Re: James Gang Influenced By the Godhead of Jimmy Page

[Jeremy Mixer <mixer@xxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 27 Nov 2001, Mark Klecka wrote:

> > Walsh has a long Page-related history, doesn't he?
>
> I'm not the biggest Joe Walsh expert, but it's obvious that he borrowed
> riffs from Friends for All Night Long and from The Rover for Life's Been
> Good.

Interesting that you hear "The Rover"- I am assuming that you are
referring to the beginning guitar riff....... But you know what I hear
more in that song after giving it a listen? I never noticed it before (and
working at a classic rock station I hear this tune a lot) but the side
soloing is VERY similar to "In My Time of Dying." Maybe Joe was on a
Physiocal Grafitti kick at the time he wrote "Life's Been Good"

And there is something about his guitar line in the Eagles "Life in the
Fast Lane" that just sounds Zeppy to me, although it is not a direct liff,
it is just a very Jimmyish riff. Maybe Joe Walsh gave Jimmy that guitar in
exchange for some licks? Maybe it isn't Jean Lorrah after all hoarding
Jimmy's beard hair, it is Joe Walsh!

> Don't take this as a slam.  I like Joe Walsh.  Jimmy (along with Ritchie and
> just about every rock guitarist) also did his share of nicking other
> people's music and claiming credit himself.  The key is how you incorporate
> your influences with your own creativity to produce an original result.  Joe
> slightly modifies the stolen licks and integrates them into a much larger
> whole.

Well the fact is this- there are barely any guitar riffs that have never
been done before. A friend of mine wrote a song called "The Beer That
Drank My Monster Truck" and he is not a Zeppelin fan, can't stand them,
never listened to them. He was astonished when I played him "The Rover"
because the riff was nearly identical in the two songs. He was ashamed
because he got worried that people would think he stole the music, I told
him not to worry about it, those things happen all the time. No it wasn't
like comparing Vanilla Ice to Queen by any means, but it was similar. I
thought it was pretty cool.

That, and sometimes you hear some music only once, and you don't remember
the song, but when playing, the riff will come back to you. I was amazed
one time while driving with my friend Mark a few years back, not long
after WIC came out. We were listening to this studio tape I acquired years
ago, and there was this part where Jimmy was just expirimenting with
different riffs, and it was from I think back in the PG days. Suddenly the
riff from "Burning Up" came out of the speakers. We listened a couple
times, it was shortn and sweet, just that riff once, but there it was. I
doubt when Page/Plant did "Burning Up" they took the music from the
Zeppelin days or even intended to, but that's where the riff came from. I
could continue to point out other possibilities but I will not, as
suddenly I am run over by a truck.

toodles,

Jeremy