“Life's Been Good” by Joe Walsh

"Life's Been Good" is Joe Walsh having a laugh at his own expense, and at the whole rock-star circus. It first turned up on the soundtrack to the 1978 film FM, and the full eight-minute take landed on his fourth album, But Seriously, Folks..., while a trimmed four-minute edit went out as the single. It became his biggest solo hit.

The song sends up the trashed hotel rooms, fast cars and bottomless expense accounts of the era's stars, with a wink at Keith Moon of the Who, and Walsh drew it from his own life. Bill Szymczyk produced and engineered it and sings backup with Jody Boyer and Joe Vitale. The Rolling Stone Record Guide called it riotous in 1979, and in 2026 CBS News named it among 250 essential American songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.