Joe Walsh - You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind - Recorded Live (1976)

 (U.S 1965 - Present)

Joseph "Joe" Fidler Walsh was born in Wichita, Kansas, on November 20, 1947. He has been a member of three successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and The Eagles.

Though Joe Walsh had played guitar in a high school cover band and a popular Kent bar band while in college, he really came into his own in 1968, when he joined the Cleveland-based James Gang. One night in May, 1968, on the way to Detroit for a show at the Grande Ballroom opening for Cream, half the band quit. Needing the money to pay for gas to get home, the James Gang took the stage as a trio, and Joe was forced to learn on the fly how to carry rhythm and lead duties while now singing lead simultaneously. It proved a revelation. Permanently reconfigured as a trio, the James Gang quickly developed a huge following in the Midwest and landed a record deal, leading to a 1969 debut album, Yer’ Album, that became an FM radio staple.

Soon the American public caught up in a big way, as the James Gang scored hits with singles like “Funk #49” and “Walk Away” and gold certifications for the albums James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971) before Joe’s departure following the landmark 1971 live album, Live in Concert, recorded at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, which the James Gang were the 1st rock band ever to play.

Despite the band’s upward trajectory, Joe found himself at a creative crossroads: the music he was hearing in his head no longer fit the trio format. He impulsively walked away from a band with consecutive gold albums and moved from Cleveland to a former mining village high in the Colorado Rockies to pursue an as-yet-undefined sound with a new set of collaborators. In typical Joe Walsh style, he found out about a new studio being built nearby and arranged to record there for next to nothing in exchange for working out the kinks in the untested room. The album became the much-loved self-titled 1972 debut by Joe’s next band, Barnstorm, and the studio became the legendary Caribou Ranch, which has been used by many popular artists and bands, including Elton John and Chicago.

Barnstorm’s second album, 1973’s 'The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get', yielded the biggest hit of Joe’s career to that point, with “Rocky Mountain Way” eclipsing his James Gang output. Once again, however, despite another band on the rise, Joe was gradually getting restless.

He found a new sense of home—and a new manager, Irving Azoff—in the musical melting pot of Los Angeles, where Joe formed bonds with Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Jackson Brown, Dan Fogelberg, and J. D. Souther, among others. The 1974 solo album 'So What' emerged from this period, and both that album and the solo live album that followed, 'You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind', hit the charts, making Joe a bona fide solo sensation.

Joe's Barnstorm 1975

When the Eagles asked Joe to join, he jumped at the chance. He and the members of the band had already been jamming and writing together as part of the magically fertile LA scene, and now he was able to bring his rock edge to the vocal harmonies he loved so much in Eagles. The result was lightning in a bottle, and the new lineup of Eagles defined an entire era with 'Hotel California'. The album took the already-successful band to dazzling new heights: Hotel California went on to sell over 50 million copies and the title track won the band a Grammy for Record of the Year. Joe’s presence also transformed the band as a concert experience, adding his harder-edged solo songs to the live repertoire.[extract from Joe's Official Website]

Featured Live Album
This is a mid 70s live set recorded just before Joe Walsh joined the Eagles. Actually, a lot of this material has remained in the Eagles live set for years. The James Gang classic "Walk away" is still performed live by them in the new millennium, just like "Rocky Mountain Way" which is probably his best known solo song. The studio version of "Help me through the night" had the Eagles singing backing vocals, it was in the Eagles set in the mid 90s. Then there's also the great, long "Turn to stone" or the excellent "Meadows" from Walsh's masterpiece The smoker you drink, the player you get. Maybe the Eagles couldn't really rock, Joe Walsh certainly could. This is just one of the many Joe Walsh albums that I'd recommended to anybody interested in 70s American rock music.

Joe Walsh is backed by Willie Semanas on bass, a man who has played with an astronomical number of musicians.

Dave Mason of Traffic on electric piano, and Jay Ferguson ex-Spirit and ex-Jo Jo Gunne on piano and vocals. Emulating the Allman Brothers Joe Walsh went on tour with two percussionists: the great Joe Vitale and Andy Newmark. But with the incentive that Vitale is also a drummer, he is an excellent flutist, who has collaborated from CS & N to Zakk Wylde.
An excellent album from the golden age of music called Californian, the sound is quite poor and the duration leaves you with long teeth, but less gives a stone!

The question that remains in the air is: Why did Walsh decide to release a single LP live, instead of a double, or even triple, so fashionable at the time. I find it very odd that in Joe Walsh's long solo career, he's only released one live album, "You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind," released in 1976. And that was an unusually short one as live albums go, at only 34 minutes. So I set about to find a good bootleg concert from the 1970s, before he joined the Eagles in 1976.

It turns out I could only find one concert that has truly excellent sound quality. Coincidently, it turned out to be exactly the same concert that was the source of his live album (as featured here). It was an hour-long appearance on the "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" TV show, and the additional songs from this source almost doubles the length of his live performance and, in my opinion, makes it into a proper live album.

Specifically, the songs "Mother Says", "Welcome to the Club, "Get Back," and "Gimme Some Lovin'" have been added to this post. The last two tracks are covers of the famous hits by the Beatles and the Spencer Davis Group respectively. It's disappointing those two weren't included on the official album, since he never recorded them for any studio albums either.

I should also point out that Walsh had a number of prominent musicians helping out for this concert. Don Felder, who had recently joined the Eagle, was part of his band for the entire show. Two more Eagles, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, joined on vocals for the song "Help Me through the Night." Plus, Frey returned for the final song.

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl (near mint) and includes full album artwork for both vinyl and CD formats. As mentioned above, I am also including four bonus tracks from the Don Kirshner's Rock Concert release  that were not included on this Official 1976 release of the same concert (thanks to albumsthatshouldexist)

It should also be noted that the length of Rocky Mountain Way is incorrectly annotated on the record label as 17:48, when in fact it should be 7:48.   I hope you like this live offering from Joe, and if you don't then you should 'cause you can't argue with a sick mind !

Track Listing:

01 - Walk Away (3:24)

02 - Meadows (7:12)

03 - Rocky Mountain Way (7:48)

04 - Time Out (4:24)

05 - Help Me Thru The Night (3:44)

06 - Turn To Stone (8:49)

07 - Mother Says [Bonus Track] (4:57)

08 - Welcome to the Club [Bonus Track] (4:29)

09 - Get Back [Bonus Track] (4:43)

10 - Gimme Some Lovin' [Bonus Track] (4:30)

Barnstorm were:

Willie Weeks : Bass

Joe Vitale : Drums

Andy Newmark : Drums

Don Felder : Guitar

Joe Walsh : Guitar

Rocky Dzidzonru : Percussion

Jay Ferguson : Keyboards

David Mason : Keyboards

Vocals on "Help Me Thru The Night" : Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Don Felder & Joe Walsh

Joe Walsh Live Link (262Mb) New Link 04/09/2023