Teenage Jail

[Scarlet Sun]

Is Teenage Jail a "serious" song? I've debated this topic "elsewhere." To me, especially considering the parts that Henley sings, there is no way they intended this as any more than an amusing throwaway. That's why I give it more points than most Eagles fans do. An Eagles song with humor

[sodascouts]

I think Glenn said somewhere that they intended this to be a counterpoint to "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks." I also remember Don saying something like that song was indicative of the fact that they had sick senses of humor. That leads me to believe you may be right.

However, that begs the question... when they said they had enough material to conceivably turn the Long Run into a double album... why waste vinyl on a throwaway joke song?

[Scarlet Sun]

I've never been solidly versed on this whole "there was enough material for The Long Run to be a double album" concept. I've heard of "You're Really HIgh, Aren't You?" What other songs were supposedly floating around?

[sodascouts]

I don't know what else was floating around - I just remember hearing that they were thinking about making a double album.

They say that they destroy everything they don't use so it can't "get out" later, so it may forever be a mystery what else existed.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I agree that Teenage Jail is meant to be "tongue and cheek".

As far as The Long Run being a double album, I always got the impression that this was the original intention. However, due to all the drama going on within the band at the time, they weren't able to get together and come up with enough tracks. Eventually when the pressure became so intense just to get something completed, they scrapped the idea, and decided to release it as soon as they were able to complete 10 'acceptable' tracks.

[Freypower]

Something I have never understood about Teenage Jail is why Glenn didn't sing the whole song. He has half of this, half of King of Hollywood and Heartache Tonight as far as lead vocals go, although even this small amount is an increase on both the OOTN and HC albums. Or if Don had to sing the midsection why couldn't Glenn have sung the last verse alone?

Having said that, I like the song most of the time. I tend to think of it as a send up of some of the more po-faced music that was around at the time.

[sodascouts]

I actually like the back-and-forth vocals of Teenage Jail; they'd been doing that kind of thing since Desperado, so it wasn't really that surprising for them to do it again.

They wanted that eerie harmony for KOH, so they both had to sing lead. I honestly consider that more Don's song with Glenn harmonizing, although technically they are both lead. I consider the opposite to be true for Good Day in Hell - more Glenn's song with Don harmonizing there.

I don't know why Glenn didn't want to take over more of the vocals. His vocal on Heartache Tonight won a freaking Grammy! However, his answer to that question is that he felt Don's voice was just better for certain songs... and that happened to be the majority of songs.

[Scarlet Sun]

Doesn't Glenn only sing the "he's callin'" parts on KOH?

[Freypower]

He sings the falsetto part for the entire lyric except for the 'after a while nothing was pretty' verse, which Don sings alone. Don also sings the line 'we're gonna take care of you darlin'' alone. That is why Glenn has a co-lead vocal credit on the song.

[Scarlet Sun]

Oh, so they reversed their usual roles for this song