The talk box is one of the more niche guitar effects out there but when it is used right it can make the track really pop.
Think Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion, Alice In Chains' Man In The Box, or the archetypical talk box track, Bon Jovi’s signature anthem Livin’ On A Prayer.
Peter Frampton was a pioneer of the talk box. But in the beginning, it was Joe Walsh. If we were looking for the player responsible for inaugurating the talk box as this radical new electric guitar effect, it was him.
Walsh brought it into rock guitar, and in a recent interview with the LA Times, he recalls how it he was introduced to the talk box at a house party in Nashville. Dottie West of Country Sunshine fame was the host, and her husband, Bill, was something of an electronics whizz.
“He made this talk box that was used once by Pete Drake, the pedal steel player,” said Walsh. “The song was called Forever. But from there it went back into Bill’s garage.”
That device helped made Drake famous. When he performed Forever he was introduced as “the man who made the steel guitar talk”. Remarkably, he could hold out until the end of the song before using it.
Note how Drake also pioneers guitar content creator camera eye contact best practice as he puts the talk box into action. He was not only one of the great steel players of all time, he was ahead of the curve.
So, too, was Walsh. Only he did not know it at the time. Not until Bill had an idea…
“Dottie had a habit of inviting people over to her house when they played in Nashville. And so I showed up and Chet Atkins showed up, and we passed the guitar around,” said Walsh. “Bill said, ‘Wait a minute,’ and he came back from the garage with this old cardboard box all wrapped up in tape. He took out a piece of surgical tubing and said, ‘Put this in your mouth.’ Smelled terrible. But I did it, and then I used it on Rocky Mountain Way.”
Of all the things that could have been passed about at a Nashville part in the early ‘70s, a talk box has to be the most unusual, the most unhygienic too. But this was a different time.
Walsh was a seeker. Barnstorm, his first solo release after leaving the James Gang had all kinds of weird sounds on the guitar, the swirl of the Leslie rotating speaker, monster fuzz. You’ve got the psychedelic glissando and acoustic guitar clang of Midnight Visitor, the hot, chewy funk-groove riff on Mother Says… It’s a vibe.
If anyone was going to find a use for the talk box it was Walsh, and on 1973 studio album The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get, he did. Rocky Mountain Way, the album's breakout hit, not only transformed Walsh's fortunes, it changed the course of guitar history – and in his opinion, it beats Hotel California as the greatest solo he ever recorded.
But West’s talk box stayed in the garage. For Rocky Mountain Way, West deployed one of Bob Heil’s designs, which was purpose-built for high-volume rock ’n’ roll. And one would hope, the tubing smelled a little fresher.
In other Walsh news, the Eagles guitarist is auctioning off more than 800 items from his personal collection via Julien's in support of VetsAid.
Some of the lots are ridiculous. Walsh is actually auctioning an API recording and mixing console from one of the Record Plant’s mobile recording trucks, which is expected to go for up to half-a-million dollars. That is a serious bit of kit.
Guitar-wise, there's a pretty cool 1966 Framus Strato Gold De Luxe 12-String guitar that he used on Barnstorm.
“One thing you find about human nature is we collect things and I have acquired too much stuff," said Walsh. “I wanted people to have a chance to get a guitar or get something of mine that they may think is valuable. So, it's my way of giving back. And this will help veterans as a portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to VetsAid... And now I will have more room in my warehouse so I can go get more stuff!”
Joe Walsh's Life's Been Good auction is live now – find out more at Julien's Auctions.
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