1978 "Best of Joe Walsh". It's marketed as a budget priced CD and I guess you do save. . . off the definitive 1997 release of "Greatest Hits: Little Did He Know". Unfortunately, what you give up is a lot! Classics like "All Night Long", "Life of Illusion", "Average Ordinary Guy" and the unforgivable exclusion "Life's been good".

If this is going to be the only Joe Walsh CD you own, my advice is simple: Spend the extra. . . and get "Greatest Hits: Little Did He Know". You get 15 songs vs. 10 and you can take comfort in the fact that you will have the only Joe Walsh CD most people ever need to own.

MCA's Millennium Madness Continues
The question is how can we use the company's existing music catalog and make some money off the new millennium. Okay, here's the scenario: The board of directors at MCA are huddled in some smoke-filled room. One executive suggests taking the artists' existing greatest hits releases and add extra songs to included album tracks, minor chart hits, and singles since the album's original release so the new CD will have 75 minutes of music. Another executive says why not take the existing greatest hits releases and remove four or five songs and call it the Millennium Collection? (Guess which executive got the promotion. )

This nearly fifty-minute snapshot of Joe Walsh's career beginning with his days with The James Gang is more generous than most. And while it's hard to argue with the addition of "Here We Go" from 1972's Barnstorm and "County Fair" from 1974's So What, this release is no match for 1997's Greatest Hits, which not only inlcudes Walsh's two hits of the Eighties ("All Night Long" and "A Life Of Illusion"), it includes his signature song "Life's Been Good. " And at fifteen tracks, the choice becomes a no-brainer.

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.