Joe Walsh - "Dreams"

Just when you think you have one of your favorite artists more-or-less pegged, they throw you a wonderful curve. Joe Walsh is one of those artists I've declared a favorite of mine, based purely on the strength of his unique guitarin' skills, his fun-loving attitude which is infectious (and infused in his music), and the strength of his two Asylum-era albums: "But Seriously, Folks..." and There Goes The Neighborhood. I own a whole lot of his solo albums (my big gaps are the individual James Gang albums and the live album You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind; everything else I own in one format or another, sometimes multiple formats). Two recent additions are vinyl copies of both So What and The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get, both on original ABC Dunhill. The former has some great tunes, but sort of let me down. The latter has found ways to quietly blow my mind...

This song in particular, "Dreams", is just such a wonderful departure from what one would expect of a "typical" Joe Walsh song. In this song, there are elements of Todd Rundgren circa Runt: Ballad Of Todd Rundgren, Carole King, and Leon Russell. Yet the results are also very much of Joe Walsh. It's fascinating that the lead instrument is piano; Joe's known primarily as a force to be reckoned with on guitar, yet songs like this one and "Pretty Maids In A Row" off of Hotel California remind the world that he's no slouch writing (and peforming) a song on piano.

I guess that I've sort of placed a lower priority on discovering the Smoker You Drink... album until recently, maybe because "Rocky Mountain Way" is such a cliche song. Yet I've always loved "Meadows", which you think would have encouraged me to want to find out more about the source LP. I'm sort of embarrassed to admit that it's taken me as long as it has to really get to know this album, and I heartily recommend that you pick up a copy of The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get.


Off-topic:I'm sorry I'm sort of slacking on Blogvember; life is funny, and so are one's priorities. Don't count me out yet, I'm just nowhere near as prolific as I'd hoped.