Seriously. It's "cool" in some circles to hate the Eagles so the lemmings of the group just join in.
The exclusion of HotE from UCR's list really pissed me off. As much as I liked the Sound City documentary, HotE was WAY better for me. I think they play favorites there (UCR).
In general I think they are underrated certainly by critics. As by people, well there is a lot of unwarranted hate (Lebowski makes me so mad - if I were the taxi driver I'd run over him AFTER I kicked him out). I know I defend them like family on guitar boards and people think I'm crazy for doing so but to me they are THE American Rock band and they are truly a guitar band. I think they are as known (or should be) for their guitar playing just as much as their harmony vocals. They had two polarizing types of players in the HC/LR era. One side you have the ultimate technician/schooled and very theory based (Felder), and the other side is a bluesy raw (even sloppy) guitarist that flies by the seat of his pants (Walsh). The two types go amazingly together in a rock n' roll band.
They IMO really perfected the idea of twin leads be it Frey/Felder (Already Gone) or Felder/Walsh (Hotel California). Sure, other bands had done it but they really did that very well. The other favorite of mine for that was Lynyrd Skynyrd but in LS's case they mostly had 3 separate solos rather than two or more at the same time. When I think of twin solos, Eagles is always first.
-Austin-
Resident Guitar Slinger
Fan of the Eagles from 1972-2016 #NOGLENNNOEAGLES
RIP Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner
"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key..."
Here is my take on why there are "Eagle Haters" out there. I don't think it has as much to do with the "cool" factor as it has to do with the "money" factor.
I do believe that the Eagles were the first band to bring concert tickets OVER the $100. level. I think during HFO era...not 100% positive about that, but I believe I have read that someplace.....After the Eagles did it, many other bands followed & now, most concerts are almost always Over $100. ( I mean for the best seats) , but actually some even have crappy seats at over $100.
Many fans were angered by this & have found concerts out of their budget. I guess in 1994, $100. was a lot for a concert ticket.
The other factor is the "YouTube" issue with most of the Eagle songs being taken down.This has also caused some to "hate" the Eagles & think they are all about the money.
The only other issue I have seen some post hateful comments about is the firing of Don Felder...This has also caused some to turn against them, thinking that Felder was treated unfairly.
I do believe that these issues have turned some former fans off to them.
you may have something there TK...as much as I hate to admit it...but I'm not happy about any of the things you point out and I certainly didn't grow to hate them because of any of those things...but maybe more casual fans would be swayed by stuff like that...I don't know...
Those are definitely causes/excuses.
Other things I hear:
1. They are a "watered down/diluted" rock n' roll band and their music is too wimpy
2. They are "corporate rock"
Neither of which are true. Corporate rock I guess fits in somewhat with TK's money thing but I even heard people talk about them from their 70s music being too corporate rock.
-Austin-
Resident Guitar Slinger
Fan of the Eagles from 1972-2016 #NOGLENNNOEAGLES
RIP Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner
"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key..."
Actually, not a lot of people are aware of why they aren't out there. In the Twitter searches I do every day, I do see that maybe once a month. What I see a lot more frequently is tweets to the effect of 'if they can't be found on You Tube, they must not be too popular any more.'
VK
You can't change the world but you can change yourself.
I think the hard feelings come in when people click on a link to watch an Eagles video and see a takedown message instead. "Cass County Music" became infamous for this and to this day, the phrase is associated with aggressive YouTube purges amongst many regular YouTube users.
I think people do know why. If you look at the YouTube videos where the audio is taken down....look at the comments people write about it...
Even the videos where there is still audio, there are lots of comments about the so-called "greed" of the Eagles.
Twitter really doesn't reflect what's going on at YouTube. Every band is on YouTube, going back even to the 60's. People write comments about how the Eagles, or Henley, or "their people" take down the videos.
No matter what people's reasons/excuses are for not liking the band, I still would tell them before they form an opinion, they should listen to all their albums, in their entirety. The music is truly the only thing that is really important anyway, in the grand scheme of things. I am 99% sure that if these Eagles haters really gave all their music a chance, they would change their mind. I don't even form opinions on bands until I can call myself informed of all their music.
And yeah so maybe they have drama and fights and people being treated unfairly or not, prices too high for tickets, etc. but what band doesn't go through that at some point? Every band has some type of drama behind the scenes or moments where they appear to be greedy. Bands are like families and like corporations, you are going to have problems, but if the music is good, that should be the bare minimum of what it takes for someone to like a band in the first place.