Celebration of "Hotel California" Album!

[The Thrill Is Never Gone]

The album was awesome, there is no reason why they could not release 4 singles. Try and Love Again should have been one of them. The song is really exceptional and has a lot of emotion to it. The other 3 that were released were also very wonderful songs. The whole album is amazingly good and every song is good but they could have put more of them out there. Again this is my opinion and not to be taken as more than that.

[The Thrill Is Never Gone]

Well I guess that's another thread but I do think that they stretched on a few songs for the Long Run. I do love the Long Run and In the City.

[The Thrill Is Never Gone]

Yes Disco strangler is definitely not the best song on the album, but there are a couple others that would not be either.

[moonlight74]

The HC album was over produced and it is not their best work. A little like the 'wall of sound' Phil Spector is known for. To me One Of These Nights is a superior album. The song Try And Love Again on the HC album has more of an original composition about it and that is why to many it still sounds fresh and contemporary after all these years.

[The Thrill Is Never Gone]

I do love Wasted Time. The words of that song could hold true for almost anyone. It is one of my favorites off the album.

[luna65]

I did hear Disco Strangler on satellite radio recently and all my husband and could think was "what were they thinking"?

This is probably another example of my odd outlook but I love that song; it's a great example of social satire utilizing the exact genre they're lampooning, but they didn't do a direct pastiche. Another example of that kind of song is Pink Floyd's "Young Lust."

[Zanny Kingston]

I like both Don H's and Glenn's vocals equally, but I think they are each suited to differing styles (note this is all very, very, very broadly speaking and there are exceptions!) - Glenn pulls off the more 'romantic' songs like PEF, Lyin' Eyes, NKIT etc really well and I think his softer, almost more delicate voice fits perfectly. Don's is I think more edgier, rougher almost, so he pulls off the hard-rocking likes of Witchy Woman, OTB and LITFL better. Of course, if you bear in mind Out of Control, Already Gone, BOML and Hollywood Waltz this all goes out of the window... It's hard to explain!

I happened to be out and about doing some errands earlier today so I put on the HC Cd in my car. I realized that as much as I love Don Henley's voice, he was not the reason I was originally attracted to the Eagles music in the 1970's - It was Glenn's voice- TLR you mentioned Already Gone and another one that comes to mind is James Dean- again Glenn songs that I really enjoy
and they are a bit edgier than some other things he sings. It is hard to explain.

A few previous Poster's mentioned they felt the second side of HC felt incomplete. I am old enough to have owned the vinyl album and now the Cd.

I never thought of it that way until now-but that was always the feeling I had when I got to side 2 of the album, and could never quite name what it was-It felt like Glenn is missing in the mix for me. It may have been a "business" decision, or maybe it was creative or who know what else that he did not have another song. But it was puzzling because to me Glenn was the primary voice of the Eagles for me at that time. I cant honestly say HC was not my favorite Eagles album at the time, but I did know even as a young teenager that I was listening to an important work and here we are nearly 40 years later still discussing it!

[luna65]

Yes I think my opinion is primarily based on my experience with the actual album; I haven't listened to it on CD all that much, nor mp3s (like in a portable player). One of the effects of listening to vinyl is you become very aware of sequencing.

[Zanny Kingston]

I think the sequencing speaks to a comment that I remember Don making in the doc that the album was "loosely thematic" the songs seemed to have a specific order and personality that I have come to appreciate over time.

[luna65]

Exactly! I think that's why it has to begin and end with the grander philosophical statements, and in between those are the permutations of the effects of experience upon innocence.