Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
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Originally Posted by
VAisForEagleLovers
I don't think it's that nice as he's effectively dissing both Desperado and On the Border.
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Before One of These Nights, they were a country-rock group that occasionally stretched its limits to middling results
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The songs they came up with were more substantial than anything they had come up with since their self-titled 1972 debut. And it was way more adventurous.
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“One of These Nights” (featuring Henley’s best vocal up to that point)
Given my love for Desperado (song and album), I think he's very wrong.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
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Originally Posted by
UndertheWire
I don't think it's that nice as he's effectively dissing both Desperado and On the Border.
Given my love for Desperado (song and album), I think he's very wrong.
As for Don's best vocal, I agree with him. I like how Don does Desperado live, he puts such passion into it, makes it come alive. For me, the recorded version is 'meh'. I didn't like the song until I heard it live.
As for the rest, I should have clarified...it was a nice article for UCR.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
Out of the statements listed, the one that I most strongly disagree with is that OOTN was their most substantial set of songs since the debut album - to me the debut album is their least substantial bunch of tunes, with Desperado showing a significant improvement in songwriting from all four members.
To illustrate this, let's ignore the four songs from the debut album and the five from Desperado which have been highlighted in the HOTE tour - clearly someone within the band must think these songs are decent. I think the remaining songs from Desperado are more substantial than those from the debut, compare CKOF and Bitter Creek to the likes of Chug All Night and Earlybird for instance. All of the songs from Desperado carry some significance to the overall story in their lyrics, whereas the only other song from the Eagles LP that has as much depth as the Desperado songs is in my view Take The Devil, although I would say that MOUAS is also a bit more substantial than the remaining songs. The other songs are not especially meaningful to me although this doesn't mean they aren't enjoyable (far from it).
I also definitely disagree that OOTN was more adventurous than their previous albums, I think making Desperado as their second album was a brave move (and one that cost them commercially in the short term) and it was less rocking than On The Border. The only songs that I would say were truly adventurous were the title track, which was unique in their discography at that time, and the underrated JOTS. By contrast, a song like Lyin' Eyes, while a classic, was very much in their old style, as was Hollywood Waltz, and IWYP is the most M.O.R. song they've ever recorded in my book.
As for 'they occasionally stretched their limits to middling results', I think the OTB album opposes this - the only songs that could really be described as country rock are My Man, Ol' 55 and BOML, the same as the number of out and out rockers (AG, JD and GDIH) and the ratio of mainstream rock songs to country rock ones is 2:1 once the R&B influenced title track and the ballads YNCLAL and IIT are taken into account. The last two, while not hard rocking, I consider to be rock ballads in the sense that the songs are played as a four piece band with the instrumentation being based largely on guitar/bass/drums (albeit with piano in the former) as opposed to the big productions of TITTL or Wasted Time, and display little country influence. There is Midnight Flyer but this is bluegrass rather than true country rock, and has a rock slide solo at the end in any case. There is also the small matter that, at least in my opinion, all these songs are good (Many of them better than 'good')! After Desperado there was a shift away from country rock even before Don Felder joined.
One difference with OOTN was that it was their first album where they wrote all of the songs (the only outside contributors being two associates of Bernie - even J.D. had no part in the writing of the album). This is good in some ways but I'd rather listen to the Eagles playing a song they may not have written but made their own, as they did with PEF and AG, than a less impressive song they did write such as Visions.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
VA, it's funny how we get so used to snark and worse that we see anything positive as "nice"!
Jonny, that's for putting all that into words. I agree with nearly everything you've written.
In defence of "Chug All Night", it and "Tryin'" both seem to have worked very well live.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
My takeaway was the band legacy overall. You hardly ever hear that from UCR.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
You all make some good points here. While I agree that One of These Nights was somewhat of a departure from the band's previous albums, I don't think that necessarily means it was better. Of the four albums, I think that the first one was the overall weakest. However, I have to admit the rawness and sensuality of Chug All Night makes me a big fan. After you get past OOTN, LE, TITTL, and ATTIG, I think there is a significant drop-off in quality on this album. Start to finish, and song for song, I personally prefer both Desperado and On the Border more.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
I must be in the minority. I find OOTN to be better than the debut or On the Border. I like almost all songs on OOTN. I can't say that for the other 2 albums I mentioned. OOTN,imo, holds up better as a whole album. On the Border has some of my favorite songs, but there are some that I don't really care for,same with the debut.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
I ran across another forum this morning, it's actually for guns, and most of the users seem to be US Veterans. One of them heard Lyin' Eyes, googled the Eagles and found some fansites that proclaim the Eagles are the best band ever. Since he was lurking on our forum, I didn't feel bad lurking on theirs. He asked the question, according to their users, who is the best American band?
I was surprised that in less than two days there were about 150 replies and about half of those were unique users. There was a lot of discussion, Boston, The Doors, CCR. About half of them agreed the best was the Eagles. Quite a few had watched HOTE, quite a few have gone to Eagles concerts. One guy made the comment that they are great because they do great harmonies on the road, that anyone can do them in the studio. One guy said they were great because they had at least one song everyone can relate to and few bands have that.
Of course there were naysayers, there always are, and there was a lot of discussion on what the criteria should be for 'greatest band'. The quote below are the ones I found most interesting.
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Defining “the Greatest” is pretty darn hard.
However, my WWII veteran father liked them. My mother really liked them. I’m almost 50 and I liked them growing up and so did almost everyone I knew. And it seems that even today kids generally like their music, even if it’s not at the top of their playlist.
In terms of a broad appeal over several decades, it’s hard to name any American band that’s greater.
(My problem with the Eagles is that I've been hearing their stuff for like 40 years. Their songs are really good, but I've heard them all 87 million times.)
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I like the Doors, can't stand the Eagles (I hate generic FM radio rock) but I have to call the Eagles one of the greatest American bands. Just because I don't like the music doesn't mean I don't recognize greatness when I hear it.
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
Interesting stuff, VA. This kinda reminds me of the contest that I've mentioned on the board several times before that a Jacksonville, FL newspaper ran several years ago where they used the NCAA March Madness tournament bracket to determine the greatest American Rock and Roll band. The final four teams in the contest were The Doors, CCR, Aerosmith, and the Eagles. Of course, our guys crushed CCR in the final round to take the prize. It does surprise me a little that there is no mention of Aerosmith on that forum though, but maybe they are a slightly more mellow generation and Aerosmith's harder sound doesn't appeal to them. :thumbsup:
Re: Eagles Mentions in the Press
I think they were mentioned, once. There were some that were meant to be amusing as well, like Justin Bieber, in spite of the fact he's Candian. Someone posted a clip of the Big Lebowski, and most had never seen the movie, thought the clip was funny, but still thought the Eagles best.
