Prologue

For the first time since 1971 the original members of the James Gang - Joe Walsh (guitar), Jimmy Fox (drums) and Dale Peters (bass) - are reuniting for a concert. The original show set for February 22 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland sold out quickly. Since only 300 seats were available for the first concert, two additional shows were added Saturday and Sunday at the Allen Theater...a much larger venue. All three shows are sold out.

I would gladly have attended all three concerts since in high school and most of college I was the best promotion these guys had. I would carry albums around with me and play them for people every day. I was "into" the James Gang in a very big way. But I'm committed to a family reunion in Arizona with my wife, Yvonne, her brother and sister and their parents. It's been booked for a long time. I'll be honest...at first I reacted immaturely about the conflict. I KNEW as soon as I agreed to the trip something important to me would invariably arise and make me...how shall I say this...angry?...no..PISSED OFF. But since the in-laws are footing the bill and Yvonne makes compromises for me...unlike Gretchen...the evil girlfriend in the coming story...I will do the right thing. (by the way...having been married for almost 27 years I have a complete respect for compromise. I'm not talking "giving in" here. I'm talking communication and teamwork. So If you've got a significant other like Gretchen...and you know who you are...dump them now!)...and if you have a significant other like Yvonne you don't need me telling you anything.

Jeez...here I am being all noble about giving up a concert for a FREE five day vacation in Phoenix! Ain't I a saint?

The James Gang Trilogy.
The James Gang September, 1970 Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Columbus, Oh
March, 1971 Denison University Field House, Granville, Oh
September, 1971 The Ohio State Fair Grandstand, Columbus, Oh

While I was still in my high school years, one of the few distinct pleasures I had was going to see local and regional bands at local "teen clubs" around the Cleveland area. These were places basically for high school kids to hang out, smoke cigarettes (this was a still an more innocent era...but not for long), drink pop (Midwestern for soda), and generally act cool. At the time the big club for us on the west side was the North Ridgeville Hullabaloo. Hullabaloos were all over the country and somehow sponsored by the T.V. show of the same name...whose house band was called, of course, The Hullabaloos...and they had these dancers...mostly blonde girls in mini skirts and go-go boots...called The Hullabaloo Dancers...of course. It never struck me at the time just how redundant this was...but when you're 16 anything you deem to be cool can't POSSIBLY be redundant. Besides most teenagers don't know the meaning of the word redundant.

There were a lot of bands that got relatively famous through this circuit. The Bob Seger System, The Amboy Dukes (Ted Nugent on guitar), The Rasberries, and my personal favorite, The James Gang. At first there were four members and they did covers of people like the Yardbirds, The Beatles...a wide variety. But soon their guitar player, Glenn Schwartz would quit, venture out to Los Angeles, and have some success with Pacific Gas and Electric. Schwartz was a fine guitarist in the mold of Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac...the blues band from England that eventually turned into a chick group from California...but that's another story. So The Gang was looking for a replacement when they heard about a guitar player named Joe Walsh. At the time Walsh was half heartedly going to Kent State and playing in a band called The Measles. He jumped at the chance to play for the James Gang and they became a power trio a la Cream.

I don't know Joe Walsh personally...although I know a guy who does...but there are definite parallels in our lives. For one thing, he lived in Columbus for a lot of his childhood. He went to Crestview Elementary which is 2 blocks from my house. He lived on Summit Street in Clintonville...about 5 blocks from my place. And he played The Hullabaloo for 2 or 3 years while I smart-assed my way through high school. I don't know how many times I saw The James Gang. It must be at least 25 or 30. The Hullabaloo, Boston Mills Ski Lodge, a free fashion show at the Mercury Theater in Middleburg Heights. I even saw them one December at the Berea Fairgrounds in a building that had no heat. It was freezing cold outside AND inside. Joe played the first set with gloves on...with fucking GLOVES on. This truly amazed my 17 year old brain yet at the same time depressed me because he played guitar BETTER with winter gloves on the I did with my bare hands. Walsh was an amazing raw talent that soon had people across the country buzzing. Hell, I remember being at the Hullabaloo once decked out in my "surfer" shirt and white Levis (this looked WAY cool under the black lights) seeing Joe so drunk that he actually fell off the stage during a song. The roadies just kind of propped him back up and I swear he didn't miss a beat. Of course Joe's partying would take it's toll later on but in 1968 he seemed invincible.

The band soon put out it's first album, "Yer Album" and it was released the same day as Blind Faith's first...which...in the Cleveland area...it outsold almost two to one. Then they started opening for bands like The Who and they were on their way. Early in the summer of 1970 they put out "Rides Again" and "Funk #49" was a mild hit on the Top 40. The James Gang was no longer a Cleveland phenomenon. They had gone national. I was excited and...a little sorry to see the old days gone. But I was on my way to college here in Columbus and EVERYTHING was changing quickly...and once I was at college The James Gang became like a religion to me. I carried their albums around with me and played them for anybody who would listen. Some people were converted. Some were not. Hey this is Capital University...a very, very small Lutheran college.

I had a friend that I had known for a few years named John Cross. I worked for him at camp and was starting school at Capital where he also attended. John was a good friend at the time...a likeable, dysfunctional, boy-next-door type from a small town in eastern Ohio. He would always tell me about this band that would play in a club in his hometown that had a guy who could play not one, but TWO saxophones at the same time. I wasn't sure exactly how he accomplished this feat but knowing John I'm sure it was the kind of establishment that would only allow two saxes to be played at the same time in the MOUTH...and from nowhere else.

So I talk John into going to see the James Gang at Veteran Memorial...a big nondescript box of an auditorium The show is just a couple weeks after I start college and I think I was more excited about the concert than anything else. It was very strange to see these guys up on the stage in a large auditorium after all this time. The first thing that struck me was how FAR AWAY they were. I was used to standing 3 feet away...but I enjoyed the concert and I could tell the band was too. Walsh did silly dances as he played and it was truly wonderful. On the way home in the car the radio came on and John twisted the volume knob violently to off while proclaiming in a not so subtle voice, "We are NOT listening to that SHIT after what I've just seen." I don't think he ever mentioned the guy who played 2 saxophones at the same time again...ever.

In the spring of that same school year I caught wind of The James Gang playing at Denison University. I found out about 3 hours before the show was supposed to begin. On top of that it was a Sunday night. Still I talked one of my friends into going and convinced my girlfriend Gretchen to borrow her brother's car and drive us. We had only been going out for a couple months so we were both still on our best behavior. I mean, what could she say. So we piled in the car and drove to Granville. The first thing that struck me about Denison was that all the students were RICH kids...who just happened to have a "hippie" section in their closets. Ironically, the show was inside a track and field house with a dirt floor. So these poor hippie impersonators got their designer jeans and ironed tie dye shirts all dirty. This really made me sad. Hey...I'll tell you how spoiled the people at this school were. Two years earlier they had The Who play for their homecoming.

Little Feat opened and they were quite entertaining but couldn't break through to a crowd who needed to hear ANYTHING recognizable from the radio. So they did their duty and played for an hour. When it's time for the James Gang (and I think they did this to make fun of the crowd) the lights went way down and the three of them walked out on stage carrying flashlights...and Joe was singing 'Boom Chick a Boom". This made me laugh out loud. But man was the show good. Their confidence level was way up and the band was beginning to get that "roar" they developed as a power trio. (listen to "Live at Madison Square Garden") And the rich kids rose to the occasion. After all, they got to practice up with The Who...and it got them off the dirt. (YUCHIE!!!)

The next fall...almost a year from the first time I saw them at Vets...they were scheduled to play the Ohio State Fair. This was back when shows were free, outdoor things in the grandstand adjacent to the horse track. I talked my family into going to the Fair. So we all rode in the same car. My two brothers, my sister, my parents, Gretchen and me. Things with her were kind of on the wane...at least as far as I was concerned. A week earlier she dragged me to see the Ice Capades. I simply hated it. I don't know what it is with women and ice shows. Anyway, I sat there watching Mickey Mouse skating around thinking, "WHY am I here?" At one point Gretchen turned to me and asked, "How do you like it?" To which I replied, "Hey...if I was FOUR I be having a BLAST over here." AND...of course...

My father DID NOT LIKE Gretchen. This might be an understatement. So we're all crammed into the car stuck in a big traffic jam trying to get into the Fair when the car starts to overheat...plus it's about 90 degrees outside. My dad started to boil too. "Shut up! The car's hotter than a FIRECRACKER!" The hotter the engine got the hotter my father got....especially after I told Gretchen I had bought a different winter coat than the one she had picked out for me. She said something like, "but you looked so CUDDLY and cute in the one I picked out." Snook (my father's nickname) turned around and gave me this look like,"Don't expect to be bringing HER over to MY house any time soon."

So we finally get parked and while my family walked around we went to the grandstand. There must have been 15,000 people there. We could barely see the stage...but then the announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen! Ohio's OWN JAMES GANG!!!!!" Although I couldn't see much of anything...every once in a while I would catch a glimpse at a guitar neck...the band roared through the show. It was incredibly exciting! The people in the huge crowd were eating their seats. After closing with a torrid version of "The Bomber", they came back for an encore of "Funk #49"...then another encore of "Walk Away". By then I was exhausted. The concert had lasted about 2 hours...and...as we started back to the car they came out for a THIRD encore. "We GOTTA GO BACK! WE GOTTA GO BACK!!!" I yelled. Gretchen sat down, rolled her eyes, sighed a very patronizing sigh and said, "You go ahead." Which, of course I did. As I stood there watching the final encore it dawned on me...FINALLY..."this woman is trying to change me". Two days later I broke up with her. Irreconcilable differences I guess you could say. I have no regrets. I don't think she ever REALLY liked the James Gang.

About three months later Joe Walsh quit the band. Is this another parallel with my life? I doubt it I think he probably had a lot more fun with Dale Peters and Jimmy Fox than I EVER had with Gretchen though. He went on to a successful solo career and a stint with The Eagles. Now he'a a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Me? I've played in lots of bands. And I've never, ever gone back to the Ice Capades.

Epilogue

I wish I could see them again...sigh...but I'm going to have a good time in warm, sunny Arizona. Hey...maybe there's a dude out there who can play two saxophones at the same time. MAYBE there's a CHICK out there who can play two saxophones at the same time!!! (...while on ice skates?) Call me a dreamer...but you never know.