Barnstorm [Import]

Joe Walsh | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 30, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Import [Generic]
• ASIN: B000006XAF
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,776 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Here We Go

2. Midnight Visitor

3. One and One

4. Giant Bohemoth

5. Mother Says

6. Birdcall Morning

7. Home

8. I'll Tell the World

9. Turn to Stone

10. Comin' Down

Editorial Reviews

Japanese pressing of Walsh's 1972 solo debut. No longer on CD in U.S. Helping him are Joe Vitale on drums &Kenny Passarelli on bass. Guests include Chuck Rainey, Al Perkins & Paul Harris. 10 tracks total.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Walsh album finally available on CD again, March 12, 2006

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Barnstorm (Audio CD)

Revised: Originally Hip-O used the wrong mastertapes for this album and that CD version had A LOT of distracting tape hiss and had an edit between "One and One" and "Giant Bohemoth"--this edition has been corrected with a new remaster so those in stock SHOULD be the right one but there are a earlier editions out there.

Atmospheric and fascinating Joe Walsh's Barnstorm (aptly named)brought forth this terrific album after Walsh left the James Gang. Everything from the inspired opener "Here We Go" to the unusual "Birdcall Morning"works. From the instrumental "Giant Bohemoth" which slides right into the stunning "Mother Says" the album doesn't miss a beat. Although a tad loud and compressed when compared to the nearly flawless Mo-Fi transfer, "Barnstorm" sounds good in the remaster from Gavin Lurssen.

The biggest song here "Turn to Stone" would show up again in a slightly inferior version on "So What?" but the original primordial monster is here. Featuring crunchy a guitar lick and a stunning guitar solo Walsh never got this experimental again. The album closes out with the acoustic guitar/haronica driven "Comin' Down" which provides a tranquil close to a magical album.

Like the Mo-Fi release the magical sound qualty of the original recording has been retained (but honestly the Mo-Fi is still the best sounding version of this on CD). This is, in fact, the best the album has ever sounded outside of the Mofi. Walsh never got better as a songwriter than here (although he came close with another couple of strong albums such as "The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get"). This classic album only lacks bonus tracks and outtakes which would have made this classy package complete and liner notes on the making of the album (we get a replica of the original artwork gatefold sleeve in the CD booklet with the credits but nothing more).

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walsh's forgotten classic, December 25, 2004

By 

Jeremy Diringer "dabbler" (Fredonia, New York, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barnstorm (Audio CD)

I try not to be the kind of fan who automatically gives an artist 5 stars, but 'Barnstorm' earns every star it gets. For those into classic rock, this is a must-own that you can't easily get. The stars aren't for breaking new ground, but they're for the best use of classic/folk-based rock I have ever heard. If you're sick of your "local classic rock station" playing the same damn things over and over, "Barnstorm" is a breath of fresh air.

This album does everything many later classic rock albums overdid or underdid. It has its share of hooks but doesn't rely on them and let the rest of the musicianship suffer. There are some truly beautiful mixtures of electric and acoustic textures I haven't heard anywhere else; "Here We Go" starts slow and soft with acoustic guitars, but picks up power and rocks to the end, and the incendiary "Turn to Stone" is punctuated with acoustic transitions between verses. There's not a weak track out of the bunch--from the 'Lord of the Rings'-inspired "Midnight Visitor" (which manages not to become wrapped up in itself like Led Zeppelin's Tolkien-influenced works did), to the well-textured instrumental "Giant Behemoth" featuring drummer Joe Vitale on flute, a morse-code message and a passage Walsh would quote later on "Songs for a Dying Planet" (the album, not the song), and a cover done so well as to be his own--though, to be fair, I've never heard the original--of the Magicians' "I'll Tell the World." Walsh even pays homage to Neil Young with "Coming Down." Lyrics are strong, and although he never had the sweetest voice (kinda like the aforementioned Neil Young), he still makes the songs shine, in addition to some of his best guitar work, both catchy and sublimely beautiful. This is a great album to put on and become enthralled in--put it on, turn it up, and let your mind absorb it.


I know there's a million "Any rock fan MUST OWN!" albums out there, but this truly earns the title--and gets left out, unfortunately, as MCA still hasn't reissued an American version. Perhaps with the re-release of "You Bought It--You Name It" and "Got Any Gum" (inferior releases, relative to this), "Barnstorm" and "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get" will both get a long-deserved remastering; the Japanese import of Barnstorm is the only way for most fans to get the CD, but the sound quality of it is a bit sketchy, and may sound a bit thin on headphones.

But if you can get your hands on this in any medium (CD, cassette, vinyl, 8-tracks, etc.), do it. Whatever you pay, it'll be worth it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Laying the foundations for Walsh's masterpiece, December 12, 2001

By 

Gavin Wilson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barnstorm (Audio CD)

The period 1972-1975 generated five classic albums from the multi-instrumentalist pair, Joe Walsh and Joe Vitale: BARNSTORM, THE SMOKER YOU DRINK, SO WHAT, YOU CAN'T ARGUE, and the glorious Vitale solo album, ROLLER COASTER WEEKEND. It's beyond me why the first and last albums in that list are unavailable in the US. (In fact, it's one of life's tragedies that ROLLER COASTER WEEKEND has never been released on CD anywhere in the world.) But I digress ...

It's as though Joe Walsh was visited by the muse once or twice around 1972/73, given a lego-set of melodies, riffs and solos, and told to get on with assembling them into some songs. Many themes keep returning on the four Walsh solo albums: 'Turn to Stone' for instance shows up on three of them. A guitar solo from 'Here We Go' on BARNSTORM gets woven into a totally different song on YOU CAN'T ARGUE. 'Giant Behemoth' gets recast and becomes 'County Fair' on SO WHAT. With each album, it's as if he pulls his lego-set apart and starts rebuilding again.

What I love about this album is the breadth of it all. Like Steve Miller, Joe could play both guitars, piano and synthesizer, but he was better than Steve at each of them. Joe Vitale was no slouch either on piano, flute and synth, and, though now much overlooked, he was certainly one of the top 10 rock drummers of the time. Bassist Kenny Passarelli went on to a financially more lucrative career with the Elton John band (e.g. ROCK OF THE WESTIES).

This album was recorded in an era when the band and their session guests wrote and played everything -- the producer didn't, as he might today, overlay his selection of drum machine rhythms, library samples and synths. Producer Bill Szymczyk creates a warm ambience, but the mix is cloudy. I've heard much clearer albums, even from 1972.

I still believe that THE SMOKER YOU GET is Walsh's masterpiece, but it's extraordinary that this, its precursor, is so hard to buy.