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

I have a personal category of songs that are more or less songs I thought were parodies/commercials when I first heard them but are actually sincerely recorded songs (The Doctor by The Doobie Brothers (sure it was a Dr. Pepper jingle) and All Summer Long by Kid Rock (thought it was a MI tourism board commercial) are prime examples) and if I didn't already know this was real, I am pretty sure I would have thought it was a joke, chug all night/hug all night is just so stupid.

kinda critic-proof. there should have been a choice hair metal cover of it. but other than that Dutch group doing it, there are absolutely no cover versions on Youtube. and believe me that says a LOT. there is only one clip of the actual song on Youtube. and someone put it up 2 months ago, so maybe Frey goes around yanking all videos of this song as fast as he can.

this is rough

i was just thinking about how someone said on the other thread that old-ilx would never do something like this and i was trying to imagine marcello and mark s. debating "chug all night".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STH7AxNmUY4

I like the introduction, I was expecting* it to unfold like The Stooges for a bit but better-recorded. The verses are better for keeping that urgency, but the vocals sadly don't keep up with it. Frey(?) really needed to cut loose here, scream a bit**. The oo-oos that appear in the second verse are too polite.

The guitar breaks are nice, and sound fantastic. I really like the 'no woman ever do what you do' bit, the bass rolls nicely. I can imagine Steppenwolf laying down this sorta thing.

The chorus is a disgrace though. The sentiment is fine - who among you hasn't wanted to chug all night? - despite the clumsy music/act of love parallel. No, the problem is the sheer laziness of the inner bar band here. That I-IV-I-IV progression*** and wall-of-backing-vox, cutting out on the punchline, we've heard it millions of times before.

FFS: 'gonna do a little chuggin', gonna do a little huggin'? I take it all back.

* not really
** scratch that, he does cut loose in the main guitar solo and it doesn't work. Henley should've sung this, he's raspier.
*** I'm making that up, mostly

I think this is tied with "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" for worst Eagles song...except that the music is pretty good. I hate Frey's vocals (there's a lot of cracking and deliberately ugly notes, and obviously the lyrics are mind-crushingly stupid), but the backing track is great. With better lyrics and a different singer, this could have been a '70s AOR classic.

I like the introduction, I was expecting* it to unfold like The Stooges for a bit but better-recorded.

I recall reading some account of early John Cougar Mellencamp where he claimed to have been in a band that covered the Stooges, but I just can't believe it.

Someone tell Robin Thicke we figured out what rhymes with hug.

"I can imagine Steppenwolf laying down this sorta thing."

steppenwolf from this era some of my fave steppenwolf. especially the albums Slow Flux and Skullduggery. two good ones from that time period:

"Black Pit"

http://youtu.be/i9PfrbScLi0

"Gang War Blues"

http://youtu.be/IszBXYDXWm4

but the actual year that the Eagles debut came out, 1972, saw the release of John Kay's solo album where he did a really good version of Richard Farina's anti-imperialism epic "Bold Marauder".

http://youtu.be/BhUkjeMDADg

which is just a way to point out that John Kay and Steppenwolf in the early 70's had WAY more on their minds than the Eagles did. and that's saying something.

Early '70s Steppenwolf albums are amazing. I love "Gang War Blues." But pretty much every Steppenwolf album right up to Skullduggery is great.

"Chug All Night" mostly makes me think of this guy.

Not the worst Eagles song in the world. I can hear in my mind a million bar bands butchering it.

Make them stop!

if you bought this album new and these were the first three songs you heard, i think you'd be pretty confused as to what exactly this band is--so far they've done prototypical country rock, soulful/citified pop-rock, and hacky bar band shit.

i dunno, seems kinda typical stuff to me. but i listen to way too many country rock records.

feel like in another era frey and henley would have been brill building or tin pan alley dudes. or own a shady little label where they would rip off r&b performers left and right. or despots in the mesopotamian empire.

living in a river of darkness beneath a neon light

xp yeah that may be true! i feel like this is less coherent than i thought it would be but you would know much better than me

feel like in another era frey and henley would have been brill building or tin pan alley dudes.

Frey and Henley at one desk, Fagan/Becker at another...

... Buckingham/Nicks naked under another ...

I kind of like this song. Ive never heard it before.

it would take all my superpowers to think of something interesting to say about this song. again, the intro is really promising. even when the first lines of the song creep out of frey's mouth you COULD conceivably be in for something good. and it sounds fine, but the production does nothing for me really. a zillion 4th tier country rock albums of the time had production that sounded as good as that.

the verses sound like a band in a garage just fucking around like 'hey what about this song'...in an ideal world instead of playing the whole song the drummer trails off after a verse and then they all just kinda stand around until Frey says, 'yeah I guess it wasn't that good' and they go try something else

but hey

the chorus is ok.

god the harmonies are not...very...good. or unnecessary. or something. like riding around with a dude singing along in his car but he's a beat behind so he comes in late

I BELIEVE WE COULD CHUG ALL NIGHT
I BELIEVE WE COULD HUG ALL NIGHT

*falls down on the floor laughing*

I BELIEVE WE COULD PUG ALL NIGHT

don't quote me on this but i think the two songs with solo frey songwriting credits on the first album are the first and last songs that he wrote solo. he's no dummy. or maybe they didn't allow him to write alone after this song.

haha yeah I can see why jeez louise

the Dutch were apparently very big fans

FLying Burrito Bros were massive there

xgau:
Actually, the protagonist of "Take It Easy" doesn't plan to make his stand alone. He craves female companionship--but please, no one who will stone him or own him or bewitch him or tie him down or let him down or do anything much but chug all night.

bud scoppa:
"Tryin'" and "Chug All Night" aren't great songs in themselves, but the Eagles use them as frames to hang their rock & roll licks on, and the controlled explosiveness of the performances makes them among the most exciting songs here. Glen Frey's snarling rhythm guitar is featured on these two, as it is on "Nightingale"; it's worth paying special attention to.

I can't do this and the Elton thing at the same time

So this must be what it's like to hear an Eagles song for the first time.

WE'RE UP ALL NIGHT TO GET CHUGGING.

hee hee hee

It's almost like Frey is a failed advertising dude who became a musician, and he's just using up his terrible slogans in his songs

Hahaha OTM.

but the Eagles use them as frames to hang their rock & roll licks on, and the controlled explosiveness of the performances makes them among the most exciting songs here.

jesus

dare i say, bud scoppa not otm

has he *heard* other music? do we know for sure?

"FLying Burrito Bros were massive there"

this is true! and everything byrds. that one gene clark album only came out in holland.

I believe we could bug tonight
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4TwrnXluxjM/T6XkAujoWuI/AAAAAAAABII/B6ahF5gkjvw/s200/Orkin+Man.jpg
can someone photoshop glenn frey's mug on the orkin man pls

It's not already?

"FLying Burrito Bros were massive there"

this is true! and everything byrds. that one gene clark album only came out in holland.

― scott seward, Thursday, August 22, 2013 1:21 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This explains a lot. Friend/former one-time bandmate did a duo record with Janet Bean (from Eleventh Dream Day and Freakwater) of Gram Parsons covers that was commissioned by a Dutch label (and only released in Holland).

Maybe move this thread to De Subjectivisten?

"Chug All Night" is the more faceless side of the band. Steppenwolf comparison upthread OTM--it also brings to mind ZZ Top (for some reason I flash on "Move Me On Down The Line" while listening to this) and Seger of the period. Joe Walsh could have done this in his sleep. Very much a 'First Album' song; you can also tell why Glyn Johns was so against them trying to really rock out.

this reminds me of when you see a classic rock cover band at a bar and they sneak one original into the setlist

Glen Frey's snarling rhythm guitar is featured on these two, as it is on "Nightingale"; it's worth paying special attention to.

LMAO

if this was literally like the only rock song you'd ever heard in your entire life, i guess....

grisso c'mon man this isn't even on the same planet as ZZ Top

zz top? seger? noooooooooo wtf grisso why u braek heart

In this case I think Glyn Johns echo is passive-aggressive because it seriously sounds like they're playing in a bar with a wooden floor for like 2 people