After all - who is awake at 9am on a Sunday? That lit a spark for Walsh to find a permanent home for ‘Funk 50’ on his new album. But as Walsh realized, the piece was now destined to be heard by a limited audience. “They said 'we love 'Funk 49' and we need some music for the show this season, so can you make it something like 'Funk 49,' but not 'Funk 49!' just about a minute long for the ins and outs of the show.”Īnd so ‘Funk 50’ was born to fit the bill for ESPN. ESPN called me at the beginning of football season - Chris Berman and those guys, they have ‘Sunday Morning NFL Countdown,’ where they analyze the games and they predict who is going to win and all of that stuff.” “Funk #49” is one of Joe Walsh’s most popular songs, and by the mid-’70s he admitted that he couldn’t stand playing it anymore, but did so because fans loved it.With Walsh on the phone recently, of course we had to find out what the story was and the Eagles guitarist was happy to share the tale: ”Well, this is a good one. “Funk #49” became a staple of Album Oriented Rock and Classic Rock radio, but it wasn’t the biggest chart hit for the James Gang – that would be “Walk Away,” which made #51 in 1971 and was later reworked for Walsh’s 1976 solo album You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind. There was a “Funk 50,” but not until Joe Walsh released it on his 2012 album Analog Man after being asked to rework “Funk #49” for the ESPN show Sunday NFL Countdown. The first James Gang album ( Yer’ Album, 1969) contained the track “Funk #48,” which according to producer Bill Szymczyk, got its title “out of thin air.” When they came up with what would become “Funk #49,” they were once again faced with no logical title based on the lyrics, and followed the sequence. The only thing we really added was the percussion middle part, which the three of us actually played, putting some parts on top of the drums, but that’s the three-piece James Gang, and that’s the energy and kind of the symmetry we were all about.” It was a really good example of how we put things together, bearing in mind that it was a three-piece group, and I don’t think that there was any overdubbing. He explained in the book The Guitar Greats, “I came up with the basic guitar lick, and the words never really impressed me intellectually, but they seemed to fit somehow. There isn’t much in the way of lyrics, as the song is mostly a showcase for Walsh’s guitar work. The song is about a girlfriend whose wild ways the singer just can’t tame (the female equivalent of Joe Walsh’s character in his solo hit “Life’s Been Good”). Walsh wrote this song with his bandmates, drummer Jim Fox and bass player Dale Peters. Szymczyk produced the band and began a long association with Joe Walsh, producing his solo albums and most of the Eagles output in the ’70s. It was the producer Bill Szymczyk who signed the James Gang to ABC Records after seeing them perform at a show in Ohio. It was quite a learning experience for Walsh, who left the James Gang in 1971 after recording three studio albums with the group. With just three members, it meant Walsh had to play both rhythm and lead guitar parts, and also sing (he got a lot more help when he joined the Eagles in 1975). They were a 5-piece when Walsh joined but was down to three when they released their second album James Gang Rides Again. He replaced Glenn Schwartz in the band, who Walsh considers a mentor. Walsh joined the Cleveland-based group in 1969 after making a name for himself as one of the top guitarists in Ohio. The James Gang is best known for their guitarist, Joe Walsh, whose playing on this track helped establish him as a superstar guitarist. The song peaked at #59 in the Billboard 100 in 1971. This song has been played a bunch on the radio but Joe Walsh’s intro doesn’t get old to me.
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