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

marsh's heart of rock and soul bk is a great 'dipping into' read, and, pre-interweb etc, introduced me to lots of terrific songs i'd never heard before. he writes v. well abt madonna in it. i don't understand why marsh is wrong to see the eagles as being at least emblematic of the great sixties betrayal, or for suggesting that a lot of the values they incarnate - cocaine misogyny, commerce before art, contempt for their fans - suck.

yeah rrhof vote is like a cross between football and baseball halls of fame. committee determines who is on the ballot then voters decide who actually goes in. that's how you can have rush wait forever and still go in "first ballot".

"Take It To The Limit": Meisner is they only one in the band who could have sung this (and they still do it live? Alf, do you remember who tackled it when you saw them?). Another one that's sonic wallpaper to me. As for Country versions, Waylon & Willie had a hit cover in the '80s; it's not on youtube, so I'll get my Waylon box off the shelf in a minute to review.

Glenn choosing his words carefully for his one-time director:

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT
GLENN: I just remember being very happy for Randy. We had tried, unsuccessfully, to get a piece of material for him — or from him — that might be a hit single, or turn into one. I don’t think we ever consciously tried to make a hit single. We finally succeeded with “Take It To The Limit.” That’s the first Eagles single to sell a million copies. It was our first gold single, maybe our only gold single. People always tended to buy our albums instead. We still had hit records, but they wouldn’t sell through as 45s much. We had a lot of #1s, but I know that “Take It To The Limit” was our first gold single. And when Randy would sing it in Japan — it was mass hysteria [laughs].

According to Meisner, he has approached the group's people about singing the song with them at LA-area shows. He never got a response.

So I've been missing this. I love "Take It Easy." People who think about the actual lyrics in Eagles songs have only themselves to blame.

Alf, do you remember who tackled it when you saw them?).

I cryptically linked to a YouTube above of Frey singing it.

here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNYBOKDOm9E

Alf, do you remember who tackled it when you saw them?).

pretty sure it was Frey

thank you, tarfumes. I guess he deserves more credit than I've given him.

People who think about the actual lyrics in Eagles songs have only themselves to blame.
I tend to blame the jerkwads who wrote them, not myself. If I could insert my own lyrics a lot of these songs would be much improved, like Take It to the Lemon.

Okay, Roach acquits himself better than I thought he would.

I pulled down the Willie & Waylon version and listened. It's pretty nice. No strings. Willie sings most of it. Waylon takes the middle verse, changing a line to "you can spend all your time making love".

i never really paid too close attention to their lyrics. but i don't in general pay too close attention to lyrics. except for echo & the bunnymen lyrics. genius!

c-c-c-cucumber
c-c-c-cabbage

marsh missed a lot of great bands, and he missed a lot of them for the wrong reasons. i think veronica is onto something with the good/bad vs. right/wrong argument. but his rolling stone record guides were absolutely invaluable to me growing up, and i still sometimes go back to them.

marsh in the 1983 edition of the record guide on the eagles: "that their sexism had curdled into viciousness and that their whining became more and more dominant was irrelevant when their songs were heard one at a time on the radio. taken as an oeuvre, however, these qualities are both unavoidable and utterly unpalatable." i suspect more than a few people here feel something similar.

i've been playing echo remasters in the store all week and been surprising myself with how many of their songs i know the words too. they are really fun to sing though.

well yeah that's what i was getting at before. i don't think marsh and people here are that far apart in their views on eagles.

MOST people here...

Marsh also loved Madonna and "Jam On It."

I think Glenn Frey is the only Detroit guy Marsh wouldn't stan for. In the singles book, he praises Henley's solo career as a great example of "addition by subtraction".

well…hmm… I guess I don't particularly care if the Henley & Frey are representing misogyny and a curdled, selfish libertinism. or if they were hypocrites. I'm not voting for them, i don't work for them, me being around their music doesn't = being around them individually. I was born in 1971, have long been tired of guys like Marsh and Henley and guys I know pining for the 1960s and how the promise was betrayed, i.e. human nature was not essentially changed. Furthermore, it's not that different when steve Alibini or god knows how many indie rock people are pissed that the 80s are over and younger people are making music that contradicts their unchanging principles. Appreciating different aesthetics is fun. I don't need my ideological viewpoint reinforced.

are the Eagles presenting their asshole views in an interesting, vivid way? do their records sound good in representing their dickish-ness? If I can't abide the views of the Eagles as such, then I can't like NWA. I can't like John Lydon. I can't like GG Allin, I can't like Count Grishnackh, Frank Sinatra, Kells, David Allen Coe…then I can only like Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear.

my favorite song right now is "I Luv this Shit" by a young guy from New Orleans named August Alsina. He talks about treating women cavalierly, doing and selling reckless amounts of drugs and making a lot of money. I don't care that his views are not my own. It's a great song, vividly describing unpleasant unhealthy misogynist shit, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the Long Run.

xp Marsh also hated Doug Fieger (had a band in Detroit in the 60s called Sky, was met with indifference, moved to LA to form the Knack).

"then I can only like Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear"

little-known, but these guys are actually neo-nazis and they eat babies.

"are the Eagles presenting their asshole views in an interesting, vivid way?"

not really!

but i dig them anyway. or at least the hits apparently.

pining for the 1960s and how the promise was betrayed, i.e. human nature was not essentially changed.

I can honestly say I've never read a single word of Marsh that bemoaned the fact that human nature didn't fundamentally change. I don't think human nature has anything to do with the "betrayal" of the "promise" of the "60s."

The Eagles were entitled whiners. None of the other artists you mentioned are/were.

xp

I always hated the reptition of 'Take It To the Limit', of all the Eagles songs that was the one that annoyed me the most and I would turn it off if it came on the radio.

but i dunno if it's this thread or I'm old & senile or who the fuck knows but I was playing it early in the morning the other day as I drove to work, and jeez, something about sunrise on an empty freeway must have kinda muddled my head or something because I was FEELIN' it all of a sudden
like really, truly FEELIN it. I was kind of embarrassed afterwards, lol

and that Etta version. holy shit. bow down, Randy.

They put you on a highway and showed you a sign--Take It To The Limit, Veg, One More Time...

but, I just did!

gah! fine *gets in car*

Those highway signs are for large trucks with multiple axles. Most drivers can disregard them.

ok wait. so do I or do I not take it to the limit

Do it.

Then do it one more time.

Randy would want it that way...

OK BUT WHEN DO I STOP. everyone keeps telling me 'one more time'

*cries*

It's the mobius strip of pleasant southern California country-rock.

take it to the limit on the highway until you see in the distance a shimmering light

Hmm, from which lane should I be in?

Yeah, definitely sounds like the soundtrack to somebody's personal hell. Playing this on tour must have felt like Sisyphus.

First off, I know this is off topic to the current song, so I apologize. Gotta say I've been following this thread as a lurker and someone who has a lifelong relationship w the Eagles (and solo Henley) yet has never voluntarily listened to one of their records, it's been great reading!

The music.... I don't know. Maybe I hate them on an instinctual level? I've been following this thread for about a month now and only just now listened to "Take It Easy" and "Take It To The Limit". There was no reason to listen to either of them, I'd heard it a million times on the radio, and in my mind I could re-create my favorite parts (and throw in some more cartoonish CCR-style fake southern accents for more fun) and when I got tired of the joke, just throw it aside.

In my memory these songs are pure radio cheese crafted as perfectly idealized cartoons. If The Ramones were in that Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror", their evil versions would be The Eagles.

This is probably why they sold so many records. They are an archetype for post-psychedelic self-indulgence & social paranoia. That and it is the most indulgent kind of music-due in large part to their maturing drug-fueled lifestyles.

People always bring up 'the death of the 60's' or 'the death of the American dream' as themes the Eagles played with, and they themselves accept that critique because it's certainly part of the Eagles brand that works. What is this dream? Is it different than the dream of easy sex and drugs? Because if not, then the 60's never ended for the Eagles. They were living that dream. Sorry dudes, Manson beat you by almost a decade.

Btw I did re-listen to some songs, and did enjoy them! Just not as much as when i was a kid.

The EGOS

Take It... To the Limit!
Take It... To the Limit! ooooh yeeeeeeah
Take It... To the Limit! waaaaa haaaaa
Take It... To the Limit!
Take It... To the Limit!
Take It... To the Limit! eeeee oooooo
Take It... To the Limit!
Take It... To the Limit!
Take It... To the Limit! weeee heeee haaaa
Take It... To the Limit!
Take It... To the Limit! hooo aaa ooooo
One more time!
Can't you feel how hard we're rocking here?

Amazing harmonies, tho

yeah the harmonies are a+

Furthermore, it's not that different when steve Alibini or god knows how many indie rock people are pissed that the 80s are over and younger people are making music that contradicts their unchanging principles.

Lol Albini does not want it to be the 80s and he spends 50 hours a week recording music by young people

Like why would he want it to be the 80s when he wasn't well off and highly successful?

not a good tactic to beat up on the eagles-positive even if u do have important ripostes. hating on the eagles is so unavoidable the thread is constantly bordering on the corny

"eagles-positive" sounds kinda clinical. "I'm sorry Mrs. Jenkins, your baby has been born...eagles-positive."

I remember having to stay up with my son, what with his chugging all night.

"He'll be stricken with life-long obsessions with social commentary, residential addresses, banjos, and wanting to kick Don Felder's ass."

"Is there anything we can do for him?"

"Yes, ma'am. You can get over it."

hahaha