A Good Day In Hell - The Official ILM Track-By-Track EAGLES Listening Thread

Does he ever demand preferential treatment? “Oh no, no, no,” he protests. “Sometimes I send Tony, my road manager, in in advance to say: ‘Mr Henley would like to come in, and could he please have a table at the back away from the rest of the patrons so that he doesn’t get disturbed?’” Technically speaking, that does probably constitute preferential treatment, but still.

Henley's Cass County actually doesn't suck! Quite possible that this totally unexpected impression has led me to initial overrating, but here's what I said on Rolling Country (hearing npr's post of the deluxe edition, with those four bonus covers, really did help)
Don Henley's guest-star-laden Cass County turned out to be surprisingly painless, enjoyable, even. Starts with one of four well-chosen covers (all present on this deluxe edition, that is): Tift Merritt's "Bramble Rose," which he starts in relatively good voice---not just lack of the strain I remember; he actually seems to have a feel for the phrasing and pace---then hands it off to Miranda Lambert, who passes a verse to Mick Jagger---also good, even though he plays it straight. "Cost of Living" meets Merle Haggard, Martina McBride's good on "Old Flame," although the story gets cut short, probably because it's based on a real-life episode, according to him. Dolly Parton is excellent, duh, on the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming," but she doesn't obliterate Henley vocal, so give points to both vox.
Some other voices are more in the background, like "two out of three Dixie Chicks," Vince Gill, Lucinda---though NPR streams aren't always as good as they should be, and my headphones are certainly not for audiophiles, but I like the way he melds near-subliminal yet unmistakable Lee Ann Womack to a chorus that would otherwise probably get monotonous.
Even at least one cratedigger's catnip find, at least for me: "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune," with a low-key, sneaky surrealism that surely suggested some Gram Parsons originals, and had me thinking that this presentation surely is the mature, generous Henley, since Parsons reportedly loathed the Eagles--but apparently it was written by one Jesse Lee Kincaid, and recorded by Nilsson, on his Pandemonium Shadow Show (also by the Dillards on Wheatstraw Suite).
Speaking of the Eagles, I never was a big fan, but the overall sense of radio-ready structures here even extends to up- and downtempo tracks that would improve several of their albums.
Catchiness etc. also gets past most editorial moments, so more points for not playing the old man card too much (trepidation of atmospheric "Train In The Distance" could be felt by anyone, most likely).

Even at least one cratedigger's catnip find, at least for me: "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune," with a low-key, sneaky surrealism that surely suggested some Gram Parsons originals, and had me thinking that this presentation surely is the mature, generous Henley, since Parsons reportedly loathed the Eagles--but apparently it was written by one Jesse Lee Kincaid, and recorded by Nilsson, on his Pandemonium Shadow Show (also by the Dillards on Wheatstraw Suite)

Kincaid's original is on Rhino's LA Nuggets box, and it was also recorded by Hearts & Flowers, featuring future Eagle Bernie Leadon.

Thanks! Will check out those earlier versions, and try to dig up something else re Kincaid too.

Also I picked up Felder's hefty Between Heaven and Hell in the library, and read the whole thing that afternoon, which never happens. Gist: his father comes off as a self-made, self-righteous, self-torturing workaholic and skinflint, and Don follows suit during his Eagles years, with infinitely more bucks and perks than blue collar Dad ever had, of course. Furthermore, Dr. Phil, he somewhat recreates his own defiant-dependent teen relationship with Dad, now played by Henley and Frey.
When he finally gets his ass fired, after having papers served in the studio, he actually calls back, all crying---"Try to seek some higher ground in this, Fingers," Frey counsels, and the ex-Mrs. Felder fervently seconds.
So he does, with this book of excellent anecdotes (also careful references to ongoing litigation), from early years in Florida---girlfriend accuses him of stepping out with blondes, who turn out to be pre-facial hair, though tressed-for-success Gregg and Duane)[;"Tommy" Petty is his guitar student; Stephen Stills is "the funniest kid I ever met," passing through town while running away from military school, back to his parents (though every kid I knew back then who was sent to military school, was sent for a good reason); Bernie Leadon is his local connection to the budding West Coast folk-country rock scene.
Also lots of good stuff about "The Gods," as everybody who worked with and for the Eagles called Henley and Frey; supposedly many of these--even the Gods themselves, individually---called Felder up to trade the latest atrocity stories.
But I also get, in terms of more perhaps unintended reveals, that the Gods were trying to keep their associates' and their own assholes-with-money tendencies somewhat in line, at least for the sake of making even more money (by keeping up the musical standards, for instance). Nevertheless, Felder and I are somewhat respectful of, for instance, Joe Walsh's working out his frustrations on whole floors of hotels (and he lasted longer than any non-God in the line-up, I think, so maybe the mayhem helped).

Dillards version of that song is great

Will check---should add that my pop psych take on Felder is mine, not his, but the stories do seem to add up.

http://i.imgur.com/CWuB2c6.jpg

Gosh, just give me a second. I know it's got something to do with a song, right?

watched half of that Documentary Now! "The Blue Jean Committee" episode which is clearly a satire of the Eagles doc (Irving Azoff even appears) - mildly funny

Don Henley Ejected a Concertgoer for Shouting Don Felder’s Name

I won't even paste that final sentence, but leave it to Henley to never let you leave without an awkward feeling of yech.

In The Wild: "How Long" at Rudy's BBQ.

Brian Wilson w the sick burn:

We were in the dressing room at this fundraiser in New York, and Don Henley and Timothy Schmidt from The Eagles walked in. And Timothy was very nice, but Don was just kind of aloof and walking around the room. And finally, after a few minutes of chatting, Don pulls out a copy of Pet Sounds on CD that he wants Brian to sign.

So Brian grabs it and he signs, "To Don, thanks for all the great music." And he's handing it back to Don, but before Don can take it, he grabs it back and he crosses out "great" and puts "good music." (Laughs) And the thing is, there's no irony there. He's not being funny. He's really thinking, "I wrote 'great,' but I don't think it's great. But it's good. It's good music." And he handed it back to Don, and it was perfect.

amazing i hope that story is true

if only the Eagles had exercised such editorial precision

from here: http://m.csindy.com/coloradosprings/darian-sahanaja-on-playing-with-brian-wilson/Content?oid=3105483

AVClub interview with dude from Baroness:

Eagles, “Take It To The Limit” (1975)

JB: I became an Eagles fan this year, which is the craziest thing. I hated the Eagles so badly that we would do tours, and I would talk so much smack and be so enraged by any and all Eagles-related speech. It’s always struck me as odd that there’s become an assumption, or I think an American assumption, that musicians listen to their genre and don’t really go too far outside, or if they do it’s very specific like, “I play grindcore, but I listen to powerviolence.” But I listen to everything, and I’ve definitely got lots of love for dad rock. There’s no doubt about it. The Eagles thing was this year, though. In fact, it was like a month before we went into the studio.

The A.V. Club: What was it that brought you over to the dad rock dark side with the Eagles, specifically?

JB: You know what it was? It was that documentary that just proves categorically that they’re sociopaths. It was a game maker. They’re open about it. Now it’s not an issue for me anymore. I was like, how can anybody like this stuff? These guys are complete lunatics, and they’re just wrong. Oh no, no, no. That’s part of it, so I get it. Now I like it.

AVC: So what’s the Eagles song for you now that you’ve been converted?

JB: I’m going to pick a weird one, but I think “Take It To The Limit” is incredible. You gotta understand the background. I hated the Eagles. We all know the songs. We all know the words. We all think the guitar solo in “Hotel California” is cool, but the rest of the song maybe not so much, or that’s how I felt for a long time. But then I watch that documentary, and I’d been complaining for such a long time about how it seems to me that in pop music—and by pop music I mean anything that’s big enough that millions of people have heard of it, but there’s become this dearth of personality. I’m sure there’s a bazillion reasons that that’s happened, but it’s just too hard to pull off anymore. Even if you’re Kanye West, and you’ve got personality for miles, eventually the press and your fans are going to demonize you for it—way back when it was pre-iPod, pre-internet, pre-cellphone, it was just guys doing crazy things behind closed doors, and you’d hear about it, but it was just rumors and that’s all you heard.

But with the documentary, I could just hear in Don Henley’s voice and in the sultry stylings of Glenn Frey, I could hear that these guys are total narcissists. You can hear it, man. There’s one thing when you emanate self-confidence. There’s another thing when you self-idolize, and you can hear that. I could always hear it, and I heard it as a bad thing like “Hey, this doesn’t represent me and my kind.” We were getting ready to record Purple months ago, and Netflix had the documentary, and we all just decided to watch it.

Once I realized that those guys were as openly self-involved as they sounded, it was like the veil was drawn back and all of a sudden I gained a kind of perverse respect for them. (Laughs.) I mean, it’s perverse. I’m not going to try to rationalize it and encourage it, but their openness about that level of character, it made me kind of dig them. Furthermore, I mean, watching them perform is kind of staggering. I think it’s when they’re in Hollywood, and there’s a whole section of the documentary just on “Take It To The Limit” where you realize that Randy Meisner is basically living in this self-inflicted hell that is the ending minute-and-a-half of the song where he really does in fact take it to the limit. It’s like The Eagles doing their version of the ending to “Overkill” by Motörhead. He’s hitting those notes, and of course it’s beautiful, and it’s amazing, and those songs are really great and especially that one in particular.

I like it. It’s barely rock at all, but I did gain an appreciation for it, and it kind of became a thing. What was most interesting to me was that he has to sing these notes at the end of the song because they’re iconic notes. Even the year it came out they were iconic notes, and they’re high and hard to hit even for him with the highest voice in the band. To see him suffering at that level and really, truly trying to perform that song night after night, I got sympathetic. I liked the song enough as it was, but now there was a new layer to it. I’ve kind of been obsessed with it since then. When I go to a party and put that on my playlist, it doesn’t gain me a lot of popularity, but it’s a really good song. I’m being honest; they’re really good songwriters. I wish the style was a little harder, but maybe then it wouldn’t have worked as well. Who knows.

"dad rock"

don is about to be interviewed by Howard stern…I am quivering with excitement…surely HS will have agreed to not bring up the two teenagers ODing incident, among many many other provisos…

Recently started reading Warren Zanes' new biography of Tom Petty. Had no idea he went to high school in Gainesville w/both Bernie Leadon and Don Felder.

you would have known that if you had read all 5274 posts on this thread.

Hey, take it easy.

xp Well, yeah

The Baroness guy interview gives context for the "dad rock" wammy. Basically it was a piece about him later in life coming to grips with/coming to love a lot of the light rock he derided as a teen. Actually, I thought there was a lot of good/interesting/entertaining/perceptive stuff in here:

http://www.avclub.com/article/john-baizley-discusses-simple-beauty-dad-rock-and--229328

dang that documentary did wonders for their image

Once I realized that those guys were as openly self-involved as they sounded

not to really pick on the guy, but it was always obvious these people were huge narcissists. the doc didn't exactly make that revelation. trying to figure out why it's "cool" now. people posit that it is bc they are now unapologetic about it, as if in the past they were pretending to be kind of humble or something.

"the sultry stylings of Glenn Frey"

"the glistening genital warts on Don Henley"

Well, I think the doc did open a lot of eyes to a band many/most had only heard. There were a handful of songs I didn't even know were Eagles songs until I saw the doc.

Eagles = Dad Rock ... We're getting close to, if not past, the point where bands from the 70s are "dad rock".

Foo Fighters, Wilco, fathers taking their sons to see Straight Outta Compton... that's the era of Dad Rock we're now in.

yeah i had a deep and abiding hatred, had read multiple interviews where don henley gloated over the eagles having been more successful than the new york dolls so fuck the critics where are the new york dolls now huh, i knew these fuckers, and the doc was still revelatory. the first half of it is pretty great, i didn't finish the second half, just perfunctory rehab and reunion stuff. man between that doc's growing cult, their profile (and classic rock's profile in general) shrinking enough that they don't suffer from present overexposure, and stuff like blue jean committee i do wonder if somehow the eagles could be reclaimed. may god have mercy on our souls.

it's working out the way Henley planned: where are Foghat and Zep on AOR radio now motherfuckers!

great interview with DH on howard stern today

the era of Dad Rock we're now in.

i think at this point basically all rock is dad rock.

http://i.imgur.com/QYifvUP.gif

I mean, Well yeah.

"Get Over It" was blasting out of an apartment window in town a couple days ago.

BITCHIN A FIT

I have the first six Eagles albums on my iPod and tried shuffling them yesterday and was struck anew by the Grand Canyon-sized gulf in quality between anything they released as a single and anything they didn't. I mean, there's literally not one track on their albums where you can say, "Why wasn't this a single? It would have been a huge hit!" Everything that was a hit deserved to be a hit, but everything else was like having your face shoved into a mountain of rotting garbage.

Get over it!

Our knowledge was dearly won, Phil.

Oh really? Didn't know that "Chug All Night" had been released as a single. I'll have to look up its chart position and airplay when I get a moment.

uh

Special Tribute to The Eagles
Miranda Lambert – “Desperado”

How Can I Forget?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx9VRLBAo2E

Also, In The Wild, A FB Status from Huey Lewis that a friend of mine "Liked"

Glenn Frey of The Eagles and I were playing golf at Pebble Beach one time. Scott Ostler, the great sports reporter in San Francisco, said to us, “Well, between you guys, you must have written hundreds of songs,” thinking we had a bunch of songs we never released.
Glenn, who has had a lot of hit songs, said, “No, I have used everything I ever wrote.”
Writing a great song is not easy. If you write 10 good songs in your life, you are a hall of famer. - Huey

Well, yeah.

HUEY: Well, between me, Glenn, and Ray Parker Jr., amirite?

GLENN: Bet I could find a place to park her!

DON: Well, yeah.

It's the nature of the business...

http://www.tmz.com/2016/01/18/glenn-frey-the-eagles-dead/

WHAT

THE

FUCK!?!?

I was this close last week to saying something like "Bowie's dead, but hey, all members of the Eagles - past and present - are still alive."

He died of a broken heart.

DAVID: As an artist, I wanted to turn my death not into a celebration of my life and career, but into a celebration of the lives of everyone. We are all lost souls floating in a tin can, and yet, it's by joining together that we make this mysterious journey into something with meaning.

GLENN: I know I've joined together with a few lost souls in my day, if you get my drift.

DAVID: I'm sorry, what was your name again?