The 1981 Listening Post - Joe Walsh - There Goes the Neighborhood

 Joe Walsh - There Goes the Neighborhood

#120

March 10 1981

By Aaron Conte

Joe Walsh

There Goes the Neighborhood

Genre: classic AOR ("album oriented rock")

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Rating 3.5 out of 5 hotel rooms

Highlights:

Made Your Mind Up

A Life of Illusion

Rockets

I feel as if this review could just be, "Man I love Joe Walsh."

Right from the title of the album, he has always made me smile with the sense of humor he keeps about himself and his music. A well-respected man, his abilities have been praised by the likes of Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. Not bad for a kid from Wichita, Kansas. 

Personally I find him at times to be Donald Fagen impersonating Willie Nelson and I always enjoy it. His songwriting and style is so exciting yet at the same time soothing and reassuring, he's got the listener right where he wants them. Wry turns of phrase, smart and simple melodic lines that don't always go where you think they are leading.

This is his first record after The Eagles broke up. I was never a fan of that band, but as the years have taken my hair and given me some weight around my middle, I find that maybe they knew a thing or two about songs. I don't want to get too carried away in Eagles land so I'll just say Joe Walsh is my favorite part of that band. Partly because we know how seriously those guys took themselves and knowing what a drunken wise-ass Walsh was, he had to have shaken their tree when he came up with that guitar solo for "Hotel California"...laughing and stumbling all the way to the bank.

I won't go track by track for this album because it's very individual (as all music is but...) and because I want you all to put this record on and give it your 36 minutes. 

For that matter, after you're done with this record, go listen to some James Gang, Walsh's second band. His guitar sound tears your head off (in a good way).

I hope Joe Walsh lives a very very long time. He's already 72 so let's hope.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2hsMdQyMatj8wUABiwGgkN?si=LRb7K7l0S8K3sOE59DglXg