Customer Reviews

Got Any Gum?

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The negative reviews of this album are hard to understand, at least until you give some thought to J.W.s reputation as a rock-n-roll guitar guru. Some people buy a Joe Walsh album expecting mind blowing guitar solos and when they don't get it, then the album sucks. Well, here is what you get with this album; well crafted rock-n-roll songs with a great since of humor. And as with all of J.W.s albums, you get some quiet, introspective songs also. Joe Walsh is a master composer, both musically and lyrically. This isn't a classic, but it is a solid, well written collection of songs. Do you like well written, humerous, Rock-n-Roll songs? If you do, you should like this album.

This cd is one for all joe walsh fans new and old, its a bit more bubble gum than many of his cd's. If you have heard ordanary average guy than you'll like this slicker earlier recording that has all the humour and style of what we come to expect from joe over the years. This eighties edition from joe walsh ha sthe slick style of many eighties cds but joe keeps the music in touch with irony and true style.

I wish I had bought this CD before now. It was a new CD as promised and I received it before I expected it to arrive.

I can not understand the negative reviews of this album. This is one of my favorite Joe Walsh albums. I LOVE Joe Walsh, and as far as I can hear with this album, this rates high on the scale. 'The Confessor' rates right up there with this one. The weed must have been weak the year this one came out, as there are so many Walsh "fans", that didn't get this album. I dig it a lot. 'Half Of The Time" is one of his coolest compositions. This album rocks.

I picked this up when it came out on vinyl, later when it was originally released on CD. Yes, after all of his other work and thinking that The Confessor was his best album yet I was disappointed initially. However I have always liked and even love some of the first five tracks on this disc. Buy it and judge for yerself.

Man, there's some rude people here. I bought this expecting absolute garbage based on the reviews here. I listened to the entire record all the way through at work, and didn't dis-like any song on it. In fact, I liked most of them. There's some good songs here, so don't let the other reviews keep you from checking out a good Joe record.

I don't write a whole lot of these reviews, but every now & then I'll read multiple reviews that overly pan or praise a recording and I'm compelled to respond. 'Got Any Gum?' is one of those albums. If my memory served me correctly I enjoyed the album and thought it was one of his better records of the 80's. After reading these reviews I went back and listened to the album, and still maintain that sentiment.

Let's face it...anything Joe put out in the 80's never rated higher than 3 stars and the 90's was even worse. The usual Joe album contains 3 or 4 tracks that are really strong and the rest of the album is basically filler and this album is no exception. Yeah this album is a little on the over-produced/commercially assessable side, but so was 'The Confessor'.

Highlights here include 'Fun', 'In My Car', & the title track 'Got Any Gum?'. The lowlights 'No Peace In The Jungle'. If you enjoy any of Joe's post Eagles fare you'll enjoy this album as well.

Radio song -catchy song with cheesy lyrics "I like to listen to music, I like the way that it sounds....on the radio". It would be a good song if the lyrics were different. Nowadays, radio is not as good as when the song was written.

'Got any gum' is a dark instrumental which leads nicely into 'Up to me'. Up to me is my favorite song on the album. It's the most rocking song on the album. A gem amongst the other filler songs such as fun, in my car, and malibu.

Memory lane is a slow and moving piano piece. It has a unique chord proggression.

Time -nice upbeat song. I don't remember how it goes, but I enjoyed hearing it.

I have just about everything Joe Walsh has ever released.
Did Joe Walsh really release this? The same guy who released "Barnstorm" or "But Seriously Folks"? Yikes.
It sounds as if Joe was scraping the bottom of the barrel or just didn't have a handle on things. It feels like they are just going through the motions as they roll up those dollar bills and slam some JD.

Highlights? Hmmmm I guess I enjoy "In my car",& "Memory Lane".
Now if I ever play the CD, I skip around quite a bit between songs.

Bottom line: "Got Any Gum" is one of the least played CD's in my Joe Walsh collection.

Additional two cents... "Got Any Gum" and "Song's for a dying planet" are the worst in Joe Walsh's cannon of music. Not very much depth and inspiration with a few exceptions/gems in each.
If you can get it cheap, and need to complete your Joe Walsh collection, go for it. There are much worse forms of music/releases!

In preparation for this review, I got this cd out and listened to it for the first time in ages. It's not quite as bad as I remembered, but it is still only worthy of 1 star. This album is so boring and pointless I don't know why Joe bothered to make it or why the record company agreed to release it. Practically the only energy and/or noteworthy guitar-work appears on "In My Car", but the song itself sounds like something from an ABC after school special.

There are exactly 3 songs on here that are ok: "Malibu" a not particularly inspired example of Walsh's goofy humor, "Up To Me" a mid-tempo rocker that approaches being good but doesn't quite have the energy to get there, and "Memory Lane" an overlong and somewhat palid re-write of "Pretty Maids All In A Row". Any of these would be acceptable filler on a good Joe Walsh album, but here they are the "highlights".

Not even a completist needs this. The only reason I still have it is because it went out of print and became a hot e-bay commodity. Now that it's been reissued and lost its collector's value I may just take the other reviewer's suggestion and use it for target practice.