JD Souther(1972) Run Like a Thief - LOST 70s GEMS

Frequent Eagles collaborator JD Southers debut was released in tandem with the Eagles in the summer of 72. It frankly sounds like a companion piece like a lost Eagles album while it's sparse folk rock and piano ballads point to 1973' Desperado and beyond you can hear in Souther, Glenn Frey's vocal touchstones mixing a sweet nasal good Ol boy with some of Don Henley's rasp.

But to the album Jesus in 3/4 time is a hippie/anti religion song draped in a Jackson Browne contemplative vocal/piano. The song is elevated by exuberant backing vocals adding sweet vigour to Southers lilting arrangement. The track builds and reminds me of Elton John' Burn Down the Mission.  Out to Sea starts quite downbeat but us again picks up slightly with stacked ragged countrified harmonies; there is more pedal steel in the background, a device notably left out of the Eagles sound in favour of the B Bender. Some People Call It Music is far more energetic with a sturdy beat and more energised Souther vocals and a elongated chorus melody and folk guitar licks; this is the heavier side of folk rock. Kite Woman is a more stodgy retread of the more fluid version heard the pioneering 1969 Longbranch Pennywhistle album. The Fast One is a perfect song for Flying Burrito Brothers, with the same rollicking roadhouse roots rock of Six Days on the Road, with harmonised pedal steel licks, stick drumbeat and more ragged two part harmonies.

The best though is Run like a Thief which could've been a Don Henley Eagles song with it's excellent dynamics building from a slow blues verse launching into a clarion call for escape like the soaring the chorus to Already Gone. It fits nicely into Eagles brand of stacked southern choruses and stilted folk rock if not this album is a little too subtle and folky for the band; there loss is our gain maybe Souther instead of being team player could've started his own rival country rock outfit.