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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (1973), February 26, 2005
I rarely do this, but the review that states this album has 'stinkers' on it, hasn't bought the same album I have. I'm not sure what album they have, but it's not the one I have. The album I have is a pretty wonderful collection of songs, played by great musicians, and made with the decision that Joe Walsh does not have to play a guitar solo for every song he writes. And to me that's refreshing. I'm glad he thought so too.
I've always thought that The Eagles needed Joe Walsh more than he needed them. Songs like 'Life In The Fast Lane' Walsh could have written on his own, in his sleep, while making Pot Noodles. The best thing that comes from his association with The Eagles is his work with Don Felder, and on 'You Bought It, You Name It', this 'team' comes up with one of the best Joe Walsh tunes of his career. But that's on another album. I'm just stating the simple fact that Joe Walsh is an immensely talented musician, who's experimentation with everything, not just guitar, makes him quite a talented man indeed. And this album is full of experimenation. So there are no stinkers.
Second point is this. In 1973, a Grammy went to the engineering work done by Geoff Emerick on Paul McCartney's Band On The Run. It's pretty obvious that the Grammy's are decidedly 'fixed', because I swear Alan Parson's engineering on Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' puts BOTR to shame. And many albums I've heard from that year put BOTR to shame. Steely Dan's 'Countdown To Ecstasy', 10cc's debut album, Frank Zappa's 'Overnite Sensation', ELO's 'Eldorado', George Harrison's 'Living in the Material Word' to name only a few on a large list. The Grammy went to the wrong person for the wrong album.
And I have to say, and I own ''The Smoker . . . . ' on vinyl, that this album is in fact, one of the best sounding albums from that year, if not the best, that I currently own. It literally sounds so modern that I was very hard-pressed to remind myself that this was 1973 I was listening to. It is an incredibly engineered & recorded album, and this alone makes songs that are so called 'stinkers', truly worth hearing for the amount of hard work and patience that went into mixing and making this album. I have many albums from 1973, and this one is just about the best one I've ever heard. Sorry Pink Floyd!
What I also love about this album is the contributions by all of Walsh's band at the time, Joe Vitale on Drums, Flute, and Keyboards, Rocke Grace on Keyboards, and Ken Passarelli on Bass. Each of these musicians contributes songs to what is called a ''Joe Walsh'' album, and I just like the fact that if you were in Joe Walsh's band, he had no problem with you writing songs for 'his' album. I also like the fact that Walsh so rarely chooses to guitar solo on this album. He pratcically doesn't do one at all, barring 'Rocky Mountain Way'. That I find incredibly interesting, and it actually removes that expectation of ''well, I'll get through the song til the guitar solo comes up, then I'll just move on to the next one''. It forces you to accept that there is no guitar solo coming to ''redeem'' the song in any way, so you might as well listen to what Walsh thought was more important, and that's the song itself.
There are some beautiful songs on this album, and songs that truly 'rock'. Most BEST OF collections take from this album 'Rocky Mountain Way', 'Bookends' and 'Meadows'. But they miss the other songs, which would mean making the whole album a best of collection. And I do believe every song on this album is as good as anything Walsh has ever worked on. The material his band comes up with, and those he wrote. Passarelli's 'Happy Ways' is a great bit of Pop, where Grace's 'Midnite Moodies' is an instrumental with great playing from everyone. Particularly Vitale's Flute. When it appeared in the song, I had to look at the credits once or twice to see who was playing Flute! Discovering it was the drummer, just made me say, that guy is pretty talented. He's not just 'a drummer', like that's a bad thing 'just to be'. His whole band was full of talent, and Walsh lets that shine through on every song here. The title of the album may be confusing, but what happens on it sounds cohesive, artistic, and just a pleasure to listen to.
Need you buy this album? That's not up to me, but I wish that you would. Just to hear what Walsh was capable of as a solo artist, and that The Eagles were lucky to have him.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Joe's best solo album, May 20, 2000
Not counting the albums he did with the James Gang and Barnstorm, this is Joe Walsh's best album, and not just because it kicks off with the classic hit "Rocky Mountain Way." In later years, Walsh would derail his career with sloppy songwriting and lame jokiness. But here his guitar is still as crisp as the fine batch of songs he chooses to apply it to. "Happy Ways" and "Meadows" are two other standouts, but there are no bad songs. This is a solid 1970s classic rock album.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remastering and repackaging please!, January 17, 2003
I am not going to review this album here, the previous reviews say all that needs to be said. I am simply voicing the long over due need to REMASTER Joe's back catalogue: 'Barnstorm', 'The Smoker You Drink...', 'So What?' How about it MCA? You did the right thing with the first 3 'James Gang' albums, particularly 'Yer Album'. It's time!
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by Joe Walsh 
