Analog Man by Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh is an analog man . . . or is he?
Analog Man Tracklist
1. Analog Man (Joe Walsh, Drew Hester, Gannin Arnold) 4:03
2. Wrecking Ball (Joe Walsh, Tommy Lee James) 3:45
3. Lucky That Way (Joe Walsh, Tommy Lee James) 4:14
4. Spanish Dancer 3:49
5. Band Played On (Joe Walsh, Tommy Lee James) 4:03
6. Family (Joe Walsh, Tommy Lee James) 4:21
7. One Day At A Time 3:18
8. Hi-Roller Baby (Tim Armstrong) 3:18
9. Funk 50 1:57
10. India 3:44
Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks
11. Fishbone 3:49
12. But I Try (Little Richard, Dale Peters, Jimmy Fox, Joe Walsh) 6:40 (Recording of James Gang & Little Richard from 1970)
All songs by Joe Walsh, except where indicated.
Analog Man Lineup
Joe Walsh: Guitars, vocals, bass guitar (track 10), drums (track 10), piano (track 6)
Jeff Lynne: Drums, bass, keyboard, guitars, backing vocals
Steve Jay: Percussion
Bruce Sugar: Percussion, programming
Ringo Starr: Drums (tracks 3 and 5)
Rick Rosas: Bass (track 3)
Kenny Passarelli: Bass (track 5)
Joe Vitale: Keyboards, sitar (track 5)
Jay Dee Maness & Greg Leizs: Pedal steel guitar (track 3)
Tommy Lee James: Backing vocals
Graham Nash & David Crosby: Vocals (track 6)
Richard Davis: Synthesizer, programming (track 6)
Tim Armstrong: Guitar (track 8)
Little Richard: Piano & vocals (track 12)
Dale Peters: Bass (track 12)
Jimmy Fox: Drums, background vocals (track 12)
Produced by Jeff Lynne and Joe Walsh
I was one of those who thought when Joe Walsh joined the Eagles, it was a waste of a strong solo artist that had triumphed with albums like Barnstorm (1972) and The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973). Walsh hit pay dirt, however, when the Eagles had a massive international hit with Hotel California (1976) and he became a long term member. Analog Man is Joe Walsh's first solo album since Songs for a Dying Planet (1992), which was released twenty years ago. Walsh's former sparring partners in the James Gang, Kenny Passerelli on bass and Joe Vitale on keyboards & sitar, are back for one track, Band Played On, while Ringo Starr (for whom he worked in the All Starr Band) plays drums on two tracks, Lucky That Way and the aforementioned BPO, and Graham Nash & David Crosby add harmony vocals to another, Family. The album is co-produced by Walsh and Jeff Lynne, both of whom play a variety of instruments.
Opening track, Analog Man, reminds me of the single Life's Been Good from But Seriously Folks in 1978, with its personal and witty lyrics, "Some 10-year-old smart ass has to show me what to do . . . I access my email, read all my spam, I'm an analog man." Despite the slightly cynical nature of the lyrics, Walsh, in a recent interview, said the album was less about the difference between analogue and digital recordings (it was recorded digitally), and more concerned with the fact that a person can use their mobile phone, while driving, legally, in the US, and they are the one who drives into the back of his car. These people are in a digital world, which is not real.
Wrecking Ball, not to be confused with Springsteen's song of the same title, has a plodding Lynne production and is reminiscent of his work with Tom Petty and the Travelling Wilburys. Lucky That Way is more of Walsh's humorous biographical work, again close to Life's Been Good, in which he relates, with mock immodesty, "If anybody asks me - Joe how do you do it 'Cause you do it with such style and grace, I just shake my head and smile, Look 'em in the eyes and say, I'm just lucky that way... just lucky." A wistful number arrives in the form of Spanish Dancer, complete with castanets and talk box. Jeff Lynne rarely conceals his influences and Track 5, Band Played On, is very Beatles-like, not only with sitar and Ringo on drums, but in style. I am not sure what the song is about, but Joe Walsh keeps a straight face, while raising a laugh with, "We're all up **** creak without a paddle, Just trying to stay afloat."
Family is the track that I like least on the album. There is no doubting Walsh's sincerity in the ode to his family, but it just comes across as mawkish to the indifferent listener. With Walsh's former producer, Bill Szymczyk, in absentia, The Eagles not contributing and Barnstorm playing a minor role, a clue may be offered as to the reasons for the lack of familiar collaborators in One Day at a Time, when, as funny as ever, he admits, "All the friends I used to run with are gone, Lord, I hadn't planned on livin' this long."
When The Who* returned to the studio for the Endless Wire album, Pete Townshend reworked the Baba O'Riley intro for the Wire and Glass mini-opera. Likewise, the Meadows (or My Woman from Tokyo's) riff is recycled for One Day at a Time, which sounds the most like Jeff Lynne's Traveling Wilburys catalogue, to the extent that I can imagine Walsh as a member. Apparently, Lynne could see it too and nicknamed Walsh Lumpy Wilbury! Hi-Roller Baby is jaunty and reveals even more of Life's Been Short in a reggae motif. One of Barnstorm's most well known pieces, Funk 49, is continued in Funk 50, but with a dance-y feel. Walsh and Lynne remain firmly in club land with India, a full-on dance track, that paradoxically contains some of the best guitar work on the album. India ends abruptly and in so doing, closes the standard album.
The Deluxe Edition of the album has two bonus tracks. Fishbone is a darkly comic blues song, played straight as always, "My baby got a fish bone stuck down here where she swallows, can't talk louder than a whisper, usually she hollers." But I Try is an interesting collaboration between the James Gang and Little Richard from 1970, originally intended for the Thirds album. It rocks!
It would be difficult not to like Analog, with its atmosphere of self-mockery and contentment; and Joe Walsh's laconic sense of humour is irresistible. But, while the album has some toe-tappers, it has none of the riff-based tracks, like Turn to Stone or Rocky Mountain Way, which endeared Walsh to a heavy rock audience. Jeff Lynne's experimental days with The Move and early ELO seem long behind him, and I found myself wishing his chugging Wilburys' production would make way for some liberating heavy rock.
* Joe Walsh was inspired by Pete Townshend to use ARP synthesizer with Barnstorm. He also worked with Who bassist John Entwistle on the latter's solo album, Too Late the Hero (1981) and a shortlived supergroup, The Best (1990). However, John Entwistle had already passed away by the time Endless Wire was recorded. Walsh's original producer Bill Szymczyk produced Face Dances by The Who in 1981. So is it a coincidence that Joe Walsh mimicked a similar technique to that of The Who?
Originally written in July 2012, updated October 2012