Rocky Mountain Way what key is it in?

Answer 1

Four sharps (AKA the key of E). The guitar is tuned to an open E chord. From http://www.eaglesfans.com/info/articles/joe_walsh_musical_appreciation.htm: "Rocky Mountain Way" is a landmark Joe Walsh track with all the right ingredients, an innovation in the genre complete with layered Guitars, soaring slide guitar and a relatively obscure sound processor known as a talk box. The main riff, is a strutting, simple rhythm figure played by two guitars--uncluttered and irresistibly propulsive. Notice the modernization of the 5th to 6th blues/ rock and roll comping pattern and its shuffle feel, as well as the more contemporary elements like the throbbing, often palm-muted low E and slashing E chord strums on beat 4. Slide guitar, a Walsh specialty is heard prominently in the interludes and solos on "Rocky Mountain Way." Joe's slide work owes much to the pervasive influence of Duane Allman, a personal hero and slide mentor. Walsh usually resorts to a different guitar setup specifically for slide: i.e., extra-heavy strings and higher action. He plays with both metal and glass slides and favors open tunings such as the open E tuning (E B E G# B E, which Allman showed him personally) used in this case. The first slide solo (at 1:32) and fifth (1:43) bars of the solo--further evidence of Walsh's balance of rock improvisation and song consciousness. Walsh introduces the talk box in an interlude near the climax of the tune to add a new timbral element. An effect rarely heard on record (Link Wray of "Rumble" fame used one in the '50s, as did Pete Drake on "Forever"), the talk box came to Walsh by the way of Bill West, husband of country & western singer Dottie West. After its inclusion in "Rocky Mountain Way," it was assimilated into the rock mainstream--surfacing conspicuously on '70s records by Jeff Beck ("She's a Woman") and Peter Frampton ("Show Me the Way"), in the '80s by Bon Jovi ("Livin' On A Prayer"), and surviving into the '90s with Alice In Chains ("Man in The Box"). The talk-box lines in "Rocky Mountain Way" are stated first by Gtr. IV in a characteristic blues-rock, pentatonic-minor riff at 3:10. A few measures later (at 3:33), a second talk-box guitar enters, harmonizing the main part an octave higher. The two-part texture culminates In a semi-improvisational talk-box duet (at 3:40) t usher in the third and most animated slide solo at 4:05.