‘Life’s Been Good’: The classic hit Joe Walsh called “dumb”
While Joe Walsh is more commonly recognised for being the best of the Eagles’ in-house guitar heroes, before he joined the definitive Californian act of the 1970s, he had already lived a life of quite unbelievable proportions. He made his name as the leader and axeman of Midwest outfit James Gang, a trio that successfully fused hard rock, psychedelia and the nascent Southern rock genre.
With definitive tracks such as ‘Funk #49’ and ‘Walk Away’, the group were a key part of the classic rock era, with Walsh resoundingly demonstrating his power as both a songwriter and guitarist during his time with them. He was so impactful during these early years that he would carve out a space for himself as a player, with later fretboard forces such as Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell and even Dave Grohl citing him as an influence after Generation X eventually rose to the summit of music. His tone and feel would be two aspects that the former would note as being particularly instrumental in him establishing his distinctive sound.
Famously, in late 1971, Walsh left James Gang to pursue a solo career, which included forming Barnstorm the following year, another power trio. He would continue on his journey and formally join the Eagles in 1975, a time when his career would take on a world-beating and even era-defining essence. His first record with the group was the iconic Hotel California in 1976; this aptly set the scene for what would come.
Of course, Walsh’s first stint with the Eagles lasted five years, and during this period, he also committed to other projects, such as the solo hit ‘Life’s Been Good’, which first appeared on the 1978 soundtrack to FM. A song that sharply satirises the excess of the classic rock period, it drew upon his array of real-life experiences, with some of them featuring famous faces such as The Who’s resident maniac, Keith Moon, who showed him the path of destruction when James Gang supported the British band.
The track is a highlight of Walsh’s career. Still, according to him, when lasting his life in 15 songs for Rolling Stone in 2016, he revealed that he initially thought the lyrics were “dumb” and were in danger of being misinterpreted as one of the worst moments in music history.
He explained: “The lyrics, I didn’t want to use ’em. I was gonna replace them with something more rock and roll. But [drummer] Joe Vitale and Bill [Szymczyk] said, ‘No, these words are wonderful. They’re legitimate, and you gotta use ’em.’ And I was thinking, ‘Well, they’re kind of dumb, and the song will either be looked at as a satirical, funny song, or it’s gonna not be funny at all, and it’ll go down the toilet as one of the worst things ever written.’ That’s what I was afraid of.”
Walsh then revealed that the parts of the track about hotels, such as “I live in hotels / Tear out the walls”, specifically referred to Keith Moon taking a liking to him when the James Gang opened for The Who in Europe as they premiered Tommy. He said the drummer taking a shine to him was “one of the scariest things that happened to me – ever – happened.”
Alas, throughout the tour, the king of rock obliteration taught Walsh “the art of hotel damage, of destroying things, of making things that blow up, of superglue madness and mayhem, of trashing rent-a-cars… just causing as much trouble as possible”.
Walsh would put his own spin on this way of life as the decade wore on. When deep in his next, pre-Eagles chapter, this was helped by the freehand use of a chainsaw; just ask Elton John and Irving Azoff.