Celebration of "I Can't Stand Still"

[sodascouts]

My favorite songs on this album are:

Dirty Laundry
Talking to the Moon
Lilah

Those are my top three too, Henleyfan!

[Freypower]

1. Talking To The Moon
2. Dirty Laundry
3. Lilah
4. Nobody's Business
5. I Can't Stand Still
6. Long Way Home
7. The Unclouded Day
8. Johnny Can't Read
9. You Better Hang Up
10. La Eile
11. Them & Us

[Koala]

1. Dirty Laundry
2. Lilah
3. Talking To the Moon
4. Long Way Home
5. Nobody’s Business
6. I Can’t Stand Still
7. Johnny Can’t Read
8. You Better Hang Up
9. The Unclouded Day
10. La Eile
11. Them and Us

[Windeagle]

I'm doing this from ancient memory because I haven't played this album since my turntable was packed away in 1994. I have not yet replaced it on CD (ran out of cash after the first round of CD acquisitions!).

Anyway, here's what I recall from reading lyrics on liner notes:

1. Talking to the Moon
2. Lilah
3. La Eile (which I always considered part of Lilah)
4. Dirty Laundry
5. Them and Us
6. The Unclouded Day
7. I Can't Stand Still
8. You Better Hang Up
9. Nobody's Business
10. Johnny Can't Read
11. Long Way Home (just because it's the only one that I can't remember how it goes even after looking at the lyrics)

Everything from about 8 down is pretty interchangeable. For me, Them and Us was saved by a rockin' guitar line and The Unclouded Day benefited from being great to sing along with at top volume in the car.

I wish I could do the Soul Searchin' poll over in the Frey thread, but that's one that I never owned and haven't found on CD yet.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I'll go ahead and give everyone an update of the current standings - Lilah is in first place now with Dirty Laundry being just 2 points behind in second place. Talking to the Moon is 1 point behind in third place, and Long Way Home is in fourth place.

Speaking of Long Way Home ... Awww - what a shame about it being a victim of Windeagle's bad memory. It's a gorgeous song - in fact one of my favorite Don solo songs. Windeagle, you should definitely try to give the song a listen. These polls for the solo albums sounds like a good reason to start familiarizing yourself with some Eagles solo material.

[sodascouts]

Lilah over Dirty Laundry and Talking to the Moon at this point? That's a surprise!

LWH has some great lines in it:

"The heat don't work, the toaster don't work, the car don't work... and I guess I know why. This house don't work and this dream don't work no more... and lover, neither do you and I."

"I fall asleep with colors flying over sand and foam." Nice.

[Freypower]

And I STILL don't get that line about the sand & foam. I just think 'he's in a boat. Nice for him'.

The end of Long Way Home, all that 'sha la la la' stuff, to me goes on too long. I like most of the song but get bored with that part.

Maybe people like Lilah because it seems more intimate & confessional than Talking To The Moon. I prefer the latter because it is more stark & open musically. As with LWH, I am not crazy about the 'tura lura lura' ending of Lilah.

[Windeagle]

My first Border homework assignment!

Ok, I found a cover version of LWH on Youtube, so I remember it now. It still was my least favorite ballad on the album, but I can move it from the bottom to #6. Everything else just shifts down by one.

For me, LWH was a little too slow, though the lyrics are indeed pretty. I liked Lilah for its Celtic feel (Carbon Leaf, another Celtic-influenced band, is my other big fandom). As for Talking to the Moon, I love the sheer intensity of Don's vocal on it. He rips your heart out with that one.

[Windeagle]

As for the "sand and foam" line, I always took that as a memory or a dream of a day at the beach with the girl. I pictured a cloudy, windy day that stirred up the surf and furled the flags out wide in the wind.

[sodascouts]

It's so interesting how people perceive that line. I always envisioned the "colors flying over sand and foam" to be a vivid sunset reflected in an ocean which is crashing onto the shore. Something kind of like this:



It could function symbolically as the beauty he seeks, but finds only in his dreams.

You know, I always liked the line because I thought "colors flying" was such a creative, expressive way to describe the vivid colors that sweep across the sky at sunset, how those colors can convey a sense of motion as they inevitably plunge into the blackness of night. If he meant a flag, well, it's not quite as creative and romantic as I'd initially thought, but still good. lol