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

The message of Petty's body of work: I won't back down; don't push me around = conservative

Unions love to play "I Won't Back Down" at rallies, fwiw.

(Personally I think they should embrace "Invincible" by Pat Benetar for this purpose.)

"The message of the Eagles' body of work: don't you touch our loot; aren't we hot, you dumb bitches = reactionary"

just add a touch of Henleyite politics: "we are America: America is depraved and awful."

(Personally I think they should embrace "Invincible" by Pat Benetar for this purpose.)

― carl agatha,

and with the power of conviction
THERE IS NO SACRIFICE

See??? Perfect.

Love this look, including the rat tail

https://skitch-img.s3.amazonaws.com/20090110-2en7xbh2hbfjb1xtitffaw8jr.preview.jpg

"Lyin' Eyes": Mandolin on on the final verses! Their craftsmanship is improving because this doesn't feel like a 6-minute song. And their lyrical abilities are getting better, or at least their finding less cliched ways to tsk-tsk those mean LA broads.

Simon Frith once called this a perfect pop song. Like "Best of My Love" before it, this song would have a heavy influence on late '70s-early '80s contemporary Country.

From the Director of We Bought A Zoo:

LYIN’ EYES
DON: “Lyin’ Eyes” is one of the songs written when Glenn and I were roommates in a house we rented up in Trousdale. It was built in 1942 by the actress Dorothy Lamour. Glenn and I lived at opposite ends of the house and we actually converted a music room to a full-on recording studio. The house was located at the highest point on the hill and we had a 360-degree panorama. In the daytime, we could see snowcapped peaks to the east and the blue Pacific to the west. At night, the twinkling lights of the city below were breathtaking. The place had a couple of nicknames — “the House With the Million Dollar View” and “The Eagles’ Nest,” of course. We had some great times up there. As for “Lyin’ Eyes,” Glenn’s pretty much responsible for that track and for the title, the choruses. I helped out with the verses and perhaps with the melody. It’s really Glenn’s baby.

GLENN: The house was up on Briarcrest Lane. That’s where we wrote “One Of These Nights,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Take It To The Limit,” “After The Thrill Is Gone,” and a couple of other tunes for the One Of These Nights album. But “Lyin’ Eyes” — the story had always been there. I don’t want to say it wrote itself, but once we started working on it, there were no sticking points. LYrics just kept coming out, and that’s not always the way songs get written. I think songwriting is a lot like pushing a boulder up a hill. I’d love to get the legal pad for “Lyin’ Eyes” again, because I think there were verses we didn’t use.

"We had some great times up there."

*shudder*

"I’d love to get the legal pad for “Lyin’ Eyes” again, because I think there were verses we didn’t use."

*more shudders*

"The place had a couple of nicknames — “the House With the Million Dollar View"

that's not a nickname, that a line you dropped at bars trying to pick up women with lyin' eyes, henley

OK I loathe this song. I need a bath. Ugh.

and “The Eagles’ Nest,” of course.

Of course.

http://i.imgur.com/jwm8KO8.png

"We wrote songs a lot because the TV reception was shitty for some reason. The girls all called it 'The Tower House,' but I don't know why. Maybe because we were 'towering' over all other acts like Firefall and Poco."

I'm gonna play That Petrol Emotion for the rest of the afternoon.

Glenn:"We used to climb that tower every night. It used to be off-limits 'cause some drunk roadie fell off. He went right down the middle, smacking his head on every beam, man. I hear it doesn't hurt after the first couple though. Autopsy said he had one beer."

Glenn: We used to climb that tower every night. It used to be off-limits 'cause some drunk roadie fell off. He went right down the middle, smacking his head on every beam, man. I hear it doesn't hurt after the first couple though. Autopsy said he had one beer.

Don: A pussy.

Glenn: Well, yeah.

Jeez, those two. You're right, a thread for nice guys like Coldplay would be no fun; we need to take on Phil Spector or someone.

FYI: Kansas have 14 albums and i only know, like, 3 Kansas songs. that might be a rough one though...

Glenn: We used to climb that tower every night. It used to be off-limits 'cause some drunk roadie fell off. He went right down the middle, smacking his head on every beam, man. I hear it doesn't hurt after the first couple though. Autopsy said he had one beer.

Don: A pussy.

Glenn: Well, yeah.

Don: Anyway. That's how we came up with "The Last Resort".

pl don't make the next one of these abt coldplay i beg you

Could do worse

Glenn: We used to climb that tower every night. It used to be off-limits 'cause some drunk roadie fell off. He went right down the middle, smacking his head on every beam, man. I hear it doesn't hurt after the first couple though. Autopsy said he had one beer.

Don: A pussy.

Glenn: Well, yeah.

Don: That's America: you think you can hang with the boys and you end up fucking yourself in the ass. So that's what "The Long Run" is about.

Skynyrd might be a good one (up to the plane crash, that is). Relative to the Eagles, they have the inverse proportion of duds to great stuff. About 70 songs or so, give or take demos/alternate takes.

I would rather hear the worst pre-crash Skynyrd song on repeat all day than hear "Lyin' Eyes" one more time

yeah, part of me kinda likes the thankless task nature of this thread. skynyrd would be too much of a treat. maybe we should have a nomination thread after this. if anyone really wants to do another one. what if we did elton john: A Single Man up to Sleeping With The Past. roughly ten years in hell. i probably know like one song. 11 albums i've never heard. that might be thankless enough.

That's a great idea!

Good point re: Skynyrd.

Skynyrd would be great

Nah I had wilderness years Elton in mind!

I think these threads are probably more fun/interesting with artists whose catalogs seem like turds from a distance, but closer inspection reveals gummi bears within said turds. Skynyrd would be all gummi bears, no turd.

i can't imagine ever submitting myself to this again
dnw turds

THere are a lot of Skynyrd haters on ILM, at least there used to be.

xpost

I've picked up about six good tracks from this thread that I'd never've heard otherwise. I'll have enough for an alternative Greatest Hits by the time we're through. It's worth it imo.

The Eagles are a unique case:

• They've got a catalog that's mainly reviled on the basis of a big library of radio staples, and leaves a bunch of their work unheard.
• There's plenty of 'vs.' in this band: all of them wrote and sang, had different styles/strengths/weaknesses to debate over.
• Loads of intrigue and insanity in their back story to discuss.
• No other rocker has successfully documented his residences as Glenn Frey.
• Two Words: Joe Walsh
• One more word: Banjo
• Cocaine's a hell of a drug.

If we weren't all of a particular age, Guns N Roses would be fabulous for this.

There's plenty of 'vs.' in this band: all of them wrote and sang, had different styles/strengths/weaknesses to debate over.

This especially. I don't know how I'd handle an Aerosmith thread, knowing that there wasn't going to be any "Journey of the Sorcerer" coming up to break it up a bit.

i just thought elton might be good cuz he was one of the biggest pop stars ever and hey wait a minute here's 11 albums in a row that nobody remembers at all.

Exactly!

i'm down with an Elton in the Wilderness thread, because I also have no idea what's on any of those records except the few radio hits.

thread guaranteed to drive anyone participating in it insane: Chicago, song by song I through XVII.

Wow. OTM.

actually Elton had a lot of radio hits in the eighties!

It's the album tracks that scare me.

"'25 or Six To Four' What is respectively the amount of suicides and how many survivors after the Chicago listening thread is over?"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Carnac.jpg

chicago seconded!

or, rather, II'ed.

Why stop at XVII?

Congestive heart failure.

"Why stop at XVII?"

the last Cetera album. end of an epoch (I know this because a college roommate of mine loved Chicago, and would go off on the vast inferiority of Chicagos 18 through whatever in hell # they were at in 1992)

i would do chicago. literally. i would do everyone in chicago. but yeah i would do that. someone else has to post 400 chicago songs though.

Timothy B Schmidt should have replaced Cetera in Chicago

ii would do chicago. literally. i would do everyone in chicago

keep it in your pants, sailor

I think I can speak on behalf of my city when I say that Chicago would do you back, scott.

The first however many regional ILX Chicago threads were named after Chicago albums, until we ran out of albums.

I'm not sure what other band would entice me back into a thread like this, but I'm not entirely sure why I decided to go along for this Eagles ride, either.