Led Zeppelin and Who albums directly influenced by Joe Walsh

What does American guitarist and singer Joe Walsh have to do with some of the most successful and influential albums by The Who and Led Zeppelin? Actually, everything! He had the chance to meet both Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend when James Gang was the opening act for their bands, and he played a crucial role in giving them the guitars that produced exactly the sounds they wanted for some of their greatest records. So, if it wasn’t for Joe, some of Zeppelin’s and The Who’s albums might not have sounded quite the same.

Led Zeppelin and The Who albums directly influenced by Joe Walsh

Led Zeppelin “Led Zeppelin II”

The first one is “Led Zeppelin II” (1969), which, according to Jimmy Page, had a special sound because of his 1959 Gibson Les Paul “Number One,” which he was convinced to buy from Joe Walsh. “Joe’s an old friend and our connection goes back to some of the American dates from Yardbirds days.”

“He was in the James Gang, based in Cleveland, and he’d come and see us whenever we were in town. He is a really nice man and I enjoyed his company. Back then, Joe brought a Les Paul Standard along to a Fillmore East gig on the first leg of the American tour. He said, ‘You’ve got to have this guitar.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t need it, Joe. I’ve got a Les Paul Custom.’”

Jimmy Page continued:

“I knew that Les Paul guitars were very user-friendly, insomuch as they put out a lot of level when you plugged them into the amplifier because they had a double-coil pickup, whereas the Telecaster had a single-coil pickup. With the sort of volume that I now needed to put out in live situations. Although I was using controlled feedback, I found that the Telecaster was starting to squeal a bit. I had to be very careful about where I was standing because of the unsympathetic feedback.”

“With the Les Paul you’d get feedback through the amp and speakers. But you could control it more easily and work with it. You could actually change the literal note and frequency that was coming back on the feedback. I just really enjoyed playing Joe’s guitar. So I agreed with him that maybe I should buy his Les Paul Standard after all.”

Jimmy Page continued:

“I played the Les Paul on ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘What Is and What Should Never Be’ and that decided it for me. It was definitely going to be the Les Paul from then on. I always wanted to make a change for each album sonically. That was my first decision for ‘Led Zeppelin II’. Like I had built Led Zeppelin around the Fender Telecaster, I built the second album around the sonic texture of the Les Paul Standard. Neither Joe Walsh nor I realized at the time just what an important thing he had done by coming along with that Les Paul,” Jimmy Page said.

According to Walsh, at the time Page paid him about $1,500, a bit less that he had originally paid for it. Now the instrument is worth millions of dollars. Jimmy Page has been a fan of Joe Walsh since the first time he saw him playing. “He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I’ve loved his style since the early James Gang,” he told Rolling Stone in 1975.

The Who “Who’s Next” (1971)

The Who’s best-selling album, Who’s Next (1971), also received crucial help from Joe Walsh, who gave Pete Townshend an orange Gretsch guitar that he used to get the sound he wanted for the record. “Joe Walsh, whom I’d met, sent me an orange Gretsch like Neil Young uses and a Fender Bassman amp and with an Entwoods volume pedal in between. I started getting into that kind of sound. Leslie West sent me a really great Les Paul Junior with one pickup on it and Eric gave me an old Strat.”

“I think in a way what these guys were trying to tell me was if I wasn’t ready to go out and find me a good guitar, they did it for me. They gave me good instruments and I still have those three instruments today. And those were really the guitars I used on that album. Mainly the solo work on ‘Who’s Next’ was done on the Gretsch Chet Atkins,” Pete Townshend told Sound International magazine in 1980.

They first had the chance to meet each other when James Gang was The Who’s opening shortly before their album “Rides Again” was released in 1970. Townshend really liked him “(…) I feel Joe (Walsh) is a very expressive guitar player. He has brought out a lot of expressiveness in the other guitar player in the band (The Eagles), Don Felder.” Pete Townshend said in 1980.

Pete was a really important mentor for Joe in the early days of James Gang. He showed him how to play in a trio, because The Who was essentially a trio with a singer.

Pete Townshend said:

“He really identified with what we were doing. Pete’s a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn’t think I was that good. Pete and I really hit it off. We had the same frustrations about working with a three-piece group.”