But Seriously, Folks… (LP) Joe Walsh

The classic rock band The Eagles were already immensely successful by the time 1975 hit, having scored multiple Billboard-charting albums, numerous Top 40
singles, and had even won a “Best Pop Performance” Grammy. Despite this, many fans of the band believe that they had not truly hit their stride until the next year, when founding member Bernie Leadon exited the group. His replacement was singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, a longtime friend of the band, a former member of contemporary groups James Gang and Barnstorm, and a solo artist in his own rite, who brought a harder edge to The Eagles which took front and center of their greatest success: the multi-million-selling 1976 album Hotel California.

Joe Walsh would continue to release solo works before the Eagles’ follow-up to Hotel California in 1979, keeping busy with live and studio releases, and further bolstering his own commercial success. 1978 would see the release of his fourth album, and one of his greatest successes of the 1970s, titled But Seriously, Folks…The album reached #8 on the Billboard 200 charts, featured contributions from his fellow Eagles bandmates Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Don Felder, and received wide critical praise for its subject matter. Walsh had previously cultivated a reputation for playful irreverence and a surreal sense of humor, yet But Seriously, Folks…featured introspective, melancholy, and existential tracks that were considered out of character, and still found time for the caustically sarcastic Top 10 single “Life’s Been Good”, which bitterly takes the piss out of the partying rock-star image he’d cultivated.