Every album they made charted in America but none in the UK. The most successful was James Gang Rides Again which got to #20. Now, the various line-up changes are well documented, including Joe Walsh and Tommy Bolin and although they did play in the UK, for some reason they didn’t break through, even with the endorsement of Pete Townshend and supporting the Who.
I think this might partially have been because the records sometimes came out on the pink Probe label, a subsidiary of ABC Dunhill. In the UK Probe was introduced in October 1969 by E.M.I. Records Limited to release licensed ABC and Dunhill products. This deal was expanded to other territories outside the US on 1 October 1970 and existed until late 1974 when the ABC name became established and the Probe label was merged with that. ABC set up an office within EMI in early 1974 and their contract with EMI expired on 1 October 1974.
This rather confusing situation might have led to a lack of promotional effort, certainly, I wasn’t aware of them at school and I knew a lot about what were thought obscure American and Canadian bands such as Mahogany Rush and Grand Funk Railroad. So they just can’t have pushed them hard or I would have heard of them.
In fact. The first record I got of theirs was Live In Concert recorded May 15, 1971 performance at Carnegie Hall, New York City. On that they sounded like an American Cream on tracks like the 18-minute Lost Woman but with acoustic guitar on some numbers like Tend My Garden and Ashes, the Rain and I which I loved.
The strange thing about the band was that they changed guitarists three times before the final album and while the charismatic Walsh had been much more than the guitarist, his replacements were great players. The two albums Bang and Miami with Tommy Bolin are especially excellent. I came to these following his stint in Deep Purple as I was hunting down everything he’d played on.
Even the two records with Domenic Troiano, Passin Thru and Straight Shooter, although perhaps not reaching their peak years, are still very good and are usually no more than £5. You won’t be disappointed by any of their records except perhaps the last Jesse Come Home.
When it comes to singles, they released 16 but they had no luck in the UK, though since I have most of them, I’m sure they all had a UK release. In the states 8 charted, the best of which was Walk Away which got to #51. Walsh got to #105 on Billboard with the live version of the same song from the superb live album, ‘You Can’t Argue With A Sick Mind’ which got to #28 in UK and #20 USA
