Customer Reviews

So What

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Joe Walsh's 'So What' is certainly a flash of brilliance, but just a flash. His later material would fall short in artistry, and then came the Eagles which, for me, sort of put a wrap on his career (Meisner didn't need help). Very rarely have I heard an album which makes me stop what I am doing and just {{{listen}}}. Emma, County Fair, and Help Me Through the Night are all melody jackpots. Turn to Stone is a good example how Walsh was evolving his sound from the James Gang days. This is a very well done album. Also of note is Joe's work on Dan Fogelberg's album 'Souvenirs'. One will certainly compliment the other. Enjoy the experience.

In some ways this LP is where Joe Walsh came of age both in terms of his songwriting and the high profile artists who contribted to the LP (including of course future colleagues The Eagles).

This is a classy set, although it does lack the creativity and variety of his first two 'solo' outings. It's a recording that shows off his guitar prowess more than any other and the version of 'Turn to Stone' is his best.

There is a good mix of up tempo bluesy numbers including 'Welcome to the Club' and 'Time Out' which is close to his James Gang period and laid back, but very well played ballards such as the excellent 'Falling Down'. Joe walsh also shows his compositional talent in a moog version of a Ravel piano piece to great effect and the touching 'Song for Emma' which I belive was a tribute to one of his children who died.

All round this is great stuff and in particular 'County Fair' is a reminder of how powerful his teeming up with drummer Joe Vitale could be.

This was Joe's last great LP and I am still convinced Joe's eventual move to the Eagles was a commercial rather than creative move.

Another good deal here. I found this for $4.36 less at another onliner,
so that tells me that this price point is a little off. It's often very
hard to get albums like this at the downtown retailers. To get it at my
door for less than $15 is cool. There does not seem to be a well-priced
remaster of this disc so I bought it as is. I'll be back with a review of
the sonic quality.
The sound is very good, a well done transfer to digital. "Turn to Stone"
is dynamic, with the Eagles members on backing vocals. It's worth it....

Joe Walsh is part serious guitar ace and part clown. He's been successful as a solo artist as well as with the James Gang and the Eagles. The classic "The Smoker You Drink,The Player You Get" (A personal All-Time Top 10 favorite of mine) was released in 1973 and paved the way for his solo career to take off after his James Gang years. Joe's next release, the 1974 "So What" to me was again a classic. Though not as commercially successful as "The Smoker...", it contains some of his best work. When he cools down on his clowning, court jester part of his persona and gets to his serious side, his songwriting is first-class terrific. His unique playing style is simply spectacular. Just check out the gorgeous suite "Pavanne", the moving "Time Out", the heartfelt, romantic "Help Me Make It Through the Night", rocking out on "Turn To Stone", the smooth "Falling Down", the touching "Country Fair" and probably my all-time pick for the greatest tear-jerking ballad that most people have never heard, the great "Song For Emma". Of course, nothing would be complete without Joe's clowning side as "Welcome To The Club" and "All Night Laundry Mat Blues" provide great laughs to these terrific tunes. Overall, all 9 songs on this CD flows nicely together and again displays why Joe Walsh is an all-time ace.

You can rip everything on this CD because everything's great. The guitar work is mesmerizing and the lyrics run the gamut of emotions. "All Night Laundry Mat Blues" makes for a fun interlude between "Time Out" and "Turn to Stone" which, incidentally, is the best rendition of this piece in Joe's canon. There are some real gems on this disc. You won't regret buying it.

Hard to believe as it may seem given the has-been caricature that Joe Walsh has became well over a decade ago, but he was once considered to be one of the most progressive forces in rock music. He recorded three truly fine albums in his career, those being "The James Gang Rides Again," "Barnstorm" and this one. "So What" is his most perfect blend of electric punch and accoustic rhythms. Four of these songs, "Time Out," "Turn to Stone," "Help Me Through the Night" and "Country Fair," graced his first greatest hits album, and most of the remaining are nearly as good. The only true clunker is "All Night Laundry Mat Blues," one of his first flashes of the kind of jokey party crap that would ultimately derail his career, Mercifully, it is very short.

Overall, this is as about as good as Walsh gets. I would recommend it and the other albums mentioned over any of his "Best Of" collections.

Before his aquilisation, Joe Walsh recorded an outstanding sequence of four albums in the first half of the 70s: 'Barnstorm', 'The Smoker You Get ...', 'So What' and the live 'You Can't Argue With a Sick Mind'. Any or all of these albums should be on the shelves of the discerning CD collector. And nearly all of them contain a different version of 'Turn to Stone'! Was it that Joe was always dissatisfied with every preceding version? Or was he running short of new material?

I know nothing of Joe's life story outside his records, but it seems that he hit a creative low after that brilliant four-album sequence. By which I simply mean that he didn't write many songs for the band he joined, namely the Eagles. Whether he rescued the Eagles or they rescued him depends on whom you believe.

With 'So What', Joe recorded a wonderful variety of songs, some of which give advance notice of his Eagle-eyed intent: Don Henley, Randy Meisner, JD Souther and Glenn Frey all put in appearances. Death is also stamped across the LP: 'Song For Emma' features maudlin lyrics such as 'You were with us for a while, then he took you, and it made your mama cry'. 'Pavanne' is taken from Ravel -- not his Pavanne for a Dead Child, but the Pavanne for the Belle of the Sleeping Wood. It took me ages to find a full orchestral version of the Mother Goose Suite from which this comes, and I have to say I still prefer Joe's version, despite the uncredited string section at the start of the track.

'All Night Laundry Mat Blues' is a filler, but fun.

But for me, the stand-out tracks are 'Welcome to the Club' and 'County Fair', which get closest to the tight band sound he had on the previous album, 'The Smoker You Get ...', which is his masterpiece. (Whatever happened to Rocke Grace, the pianist who contributed so much to that album?) Kenny Passarelli, on his way to becoming a member of Elton John's band, was a great bassist, and Joe Vitale a superb drummer. Vitale was also a fantastic songwriter, as evidenced on the superb 'Roller Coaster Weekend' which has never been released on CD.

This one is a subtle beaut. And its no less experimental or spacey than _Barnstorm_ or _The Smoker You Drink..._. I prefer the version of "Turn To Stone" on _Barnstorm_ but "Welcome To The Club", "Falling Down" and the very strong, sitar-lavished "County Fair" are standout tracks. For the experimental side, the string-and-synth balance of "Pavanne" and the epic, gorgeous, but sad "Song For Emma" unquestionably catapult this into classic status. Although he would have moments of brilliance from here on out (such as "The Confessor") his albums never did approach his mid-70s stride.

I first heard "Welcome To The Club" being played by a bar band in '74; I had no idea where the song came from but I went back the next week just to hear the same crummy band play that same cool song. When I found out it was a Joe Walsh tune I ran out and bought the album simply for that song...what a bonus the rest of the album turned out to be. This is classic Joe, great rockers like "Turn To Stone"--a really frenzied guitar on the outro, "Time Out" and "Welcome....". Lush acoustic songs, "Falling Down" and "Help Me Through the Night" , the spacey "County Fair" and the obligatory goofball farce, "All Night Laundry Mat Blues." I don't think Walsh has ever done better; I bought this as an LP, a casette and a CD and still listen to it today. No Walsh fan should be without it.

What a great album. The first three cuts alone vary from hard rock to country-rock to a classical piece rendered on synthesizers. This album also put him on the path to Eaglesland. Henley co-wrote a song and sang back-up with Frey and Meisner on two others.