55 Years Later: Joe Walsh Led James Gang Debuts With Locked In ‘Yer Album’

Begun in 1975 and lasting into their current farewell tour, Joe Walsh’s membership in The Eagles has come to largely overshadow his de facto leadership of the power trio known as James Gang during the late Sixties and early Seventies. This despite the fact two of the band’s songs, “Funk #49” and “Walk Away,” were in heavy rotation on terrestrial radio for a protracted period (and, in more recent years, both tunes have been performed live by Phish as well as the Eagles).

Yet the deceptively wacky guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Walsh garnered much peer respect during the James Gang’s heyday, most conspicuously from none other than the Who’s Pete Townshend (for whom the Ohioans opened US and British tours). Yet it’s little wonder Walsh would garner admiration from such an esteemed source: the alumnus of Kent State University possessed a preternatural affinity for switching from rhythm guitar to lead and back again, a skill comparable to, if not superior to, Townshend’s technique in that realm.

Meanwhile, the elegant sophistication of the threesome’s sophomore effort, Rides Again, was a natural extension of its somewhat raw predecessor Yer Album (released March 1969). As such, it foreshadowed not only the elaborate vocal and instrumental productions of Walsh’s future allegiance–as well as his solo efforts like 1974’s So What— but the increasingly confident, expansive reach of the trio. 

The James Gang covered Ravel’s “Bolero” as well as Vince Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” on that second group album, while the attendant emphasis on group vocal harmonies represents a link of continuity to Walsh’s work with the mega-famous group with whom he still plays and sings (and three of whom would guest on the 1976 live album You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind).

Three of the eleven tracks featured on the Gang’s debut are also outside material, illustrating an eclectic collective taste in line with high-powered peers including Cream (see 1967’s Disraeli Gears). Rendered with as much taste as power by Walsh, drummer Jim Fox, and bassist/vocalist Tom Kriss (who would subsequently be replaced by Dale Peters), Buffalo Springfield’s “Bluebird”, and the Yardbirds’ “Lost Woman” are logical choices, while “Stop” would seem to be far removed from the threesome’s roots. 

Yet the rendition of a pop/soul-oriented song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman turned out to be a worthwhile conclusion. No doubt much of the credit for that seamless entry goes to producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk, who began his career in those technical supervisory roles working with B.B. King and would go on to collaborate with the J. Geils Band and the Eagles.

The selection of that latter tune, recorded a year earlier by Howard Tate, as well as Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield on ’68’ Super Session, may also have been prompted by the walks through the archives of the Hit Factory New York studio archives Joe describes in his essay on the 2000 reissue of the LP. 

And while It may be a long way from “Stone Rap,” the brief and altogether overtly silly introduction of the record, to this extended workout on outside material, it’s nevertheless an unsurprising nod to influences common in the late Sixties: fledgling artists were hardly averse to acknowledging and/or providing tribute to their roots. Featuring co-author Ragavoy on piano, the twelve minutes plus duration of this cut more than suffices as both, while simultaneously reaffirming Yer Album is about reach in all manner of ways.

The James Gang expands its instrumental palette almost immediately after the album begins on that aforementioned cryptic note: “Take A Look Around” prominently features more piano and especially additional organ in the arrangement, the structure of which nonetheless allows for the spacious, atmospheric interlude spotlighting Walsh’s guitar solo.

The introspective lyrics Joe sings in his nasal voice are somewhat at odds with the comic relief of interludes like what follows immediately before “Funk #48.” Such humor, like that of the aforementioned one-minute opener and “Wrap City in English,” may be simply a sign of insecurity on the part of a young band in the process of finding its voice and the confidence that invariably proceeds from that step. 

The James Gang does achieve that end to a great degree before the close to fifty minutes of playing time of this LP is over. Yet their stylistic musical unity (like the clearest images in the B&W drawing inside and the photo collage on the back cover) appears in flashes, perhaps most cogently in the hard-rock riffing of  “I Don’t Have The Time” and “Fred.” 

As those cuts progress, interwoven with instrumental segues that appear throughout Yer Album, more straightforward performance intervals crop up during the fifteen-minute-plus that comprise the aforementioned Springfield and Yardbird covers. It is no coincidence this interval. like the similarly expanded take of “Stop,” sounds like nothing so much like an excerpt from a much longer, but generally cogent group improvisation: in that aforementioned set of liner notes, Joe Walsh does describe their novice recording approach as basically doing what they’d do live.

Combined with arrangements generally uncluttered even at their most dense, the clarity of the recording, remastered by Szymczyk as producer of the reissue, only furthers discernment of how all three instrumentalists add to the mix; even if he is most often the loudest (with bassist Kriss a close second), it is not just Walsh’s show by any means. 

To that end, the acoustic guitar intro and eerie string-laden body of “Collage” is another case in point. It’s an ambitious group effort rendered successful through close, mutually empathetic collaboration with Szymczyk: he allowed the group plenty of leeways to express its personality on its first long-player, with the result this slice of baroque experimentation sounds right at home with its more visceral surroundings.

Joe Walsh would not ignore his old bandmates in the wake of the success he enjoyed as a solo artist or with the commercial goldmine that is The Eagles’. Increasingly frequent James Gang reunions began to happen in the Nineties, carrying on into the new millennium, and rumors arose about new recordings of the classic three-piece augmented by additional players and singers.

Although nothing concrete has arisen from those purported efforts, there’s little reason not to believe that when his current employers do retire at the end of the now ongoing ‘Long Goodbye’ tour, Joe Walsh will return to his early love of, in his words, ‘cookin’ with the James Gang.’