Joe Walsh - Star Spangled Banner (Live in Fountain Valley 1990) FM Broadcast

July 4, 1990

Joe Walsh - Star Spangled Banner (Live in Fountain Valley 1990) FM Broadcast

Joe Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American musician, entertainer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a valued member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. He was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup the Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Walsh should be much higher on that list indicating to me Rolling Stone is mostly irrelevant.
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song Funk #49 highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include Rocky Mountain Way, Life's Been Good, All Night Long, A Life of Illusion, and Ordinary Average Guy.
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his."

James Gang
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Barnstorm
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
With the Eagles[
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Solo Career
1974 So What
1976 You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind
1978 But Seriously, Folks...
1981 There Goes the Neighborhood
1983 You Bought It – You Name It
1985 The Confessor
1987 Got Any Gum?
1991 Ordinary Average Guy
1992 Songs for a Dying Planet
2012 Analog Man
2013 All Night Long: Live in Dallas