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Joe Ely
The 1987 Unreleased Album  

Including full artwork.

Thanks to lilpanda for sharing the tracks.

This contains no released music - the two tunes he salvaged for the ‘88 Hightone CD were totally re-cut later. Linda Ronstadt sings on one track. Ex- SBD stereo.

“I remastered this slightly a few years ago - just some hiss shaving. I’m hoping this will inspire someone with a better copy to put it up.”


Now that Joe Ely is 65, he is no nearer to releasing this album officially. We got a copy of lilpanda’s share six years ago. As far as we can tell, no other version of this album has circulated since then.

The album seems to have been made with an eye on expanding Ely’s audience with the inclusion of two covers, Dion’s The Wanderer and John Fogerty’s Rockin’ All Over The World. Ely was an early admirer of The Clash and songs here like Settle For Love have that nod to cowpunk, especially the chiming guitars. His association with The Clash did help him win British fans. Both started out in 1977 and Ely was in London at the time punk was emerging.

In the ’80s, Ely was pushing in all directions as this album illustrates. But he is now firmly recognised as a singer-songwriter and Tex-Mex rock ‘n’ roller. Ely still releases albums but through his own label, Rack ‘Em Records.

We share lilpanda’s opinion that the song Where Is My Love?, a duet with Linda Ronstadt, is deserving of release. So here is the “lost” Joe Ely album.



Track 01. Poor Boy  
Track 02. The Wanderer  
Track 03. Settle For Love (version 1)  
Track 04. A Moving Target  
Track 05. Where Is My Love? (with Linda Ronstadt)  
Track 06. Dig All Night (version 1)  
Track 07. Shades Of Blue  
Track 08. Drivin’ To The Poorhouse  
Track 09. A Guardian Angel  
Track 10. Rockin’ All Over The World  
TT: 40:35m


Track 01 The track “Poor Boy” is also a first version of a song that ended up on “Dig All Night.” It’s called “Rich Man, Poor Boy” on that album.
Tracks 3 and 6 were later re-recorded and appeared on 1988’s Dig All Night.