Joe Walsh – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Joe Walsh – All Night Long

I’ve always loved this song. Around Middle Tennessee, it seemed like Joe Walsh and Bob Seger were adopted as hometown favorites. Even though Walsh was from Cleveland, you’d hear him everywhere here. This song was just one of those songs that made you want to roll the windows down and keep driving. Sometimes that’s all a great rock song has to do. More than forty years later, it still has that same effect on me. Also, Joe seems like a regular blue-collar working-class guy who doesn’t take himself seriously. Joe Walsh: The most terrifying thing that ever happened to me was that Keith Moon decided he liked me.

Some songs don’t need to be complicated. They just need to make you turn the volume up. The song has always been one of those songs for me. It’s a straight-ahead rocker with a great guitar riff, a catchy chorus, and packed with fun energy. Another thing I like about Walsh is he never takes himself seriously. He always has a good time and wants everyone else to join in.

This was released in 1980 on the soundtrack to the movie Urban Cowboy, It arrived at the perfect time. The film introduced a new audience to country-rock and Southern-flavored rock music, and Walsh’s contribution fit right in. The song became one of the soundtrack’s highlights and climbed into the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. By this point, Walsh had already built an impressive career with the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the eagles, but he never lost the sense of fun that made him stand out from so many guitar heroes of the era.

He is, of course, an outstanding guitarist, but he’s also one of rock’s most likable characters. Whether it’s his slide guitar, his sense of humor, or the way he never seems to take himself too seriously, there’s something genuine about him. This song captures that perfectly. It isn’t trying to be profound. It’s simply a great rock-and-roll song played by musicians who sound like they’re having the time of their lives.

Along with having a good time, he is one of the best rock guitarists. All Night Long peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #13 in Canada in 1980.

All Night Long

We get up early and we work all day
We put our time in ’cause we like to stay up
All night long
All night long

We keep on grinning ’til the weekend comes
Just a pinch between your cheek and gum
All night long
All night long

Start in the morning and get the job done
Take care of business and we have some fun
All night long
All night long

We like a long neck and a good old song
Turn it up and then we’ll sing along
Sing along
Oh, we’re staying up all night long

All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long

Frankie Miller – I Can’t Change It

This is the kind of song and artist I like posting. I call it New Old music because not everyone has heard of Frankie Miller, unlike Neil Young and other artists. The song just sticks with me with its haunting and melancholy melody. The guy has a voice that is about as strong as you can get. There are certain voices that don’t just sing a song, they bleed it. Frankie Miller had one of those voices. You could park it next to Rod Stewart, Steve Marriott, and Joe Cocker, and no one would flinch.

I was watching Life On Mars when this song came on in an emotional scene. I’d never heard of it before. I never heard of Frankie Miller, but what a singer. He wrote this song when he was just 12 years old. Ray Charles also ended up recording it. Charles did his usual fantastic job on it, but I like Frankie’s stark arrangement. I can’t say enough about his voice. In some of his other songs, he reminds me of Bob Seger with an even a little stronger voice if that is possible. He wrote Ain’t Got No Money which Seger covered.

The best way I can describe this song is that it doesn’t need a big chorus or a clever twist. It just tells the truth. And in doing so, it becomes one of those tracks you return to when the world’s too loud and you need something real. Much like why I keep returning to Ronnie Lane and others. This one doesn’t have a wasted note. No overplaying. Just a slow, steady build that wraps around you.

This was on his 1973 debut album Once In A Blue Moon. In 1994, while he was forming a band with Joe Walsh, he had a brain aneurysm. He has fought back but sadly had to retire. If you don’t know much about him, he is worth looking up.

I can’t find a live version but check out this show.

I Can’t Change It

My friends can’t find some things I say
Must be the way I say those things
My friends can’t find some things I do
Must be the way I do those things
I can’t change it
But I’m trying to do right

I used to steal I used to fall
Was I wrong I can’t recall
I stole in love but all in all
Was I wrong I don’t recall
I can’t change it
But I’m trying to do right

Is it bad to look inside yourself and decide to go
To someone who can show the way complete
Are you glad to lose the doubts you thought would never go
When them inside hallucinations had you beat

My own true love has gone away
What can I say she left that day
The moon still shines a different way
What can I say
She left that day
I can’t change it but I’m waiting patiently

…

James Gang – Walk Away

I’ve always liked the edge of the James Gang. I like their rawness, and I wish they had stayed together longer. This song, Funk #49, and Midnight Man are the two I remember the best. This is the Joe Walsh period that I personally like the best. They toured a lot at this time, opening for bands like The Who. Keith Moon schooled Walsh on hotel destruction and causing havoc.

The James Gang released the album Thirds in 1971, which yielded this song, their highest-charting single, “Walk Away.” It peaked at #51 in the Billboard 100. The band released a live album James Gang Live In Concert in 1971. Walsh left the group in 1971 to form his own group, Barnstorm. He later joined The Eagles.

The James Gang went through changes over the years after Walsh left. They brought in Tommy Bolin and a new lead singer, but the lineup they will be remembered for is the classic James Gang lineup — Walsh (Guitarist), Peters (Bass Player), and Fox (Drums).

They got together again for the first time to perform for then-President Bill Clinton’s election rally in late 1996. The group also made appearances on The Drew Carey Show during the late 1990s and performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in February 2001. They have gotten together since and played concerts here and there.

The classic James Gang trio also toured across the country in the summer of 2006, where they were supported by backing vocalists and musicians.

Walk Away

Taking my time
Choosin’ my line
Tryin’ to decide what to do
Looks like my stop
Don’t wanna get off
Got myself hung up on youSeems to me
You don’t want to talk about it
Seems to me
You just turn your pretty head and walk awayPlaces I’ve known
Things that I’m growin’
Don’t taste the same without you
I got myself in
The worst mess I’ve been
And I find myself startin’ ta doubt you

Seems to me
Talk all night, here comes the mornin’
Seems to me
You just forget what we said
And greet the day

Seems to me
You don’t wanna talk about it
Seems to me
You just turn your pretty head and walk away

I’ve got ta cool myself down
Stompin’ around
Thinkin’ some words I can’t name ya
Meet ya half way
Got nothin’ to say
Still I don’t s’pose I can blame ya

Seems to me
You don’t want to talk about it
Seems to me
You just turn your pretty head and walk away

Walk away

Ray Wylie Hubbard – Bad Trick

You can’t fix a broken heart with a bobby pin
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

CB and I get into some interesting musical conversations…he sent me a track from Ray Wylie Hubbard. I knew I remembered him somewhere and of course, when I searched I found what I remembered. It was this song called Bad Trick. The song he sent me was Snake Farm…and I have it in here also.

It was made I’m sure during the lockdown. It features Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Chris Robinson and was produced by Don Was.

Let’s look at Ray Wylie Hubbard. In the early seventies, Hubbard joined Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson as part of the progressive country vanguard on the Texas music scene…known as the Outlaws. These weren’t your crew-cut guys from Nashville with a sweet sound. They were earthy and down-to-earth music for the common people to be honest. Rough about the edges and a little too close to rock for some of the established country fans.

He started to get known when Jerry Jeff Walker cover his song “Up against the Wall, Redneck Mother.” in 1973. He has released 19 albums since 1975. Lately, he wrote a song that Eric Church covered called Desperate Man.

Bad Trick was released on the album Co-Starring. The artists that wanted to play with him were incredible. They included Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Ronnie Dunn, Don Was, Larkin Poe, Pam Tillis, and The Cadillac Three. You are well respected when these players are backing you.

I want to cover one more song on this post. The song is called Snake Farm and it’s on the album of the same name…Snake Farm was released in 2006. It sounds so nasty with the licks from the guitar he plays.

Ray Wylie Hubbard: I had burned a lot of bridges and didn’t have a career. But I wanted to be a real songwriter. Someone gave me Letters to a Young Poet, and there was this line about our fears being like dragons guarding our most precious treasures. I decided to overcome my fear of embarrassment and take guitar lessons at age 41 to learn how to fingerpick, and that opened all sorts of doors.

On Snake Farm Hubbard said: “There’s an old snake farm in New Braunfels, Texas between Austin and San Antonio. It’s been there about 40 years. And there’s a rumor that it was something more than a snake farm but I don’t know about that. Doesn’t make any difference. I’ve driven by it probably 10,000 times. So one day I’m driving by and all of a sudden I see the snake farm… I see the snake farm there and I’m driving along and all of a sudden I go, ‘Ooh, just sounds nasty.’ I said, ‘Well, it is. It’s not a church or a hospital, it’s a reptile house.’

I’m like, ‘God, snake farm, just sounds nasty. Snake farm, well it pretty much is. Snake farm, it’s a reptile house. Snake farm, eww.’ I kept singing that in my head for some strange reason, and then I said, ‘Well, what am I gonna do with this?’Well, I’ll make it a love song. I’ll make it about a man who doesn’t like snakes, but he’s in love with a woman that works at the snake farm.”

Snake Farm

Bad Trick

Don’t get any on you if you go to Nashville
Don’t operate machinery if you on Benadryl
Got to have some faith when you in the lion’s den
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Club soda don’t always remove ketchup stains
Ain’t nothing you can take gonna cure a migraine
Broken dreams is a premise in “of mice and men”
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

You got to have some scars if you wanna be a poet
To get weeds out of a garden, you got to hoe it
Possession with intent will get you 5 to 10
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Most gamblers know they’ll never break even
There’s 5 stages to go through when you’re grieving
The sword is always bloodier than the pen
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Dancing is promiscuous after midnight
It’s better to be content than have to always be right
You can’t fix a broken heart with a bobby pin
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

A Concert of The Mind…Fantasy Park

Imagine a concert in 1975 with The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and more. Well, it happened! Sorta. Rod Serling did all of the radio promos. It would be one of his last projects…he would pass away before it aired.

It was a 48-hour-long rock concert (Fantasy Park) that was aired by nearly 200 radio stations over Labor Day weekend in 1975. The program, produced by KNUS in Dallas, featured performances by dozens of rock stars of the day and even reunited The Beatles. It was also completely imaginary, a theatre-of-the-mind for the 70s.

The “concert” consisted of live and studio recordings by the artists with live effects added to make it sound legit.

The show had college students hitchhiking all over America hoping to get to Fantasy Park. In New Orleans when the concert aired, the IRS came knocking on the doors of WNOE trying to attach the gate receipts to make sure the Feds got their cut! Callers were asking where they could get tickets to this amazing show.

The show was so popular in Minnesota that they played it again in its entirety the next year…now that people knew it wasn’t real and weren’t looking for tickets. The greatest concert that never was. Fantasy Park had their own emcee and special reporters covering the weekend event giving you the play-by-play details along with some behind-the-scenes updates.

The concert would always be halted due to rain on a Sunday morning to allow the locals to get in their regular (usually religious) programming. The whole event ended promptly at 6 pm on Sunday.

Now people look for the full 48-hour tapes of the show. They are a hot collector’s item. Rod Serling passed away on June 28, 1975.

Bands at Fantasy Park

Chicago
Elton John
Led Zeppelin
Joe Walsh
Cream
Shawn Phillips
Pink Floyd
Carly Simon
James Taylor (& Carol King)
Poco
Alvin Lee
Eagles
Linda Rondstadt
Dave Mason
Steve Miller
John Denver
Beach Boys
War
Grand Funk
Yes
Deep Purple
Rolling Stones
Cat Stevens
The Who
Rolling Stones
Moody Blues
Marshall Tucker Band
Allman Brothers Band
Seals & Crofts
America
Joni Mitchell
Doobie Brothers
Loggins and Messina
Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young
Bob Dylan
Beatles

Here is 10 minutes of it here.

…

Joe Walsh – Space Age Whiz Kids

I was a sophomore in high school when this was released. I was surprised because it was a big departure from what we were accustomed to from Joe Walsh. To my surprise this was the last song of Joe Walsh to chart in the Billboard 100. It peaked at #52 and #21 in the Mainstream Rock Charts.

Space Age Whiz Kids was released in 1983 as a lead single from his sixth studio solo album, You Bought It – You Name It. Something about Joe Walsh, he had some of the best names for albums ever.

The video is classic as Walsh jumps from the pinball era to the video game era with his mocking of the stereotypical kids who played games featured in the video like Donkey Kong and Pac Man at the time.

The album peaked at #48 in the Billboard Album Charts. The album contains rock songs such as “I Can Play That Rock & Roll” and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, “Love Letters”.

Space Age Whiz Kids

I used to play that pinball, I used to go outside
I had to spend my money, get on your bus and ride
I used to go out dancing, put on my high-heeled shoes
Get in my short black chevy, go on a downtown cruise
I feel a little bit mixed up, maybe I’m obsolete
All us pinball pool sharks, we just can’t compete

Space age whiz kids kids
Leaders in the field
Pioneers of research
Space age whiz kids

Arcade mothership monsters, laserbeam blastshield eyes
Full on space age madness, make-believe satellite skies
Alien ships approaching, there’s trouble in sector five
Left hand on the joystick, right hand hyperspace drive

Space age whiz kids kids, Space age whiz kids

Space age whiz kids kids, Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids

They got nothing to do, put another quarter in
Pay those space age dues
Donkey Kong high score, Pac Man’s on a roll
Klingons on the warpath, whiz kids on patrol

Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids
I like space age whiz kids
I like…I need…I need quarters…quarters!
Give me quarters! I like quarters!

Joe Walsh – I Can Play That Rock and Roll

Yes Joe you can…When I first heard this in the early 80s on MTV it was such a relief to hear a guitar playing a rock and roll riff. It’s a simple comedic Joe Walsh song… and sometimes that is just what we need.

This is not Joe’s finest work but it’s fun and brings back memories. . After being restrained somewhat with the Eagles it was good to see him let go. This song was on the album You Bought It You Name It. The album has varied styles from reggae, new wave, and rock and roll. The song peaked at #13 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay list.

The video of Joe trying to kill a fly in a hotel room was burned into my brain as this was on heavy rotation on MTV for a little while. Joe had a deadly aim with the Fender Strat to the television…years of practice I would guess.

In the middle of then current songs such as Safety Dance, Mickey, and Mr. Roboto this minor hit was a welcomed relief to me on MTV and the radio.

I Can Play That Rock and Roll

Well that disco thing can sure get funky
All them pretty songs seem too slow
I like to sit and pick with them good old boys
Maybe New Wave’s in, I just don’t know
When the critics try to analyse the current trend
I just sit back and watch ’em come and go
Cos I can play that rock and roll
Oh, now I can play that rock and roll
Hey now, I can play that rocking rock and roll

If you, if you wanna party at the next election
Only one way to go
Put on a rocking rock and roll selection
Turn up and vote
And you can check out anytime you want
Just call me Joe
And I can play that rock and roll for ya…
Yeah yeah yeah yeah I can play that rock and roll
Yeah, now now, I, I, I, well I can play that rock and roll
Well I can play that rock and roll
I can play that rock and roll

Joe Walsh – Ordinary Average Guy

Joe Walsh’s career was slowing down when this came out. It was Walsh’s first album of entirely new music since Got Any Gum?

In 1990, Walsh reunited with former Barnstorm drummer Joe Vitale to co-produce Ordinary Average Guy. This album also features vocal and writing contributions by former Survivor lead vocalist Jimi Jamison as well as backing vocals by Ringo Starr.

This wasn’t Walsh’s best release by a long shot but the song was enjoyable. The song was written by Joe Walsh and Joe Vitale.

Walsh wrote this about his mid-life crisis. It deals with escaping the fame and fortune associated with the life of a rock star. This is a parody of Walsh’s previous release, “Life’s been Good to Me,” which is about rock star excess.

The song was off of Ordinary Average Guy and it peaked at #112 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1991. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks.

Ordinary Average Guy

I’m just an ordinary average guy
My friends all are boring
And so am I
We’re just ordinary average guys

We all lead ordinary average lives
With average kids
And average wives
We all go bowling at the bowling lanes
Drink a few beers
Bowl a few frames
We’re just ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guys

And every Saturday we work in the yard
Pick up the dog doo
Hope that it’s hard (woof woof)
Take out the garbage and clean out the garage
My friend’s got a Chrysler
I’ve got a Dodge
We’re just ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guys

Ordinary average guy(3x)
Ordinary average average guys

Ordinary average guy(3x)
Ordinary average average average guys

Ordinary average guy(3x)
Ordinary average….

…

Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way

The two songs today will involve the Rocky Mountains…by song title anyway. This song just flat out rocks. Joe Walsh includes a talk box on the guitar in the solo.

Joe Walsh left the James Gang just as they were building momentum, having scored hits with “Walk Away” and “Funk #49.” Splintering the band as they were on the verge of stardom didn’t go over well with Walsh’s bandmates or their record company, but Joe felt creatively limited in the 3-piece band and wanted out. Colorado put him near James Gang producer Bill Szymczyk, who continued to work with Walsh and produced this album.

When Joe Walsh moved to Colorado, he formed a band called Barnstorm, whose first, self-titled album came out in 1972. Their next album was The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get, contained this track. The song was co-written by the group: Rocke Grace (keyboards), Kenny Passarelli (bass), Joe Vitale (drums), and Walsh. The music was written before Walsh added the lyrics.

Joe Walsh: “I’m living in Colorado and I’m mowing the lawn. I look up and there’s the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and there’s snow on them in the summer. And it knocked me back because it was just beautiful. And I thought, ‘Well I have committed. I’m already in Colorado and it’s too late to regret the James Gang. The Rocky Mountain way is better than the way I had, because the music was better.’ I got the words. Bam!”

The song peaked at #23 in the Billboard 100 and #31 Canada in 1973.

This was one of the first songs to feature a talkbox, which allows a guitarist to make distorted vocalizations with his mouth. Peter Frampton is probably the most famous talkbox practitioner, and his use of the device is prominent on his famous 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive.

From Songfacts

After leaving his group the James Gang at the end of 1971, Joe Walsh moved from Cleveland to Boulder, Colorado, where he wrote this song, which celebrates the scenery and lifestyle of Colorado. In some ways, the song is a rocked-up version of John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High,” which was released the previous year. Both songs use the famous Rocky Mountains as a focal point for the virtues of Colorado.

“Rocky Mountain Way” reflects Walsh’s range of emotions after making the big move. He explained in the book The Guitar Greats: “I got kind of fed up with feeling sorry for myself, and I wanted to justify and feel good about leaving the James Gang, relocating, going for it on a survival basis. I wanted to say ‘Hey, whatever this is, I’m positive and I’m proud’, and the words just kind of came out of feeling that way, rather than writing a song out of remorse. It was special then, and the words were special to me, because the words were like, ‘I’m goin’ for it, the heck with feeling sorry for this and that’, and it did turn out to be a special song for a lot of people. I think the attitude and the statement of that have a lot to do with it – it’s a positive song, and it’s basic rock’n’roll, which is what I really do.”

As for Barnstorm, they played up to their name and did over 300 gigs in 1973. The band broke up after the two albums, which have since been more commonly credited as Joe Walsh solo works.

Walsh is a big baseball fan, and this song has become associated with the game because of the lyrics “Casey’s at bat,” which is a reference to a famous baseball poem. When the Colorado Rockies baseball team formed in 1993, “Rocky Mountain Way” became a popular song at their stadium, Coors Field, where the song is played after a Rockies win.

Joe Walsh described writing the lyrics to this song during an interview with Howard Stern. Walsh explained he had the track recorded but had no ideas for lyrics. He had been living in Colorado after leaving the James Gang over creative differences with the direction of the music. He was mowing his lawn and looking at the Rocky Mountains and the lyrics came to him. He ran inside to write the lyrics but forgot to shut off the lawn mower. The mower ran into his neighbor’s yard and ruined the neighbor’s garden.

“It was a very expensive song to write,” Walsh said, implying he had to pay to repair the damage to the neighbor’s yard. He said the lyrics describe his anxiety about leaving the James Gang and his excitement about a solo career.

Rocky Mountain Way

Spent the last year
Rocky Mountain Way
Couldn’t get much higher
Out to pasture
Think it’s safe to say
Time to open fire

And we don’t need the ladies
Crying ’cause the story’s sad
’cause the Rocky Mountain Way
Is better than the way we had

Well he’s tellin’ us this
And he’s tellin’ us that
Changes it every day
Say’s it doesn’t matter
Bases are loaded and Casey’s at bat
Playin’ it play by play
Time to change the batter

And we don’t need the ladies
Crying ’cause the storie’s sad, uh huh
Rocky Moutain Way
Is better than the way we had
Hey, hey, hey, hey

Joe Walsh – Life’s Been Good

This song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 in 1978. Walsh lived this song out. He hung out with fellow stars such as Keith Moon. He said that Keith showed him the ropes of hotel destruction and Walsh was quite accomplished in that art.

The song was on his 4th album But Seriously, Folks… and it peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1978. This is Joe’s highest-charting song.

Joe Walsh: “I wanted to make a statement involving satire and humor, kind of poking fun at the incredibly silly lifestyle that someone in my position is faced with – in other words, I do have a really nice house, but I’m on the road so much that when I come home from a tour, it’s really hard to feel that I even live here. It’s not necessarily me, I think it paraphrases anyone in my position, and I think that’s why a lot of people related to it, but basically, that’s the story of any rock star – I say that humbly – anyone in my position. I thought that was a valid statement because it is a strange lifestyle – I’ve been around the world in concerts, and people say ‘What was Japan like?’, but I don’t know. It’s got a nice airport, you know… so it was kind of an overall statement.”

From Songfacts

This is a humorous look at the spoils of fame and fortune associated with being a rock star. Walsh pokes fun at the lifestyle of wealth and fame and the spoiled mentality – how it’s not me that’s changed, but everyone else.

Walsh lived up to this song, indulging in the hedonism he sang about long after it was released. “I started believing I was who everybody thought I was, which was a crazy rock star,” he told Rolling Stone in 2017. “It took me away from my craft. Me and a lot of the guys I ran with, we were party monsters. It was a real challenge just to stay alive.”

This is the last song on the the album. On the original recording from this album, the music fades away into silence. Then, about 30 seconds later, there is a really funny secret message from Joe Walsh which says “Wha-oh…here comes a flock of wanh-wanhs!”, followed by a chorale of “wannh”, “wanh” “wahn” (collectively sounding like a bunch of ducks or sheep). >>

The cover of the But Seriously Folks album shows Walsh eating a meal… under water. In the same BBC interview, he said: “I had to do that a couple of times, but I did go down to the bottom of the pool, and almost drowned… but it was fun. Not at the time, but it was fun to do. We weighted everything down, but it was very involved and it took a long time, and I was real proud of it. As long as you have access to art, or visually presenting something with your record, I would like to use that, pursue it and try to make it an integral part of the music. It was hard to do, but when I look at it, I can’t believe it either, I can’t believe I was stupid enough to do that, but I was proud of it. I won’t be repeating it, I can assure you!”

In 1979, Walsh announced his campaign for President of the United States, promising “Free gas for everyone” if he won (he didn’t).

A famous line in this song, “My Maserati does 185,” was used as the title to a 2005 episode of the TV series Entourage.

Joe did this to explain how he wrote it

Life’s Been Good

I have a mansion but forget the price
Ain’t never been there, they tell me it’s nice
I live in hotels, tear out the walls
I have accountants, pay for it all

They say I’m crazy but I have a have a good time
I’m just looking for clues at the scene of the crime
Life’s been good to me so far

My Maseratti does one-eighty-five
I lost my license, now I don’t drive
I have a limo, ride in the back
I lock the doors in case I’m attacked

I’m making records, my fans they can’t wait
They write me letters, tell me I’m great
So I got me an office, gold records on the wall
Just leave a message, maybe I’ll call

Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through
(Everybody say I’m cool, he’s cool)
I can’t complain but sometimes I still do
Life’s been good to me so far

I go to parties sometimes until four
It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door
It’s tough to handle this fortune and fame
Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed

They say I’m lazy but it takes all my time
(Everybody say oh yeah, oh yeah)
I keep on goin’ guess I’ll never know why
Life’s been good to me so far

Joe Walsh – A Life Of Illusion

This song peaked at #34 in the Billboard 100 in 1981. The album There Goes the Neighborhood peaked at #20 in 1981.

This song began as an instrumental track written by Kenny Passarelli when he was the bass player in Joe’s band Barnstorm, which was active from 1972-1974. Barnstorm never released it, but Walsh and Passarelli worked it up for Walsh’s first solo album, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, in 1973, with Walsh adding the lyrics…but it didn’t make it on the album.

Passarelli shopped it around, pitching it to Elton John and Hall and Oates. When Walsh was working on this album, he and Passarelli worked with the song again and it was released.

From Songfacts

Life’s been good to Joe Walsh, but what’s it all about? Sometimes it seems like life is just an illusion, and just when you start to comprehend it, it hits you right between the eyes.

Many musicians of his era looked to gurus or other zen masters to figure it all out, but Walsh seems to have sorted it out in this song, where he concludes that letting it all get to you is a waste of your day.

The Mariachi trumpets, played by the song’s co-writer Kenny Passarelli in what Walsh described as “a drunken stupor,” are nonsensical in a way that suits the song perfectly. Why are they there? Well, why are any of us here?

The phrase “a life of illusion” was used three years earlier in the title track to the film Grease, where Frankie Valli sings:

This is the life of illusion
Wrapped up in trouble
Laced with confusion

That song was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.

This was featured in the opening credits of the 2005 movie The 40 Year Old Virgin. It also appears in the 2010 movie Grown Ups and in the 2010 CSI: Miami episode “L.A.”

Life Of Illusion

Sometimes, I can’t help but feeling that I’m
Living a life of illusion
And oh, why can’t we let it be
And see through the hole in this wall of confusion
I just can’t help but feeling I’m living a life of Illusion

Pow, right between the eyes
Oh how nature loves her little surprises
Wow, it all seems so logical now
It’s just one of her better disguises
And it comes with no warning, nature loves her little surprises
Continual crisis

Hey, don’t you know it’s a waste of your day
Caught up in endless solutions
That have no meaning
Just another hunch, based upon jumping conclusions
Backed up against a wall of confusion
Caught up in endless solutions
Living a life of illusion