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Eagles - Rocky Mountain Way - Live 1977




"Rocky Mountain Way" is a 1973 song by rock guitarist Joe Walsh and his band Barnstorm, with writing credits given to all four band members: Walsh, Rocke Grace, Kenny Passarelli, and Joe Vitale. The song was originally released on the album The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get.


The song features Walsh using a guitar talk box, manufactured by sound engineer Bob Heil, who invented the device used by almost every rock music exponent. The distinct tone "... gives Walsh's blues stomp a futuristic wave, as if a hulking mechanical beast was looming just over those rocky mountains."


Walsh appeared in studio on The Howard Stern Show on June 12, 2012 and talked about how the lyrics to the song came to him in 1972 shortly after releasing his first solo effort, Barnstorm.


"I'm living in Colorado and I'm mowing the lawn. I look up and there's the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and there's snow on them in the summer. And it knocked me back because it was just beautiful. And I thought, 'Well I have committed. I'm already in Colorado and it's too late to regret the James Gang. The Rocky Mountain way is better than the way I had, because the music was better.' I got the words. Bam!"


Walsh has varied that story over the years, however, telling the Rocky Mountain News that he wrote the lyrics while up recording the album at Caribou Ranch Recording Studio.





Lyrics


Spent the last year Rocky Mountain Way

Couldn't get much higher

Out to pasture, think it's safe to say

Time to open fire


And we don't need the ladies

Cryin' 'cause the story's sad

'Cause the Rocky Mountain way

Is better than the way we had


Well he's tellin' us this, and he's tellin' us that

Changes it every day

Says it doesn't matter

Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat

Playin' it play by play

Time to change the batter


And we don't need the ladies

Cryin' 'cause the story's sad

Rocky Mountain way

Is better than the way we had

Yeah, yeah, yeah



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