Maps of Music

The Confessor (1985)

Where the lyrics of The Confessor take you, and where it was really made.

Joe Walsh's seventh solo album was poorly received by many critics, yet it sold quite well.

Key places

Recording and mixing at Goodnight LA Studios (1985)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Goodnight LA Studios in Van Nuys, California is credited as the recording and mixing location for The Confessor. The point is set at city-center level for Los Angeles, so the exact building is not marked. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Confessor: seventh solo studio album by American rock musician Joe Walsh
• Released 21 May 1985 by Warner Bros. Records and Full Moon Records
• Produced by Keith Olsen, a Grammy Award-winning producer and sound engineer, and by Walsh himself
• Recorded and mixed at Goodnight L.A., Los Angeles
• Mastered at Artisan Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California
• Peaked at number 65 on the Billboard 200

Background

• Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved with the making of the album
• Keith Olsen, Nicks's old friend, was hired to produce the album
• Session players included Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman and Alan Pasqua
• Many of the musicians had never worked with Walsh before
• Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles sang backing vocals, the only familiar face on the record

Cover

• Front cover uses Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819–1820), one of a series of similar paintings by German Romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich
• A grainy photograph of Walsh sits behind the painting
• Back cover uses Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818) by Friedrich

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, born November 20, 1947 in Wichita, Kansas.
• Best known as a member of the rock band Eagles, joining in 1975 as guitarist and keyboardist, replacing Bernie Leadon.
• Earlier played with local Ohio bands, then the James Gang (1968–1971), known for the hit "Funk 49".
• Led Barnstorm (1971–1974) with Joe Vitale and Kenny Passarelli; "Rocky Mountain Way" reached No. 23 on the US Top 40.
• Solo hits include "Life's Been Good" (No. 12 Billboard Hot 100) and "A Life of Illusion".
• Rolling Stone ranked him No. 54 on its 2011 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Eagles in 1998.

Recognition

• Eagles won five Grammy Awards in total, with Walsh a member of the group.
• Earned an honorary music degree from Kent State University in 2001.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Many critics gave the album a poor reception
• Guitar World critic Bruce Malamut described the album as a sober retrospective from a former rock sinner, and the balance as a sober retrospective from rock's own Harpo Marx
• Rolling Stone said Walsh was trying to make the kind of record he made a decade earlier, and that the result sounded out of date, like something from a 1975 time capsule

Reappraisal

• AllMusic critic James Chrispell, writing retrospectively, highly complimented the title track
• Chrispell wrote that Walsh had not produced a complete album of great material, and that The Confessor was no exception
• Chrispell judged the first half weak and the album worthwhile for the title track alone

Records

• Peaked at number 65 on the Billboard 200
• Sold quite well despite the critical reception

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks reportedly got involved in the recording, though she received no credit.
• Walsh said in a June 2012 interview on Howard Stern that Nicks rode shotgun with him during production.
• The album includes a cover of Michael Stanley's 1973 song Rosewood Bitters, which got some FM airplay in the US, with Walsh playing an electric guitar instead of the slide guitar on the original.
• Slow Dancing was written by Loz Netto, guitarist of the English band Moon and later Sniff 'n' the Tears.
• After the album, Walsh toured Australia and the US with Joe Vitale, under the name Creatures from America in Australia.
• In the US the band opened some gigs for the British-American rock band Foreigner.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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