I concur. While I am a nature lover, I find the implications in the song offensive. I know this has been discussed elsewhere. Despite the beautiful arrangements, some of the lyrics grate my ears every time.
"Be part of something good--
Leave something good behind."
I agree with the Waiting in the Weeds point, Henley did himself no favours sometimes on LROOE, whether it be on Waiting in the Weeds and making it about 100 times more convoluted than it needed to be, or stuff like Business As Usual and Frail Grasp, or elements of Cass County, where he is so far up himself he may as well have retired from songwriting and taken up the role of travelling preacher for a living.
All that said, I adore The Last Resort more than any other Eagles song, and I think the difference I feel between that and latter-day angry Henley is that TLR was written with a naive but oh-so-correct youthful cynicism, the sort of passion every 20-something who falls into a phase or trend feels. The fact that people on the internet are still outraged four decades later that he may or may not have blamed religion for part of it shows just how cleverly composed it was.
Anyway, my unpopular opinion: aside from a couple of guitar riffs (mainly his work on the HC album), Joe had an immeasurably better and more creative output in his James Gang and Barnstorm days than he did at any point when or after he joined the Eagles. For me he peaked with the eponymous Barnstorm album.
I adore WITW but the title track is ridiculously self-indulgent and Frail Grasp is unbearably self-righteous so yeah, I see what you're saying.
Apart from Pretty Maids, I agree.Anyway, my unpopular opinion: aside from a couple of guitar riffs (mainly his work on the HC album), Joe had an immeasurably better and more creative output in his James Gang and Barnstorm days than he did at any point when or after he joined the Eagles. For me he peaked with the eponymous Barnstorm album.
I also think it's totally "Put up a bunch of ugly houses and Jesus, people bought 'em" - that makes sense because he's saying "wow, I can't believe people bought those ugly houses, built on land that's been raped!"
I am about to contradict myself here, but I love the title track from LROOE; the tight co-lead vocals, Joe's solo and the Eastern influences on the music. Henley is in his usual form, granted, and the petroleum club verse is rather laboured, but I think some of his output in that song is wonderful - the final verse, especially the use of Caesar, I think is probably as strong as any he wrote in the Reunion era.
I too believe he meant 'Jesus, people...', but, like 'bloody stupid waste' in LROOE, it is a testament to his lyrical ability that it is so open ended either interpretation could be valid. Given his reluctance to sing 'god damn thing' in Life in the Fast Lane these days though, I do wonder if he regrets it!
I like Joe better in the Eagles than solo, but I like his solo stuff. I prefer LBG as a Eagles song, but the rest I love his solo versions a lot. For me while Barnstorm is great, I'd put "Smoker" and "So What" before it. For instance, I prefer the version of TTS on So What.
For me, I'd put the LITFL riff, his solo on HC, the slide intro on TLR (song), etc at the same level as any contributions Felder had in the band. And I like Felder fine, but I feel that the Eagles got measurably better when they dumped Bernie Leadon for Joe Walsh. Sorry Bernie, lol. I'm just not a fan. I respect him for his time in the band and his talent, but that's where it ends. They were a super group with Joe. I just really, really, don't like the early Eagles sound outside of some hits like TIE, PEF, and WW. The Desperado album is dreadful to me. I like country music, but more modern progressive country where the sounds of rock or RNB/pop are brought in. The whole mandolins and twang guitars don't do a lot for me personally. The "Eagles" hit their peak with HC. I feel that while they would have been known without HC and adding Joe, they were a LOT more successful by adopting a mainstream classic AOR rock sound and ditching the country in "country rock". They sound better to me rocking on songs like VOL than country bluegrass tinged songs like Tequila Sunrise. They were a guitar-driven rock band. They kept their vocal prowess and ability to harmonize but the guitar duo of Walsh and Felder really propelled them forward into rock n' roll greatness.