Today’s classic song of the day is a heavy-duty rocker from the James Gang, “Funk #49.” This one appeared on their 1970 album, James Gang Rides Again and, released as a single, rose all the way to #59 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Funk #49” was a guitar-driven number, written by all three members of the group—guitarist/singer Joe Walsh, bassist Dale Peters, and drummer Jim Fox. The song only has two verses, which leaves a lot of room for Joe Walsh’s power guitar. Here’s what Mr. Walsh remembers about it:
“I came up with the basic guitar lick, and the words never really impressed me intellectually, but they seemed to fit somehow. It was a real 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. 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.”
That guitar riff is killer!
James Gang Rides Again was one of my favorite albums of the early ’70s and one of the first albums I bought with my own money. I was particularly fond of the tracks “Asshtonpark,” “Ashes the Rain and I,” and the medley of “The Bomber: Closet Queen”/”Bolero”/”Cast Your Fate to the Wind”—and “Funk #49,” of course, probably the best track on the album.
James Gang Rides Again was the group’s second album, peaking at #20 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It followed 1969’s debut Y’er Album and preceded 1971’s Thirds, which contained the slightly bigger hit, “Walk Away.” Walsh left the band after a fourth, live, album.
James Gang carried on without Joe Walsh, but it wasn’t quite the same. After leaving the group, Mr. Walsh joined a group called Barnstorm, where he stayed until 1975 when he joined the Eagles. He also issued a handful of solo LPs during that period and had a few solo hits, including “Rocky Mountain Way” (1973), “Life’s Been Good” (1978), and “All Night Long” (1980, from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack).
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, for all my guitarist friends out there, an instructional video showing how to play Joe Walsh’s famous “Funk #49” guitar riff. It’s killer!
