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The 1970 release of the James Gang Rides Again helped define 70s rock and served as a calling card for guitarist Joe Walsh, who went on to greater fame as a solo artist and member of the Eagles. This sonically impressive greatest hits reissue, featuring ten songs remastered from the original analog tape and pressed at the Quality Record plant in Salina, Kansas, showcases the band’s chunkiness. Walsh could crunch chords a la Deep Purple, but there was a homegrown Midwestern tone to this Cleveland band’s FM-radio-ready sound. The album kicks off with the break-up song “Walk Away,” with its snarling rhythm and what Walsh has called his Pete Townshend-inspired “train wreck” guitar. Other highlights include “Funk #49,” built around a short funky guitar lick that grew out of a spontaneous jam. The title refers to the number of times the band played it in the studio. A sense of youthful abandon, bluesy virtuosity, and rock honesty pervade this album, a welcome respite in this complicated day and age (the same can be said for Mott the Hoople and T. Rex). AP’s all-analog treatment makes it all the more appealing.
By Greg Cahill
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