whom he would eventually gift the guitar that The Who guitarist would use on Who\u2019s Next<\/a>.<\/p>\nOutside of working with James Gang and his solo career, Walsh constantly kept tabs on the Eagles. Having been a fan of James Gang growing up, Eagles frontman Glenn Frey had always considered getting a guitarist of Walsh\u2019s calibre in the band. <\/p>\n
When recounting the band\u2019s early years, a chance meeting on tour got the wheels turning in Frey\u2019s head for Walsh to replace original guitarist Bernie Leadon, recalling in History of the Eagles, \u201cWe\u2019d put Joe Walsh in a road box, and for our encore, he would come up and play \u2018Rocky Mountain Way\u2019. After playing a couple of shows, I started to think, \u2018Joe Walsh for Bernie Leadon?\u2019. Maybe the vocals won\u2019t be quite as good, but boy, are we gonna kick some ass!\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although Walsh loved the idea of collaborating with the rest of the band, he was also starstruck at the prospect of working with songwriters like Frey and Henley, recalling, \u201cI was constantly in awe of Don and Glenn. I was intimidated because they sang so good. They could write stuff that I couldn\u2019t even think of writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally having a rock-oriented player to offset Felder, Walsh contributed his first song to an Eagles album on the album Hotel California. While being known primarily for his cutthroat approach to rock, Walsh\u2019s \u2018Pretty Maids All In a Row\u2019 brought depth to the artist that many rock fans seemed to have pigeonholed.<\/p>\n
Featuring various string arrangements and a gentle slide guitar part, Walsh said the lyrics took a sombre look at humanity, telling the BBC, \u201cI think the best thing to say is that it\u2019s a kind of melancholy observation on life that we hoped would be a valid statement for people from our generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the song, Walsh empathises with those who strive so hard to achieve their dreams but never put in the work to get there. Even as someone who achieved a dream of being a rock and roll star, though, Walsh knows that his time at the top is fleeting, remarking that all heroes will fade from view eventually.<\/p>\n
While Walsh may have been able to sing what was in his heart, it tended to sting all the more for his six-string partner. Despite being in the band for years, Don Felder had not been able to sing that many songs, eventually being tricked into leaving the studio while the rest of the group recut the track for \u2018Victim of Love\u2019 with Don Henley singing instead. Walsh may have been looking to shed his rocker skin, but the melancholy of this song was proof that all wasn\u2019t well in the Eagles\u2019 camp anymore.<\/p>\n
Is it Eagles\u2019 best song ever?<\/p>\n
Well, Bob Dylan certainly thought so. When picking his favourite songs by the band, \u201c\u2018New Kid in Town,\u2019 \u2018Life in the Fast Lane,\u2019 \u2018Pretty Maids All in a Row\u2019,\u201d Dylan says without hesitation. \u201cThat could be one of the best songs ever,\u201d he notes of the last selection.<\/p>\n
However, for the most part, fans would more naturally call songs like \u2018Desperado\u2019 and, of course, \u2018Hotel California\u2019 the band\u2019s best tunes. But, to ignore the beautiful melancholy desperation within the notes of \u2018Pretty Maids All in a Row\u2019 is to ignore some of the most pointedly unique work the band ever created. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: TIDAL) Mon 2 February 2026 13:36, UK No one would claim that Joe Walsh was the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[27602,96,42016,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-404335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-joe-walsh","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Joe-Walsh-The-Eagles-Guitarist-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine--1140x855.jpg\")
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