Rocky Mountain Way, Joe Walsh, and Barnstorm

Well, Freypower and I were discussing this in another thread, and I know this has come up on the board before. The question we were pondering is whether or not there is a Barnstorm version of Rocky Mountain Way. Here's what I say, but it would be interesting to see what others thoughts are.

Even though The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get album cover says Joe Walsh on the cover, I think of it as a Barnstorm album. I believe this falls into one of those “gray” areas that you can look at two different ways. To me, it’s kinda like Bruce Springsteen and the “E” Street Band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Many people just refer to these artists as if they are solo acts even though their bands recorded the songs and tour as well. Also, considering that there are two studio versions of Rocky Mountain Way (1973’s The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get and 1976’s You Can’t Argue With a Sick Mind), people often differentiate between the two by referring to the “Smoker” version as Barnstorm. In Backstage Pass, Joe Vitale has a chapter titled “Barnstorm” where he recounts the recording of both the Barnstorm and “Smoker” albums, so I presume that he considers it a Barnstorm recording too. It was essentially the same lineup on both albums, except for the addition of Rocke Grace on the “Smoker” album. The writing credits for RMW are the four guys that were in Barnstorm - Joe Walsh, Joe Vitale, Kenny Passarelli, and Rocke Grace.

According to Wikipedia, "The Smoker~" is credited to Barnstorm. The history of Barnstorm the group itself says that the promotion of the group was downplayed by the promoters and record company because they wanted Joe to go back to James Gang. He didnt want to be "the boss" or in charge so they pushed the idea of Barnstorm, the group and album, as being Joe's solo works, trying to manipulate him into returning to James Gang or at least starting his own solo career. I remember in the Mark Lane interview he hinted at this.

Quote:

---

ML "With the release of "Rocky Mountain Way", it seemed like the record company and promoters or whoever seemed to really want to focus on the guitar "hero" side of your character Joe but you didn't really want to fall into that Robin Trower syndrome did you?"
JW "Well, I wanted the band (the Barnstorm band) to be recognized and I ran into some problems there because I really wanted "Barnstorm" to be an entity. But coming out of the James Gang, powers that be in the music industry were aware of me and of course I was a power ah, power…. you know, before heavy metal. I was like a "one of those".

---

Personally, I think if the song is accredited to all the members of the band, it's a song BY the band. In this case I think the fact the song is attributed to Joe and not "Barnstorm" is simply an act by the record company and promoters.

You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind is a live album.

My copy of 'Smoker' is credited to Joe Walsh, and whether that was meant to be the case or not, I will continue to refer to it as a 'Joe Walsh' album.

I posted this in another thread because I'd never heard of Barnstorm - but on the way to the family this past weekend, we heard RMW and the display info of our radio said it was Joe Walsh - Barnstorm...it was a pretty good version, one that I'd certainly never heard before. I even said that it was probably Joe with James Gang (not knowing for sure) and my husband pointed out that it said Barnstorm....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPmeEy-L5Yw[/ame]

FP, of course, you are right about You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind being a live album. I think I got mixed up about there being two studio versions of Turn To Stone.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ticky

Personally, I think if the song is accredited to all the members of the band, it's a song BY the band. In this case I think the fact the song is attributed to Joe and not "Barnstorm" is simply an act by the record company and promoters.

---

And ticky, I totally agree. It probably didn't help Barnstorm out any that this is also around the same time that Irving became Joe's manager. :wink: But, it seems evident that during the recording of the "Smoker" album, the intent was that it was to be a Barnstorm album. Sometime near the end the decision was made to change course.

I went back to the Barnstorm chapter of Joe Vitale's book and fondly reread the part about the making of RMW.

The first paragraph in the next chapter reads:

"Since "Rocky Mountain Way" had come out, the band had taken off. That one single opened the door to the kind of success we had dreamed of. We went from playing 3,000 seaters to selling out 10,000 seat halls. We also went from being "Barnstorm" to being "Joe Walsh and Barnstorm", to finally just "Joe Walsh".

Too vague to tell exactly when that happened, but of course it is a Barnstorm version because all the members of Barnstorm play on it. However I tend to agree with FP, that I will go by who the album is credited to, and that is "Joe Walsh".

Hi there, Would a new one like me be welcome here?
Thanks so much in deed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nungensul

Hi there, Would a new one like me be welcome here?
Thanks so much in deed.
__________________

---

No, we don't like new people here!! JUST KIDDING!!! We love it when we get new members here, they are ALWAYS welcome!!! Feel free to chime in anytime!!! Tell us something about yourself!

Hey Nungensul and welcome! New faces and well names *G* are always welcome! Glad to meet you!

Welcome, nungensul. Glad you found us and hope you enjoy it here on The Border. I'm just curious though - any particular reason you chose this thread for your first post?