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

everyone's talking about haim and on this thread or the other eagles thread i mention how much i love the heartache tonight beat and wish people would use it but i don't think i meant in the way that haim use it:

http://youtu.be/1TffpkE2GU4

omg playing hotel california in this bar and plus it was part of a trivia night question!

What year was the spirit last seen in the hotel Cali ?

NINETEEN SIXTY NINE

2004

Everyone got it lol

i smell skunk. there's probably one outside right now.

but 1969 is not an actual year. it's a metaphor. good thing don henley wasn't in the bar or there might've been trouble.

also, I hope the trivia contest prize involved chugging.

you know the only thing that would have made that Crowe question better is if Henley had pitched a fit, screamed THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER, flipped the table and stormed out.

I don't think the spirit question was Crowd. Dude knows his role in this charade.

Crowe...stupid phone.

Everything. All the time.

but 1969 is not an actual year. it's a metaphor. good thing don henley wasn't in the bar or there might've been trouble.

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/really_house_of_cards.gif

Henley sued Bryan Adams for metaphor infringement.

Got my first real six-string
On a dark desert highway
Played it 'til my fingers bled
Cool wind in my hair

"Life In The Fast Lane"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Joe_Walsh_4_-_1975.jpg

http://youtu.be/Fx6qPIC6izM

Hi, Joe!

• Henley does some crazy voices in this song. I THINK even perhaps his "she" voice might be a little patronizing!

• I wish I could play a clip from the "family-oriented" classic rock station I used to work for. They changed "Up and down this highway/haven't seen a goddamn thing" to "haven't seen a schwapgwap thing."

• Always had this scene in my head from when I was a kid of the band playing in the back of a flatbed (reference!) going down the fast lane at dark. And at 2:30 when the second stage of the solo kicks in, why, that's when another flatbed full of guitarists appears and passes the first one.

• Welcome to the band, Joe. I see you've forgotten your banjo.

(listens)

Huh, this riff is pretty cool. Go Joe!

("...nasty reputation as a CREW-ELL dude")

The fuck did he just say?

(turns off radio)

ugh: I hate this one so much. Mainly because of the track's connection with some awful memories from adolescence (it's a song treasured by sociopaths). It's a very American take on decadence: behave like a reckless asshole and go into debt.

I like Walsh's guitars and this is the most active that Henley's kick drum has been in the entire Eagles catalog to date. But I find Henley's vocal just gross, and it's made ten times worse when Frey's whine kicks in during the chorus.

faster, faster

http://flightgfx.com/images/boston-1.jpg

between this and Hotel California = ladies & gentlemen, meet MechaHenley

but damn I love that Joe riff.

this one got me to my class this morning :D

I especially love how, throughout the song, it's this relentless E pentatonic blooz thing, then with that bit at the end, it re-contextualizes the riff with each descending chord change. A bit of detail the song both doesn't need and can't do without.

by the way we're doing Hell Freezes Over new tracks too, right?

Go Joe!

I find sleazy Eagles more persuasive than romantic/mopey/triumphal Eagles

Maybe that's why I've always been less dismissive of their later years.

All those cowboy songs, being a loner and a desperado, doolin' the daltons - it was so fake. You listen to Gram Parsons, that east-coast trust-fund baby, and you can feel way down deep inside that he's coming from the right place. Only with the Eagles could you have white people performing in whiteface.

You can't change who you are, so that's why it's always better to be true to yourself. You take a song like "Life in the Fast Lane" and yup, not too hard to peer into it and see the the soul of the Eagles laid bare. The drugs, the misogyny, the cheesy Americana, the 1970s - if you're looking for a combination of those things, it's hard to beat this band at their own game.

we're doing Hell Freezes Over new tracks too, right?"

we have to: I've been perversely looking forward to when we reach "Get Over It," which may be one of the worst songs in the English language

when i was listening to the desperado stuff i was reading a book of interviews with country people and for some reason the eagles sounded more curdled than ever when i read about brenda lee's family eating grease sandwiches to live and glen campbell's dad making sure his kids had enough squirrel to eat. not that i'm a purist or anything, but the music did come from a very different place and i had forgotten how many people in this country started playing music on a stage because they were hungry! like, really really hungry.

Life on the Fast Lane v Take the Money and Run

*clap clap clap clap clap clap*

I like this one too. Sweet buttrock groove, clever lyrics, funny in a "Chemical dustbins promoting excess abstinence" sort of way. Probably the first time I noticed phasing in a song. And it's finally registering with silly me that the "faster faster" line has more to do with the line before than the one after. Eagle grossness stronger through the years.

Crowebar:

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
GLENN: This began with a Joe Walsh riff — he had that signature guitar part. I had the title. The true story is: I was riding in a car with a drug dealer — a guy we used to call “The Count,” because his count was never very good [laughs]. We were driving out to an Eagles poker game. I was in the passenger seat. He moved over to the left lane and started driving 75-80 miles per hour. I said, “Hey, man, slow down.” He goes, “Hey, man, it’s life in the fast lane.” And I thought, “Oh, my God, what a title.” I didn’t write it down. I didn’t have to.

Joe started playing a riff at rehearsal one day, and I said, “That’s ‘Life In The Fast Lane.’” So we started writing a song about the couple that had everything and did everything — and lost the meaning of everything. Lifestyles of the rich and miserable. I think the best line is “We’ve been up and down this highway, haven’t seen an God-damn thing.” That pretty much summarized the journey these people were on — rich as hell, gettin’ high, got everything they want, and yet they’re living in a spiritual ghetto. That’s good news to the common man! Rich folks who are absolutely miserable — and most of them are. I really like this record. Plus it made a statement: Joe Walsh was officially in the band.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090810140929/muppet/images/thumb/4/46/Fp_diecast_count.jpg/273px-Fp_diecast_count.jpg

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE!

We were driving out to an Eagles poker game.

Does this imply that if Glenn Frey shows up at your table, it's all of a sudden an Eagles poker game?

"He moved over to the left lane and started driving 75-80 miles per hour."

? so like 10-15 mph over the limit? that is some hard livin' by the "Count"

Yeah, Joe Walsh's Maserati did 185.

Does this imply that if Glenn Frey shows up at your table, it's all of a sudden an Eagles poker game?

I can just see him strolling in, "Awright chumps, y'all better fold! The Frey-o-lator's in the house! Somebody's gonna lose somethin' before the night is through! Ha ha ha! OK, deal me in!"

"Somebody better check the thermostat, 'cause The Heat Is Now ON!"

Henley: "I've got four queens, and all they want to do is dance!"

That pretty much summarized the journey these people were on — rich as hell, gettin’ high, got everything they want, and yet they’re living in a spiritual ghetto. That’s good news to the common man! Rich folks who are absolutely miserable — and most of them are.

otm! Nothing I like more than hearing rich folks whine about how bad they have it! Must have been hard living in a spiritual ghetto! If only they could've commiserated with this guy:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/24/news/companies/aig-ceo-bonuses/index.html

Rich folks: living in a river of darkness beneath a neon light

DON: It was social commentary.

GLENN: Rich or poor, some of these chicks were hot as fuck.

DON: Well, yeah.

tbf, during the time that Hotel California came out, the fast lane had a maximum speed limit of 55 mph and the thermostat was to be set on 78º in the summer months.

I mean, forget APRs of 20 percent, 78 degrees is ridiculous.

Damn Jimmy Carter and his energy conservation commands.

Only with the Eagles could you have white people performing in whiteface.

Beautifully OTM.

yeah i love this one....

i do love the "haven't seen a goddamn thing" line

riff is super classic and it's joe so i don't even have to feel bad about liking it

still really on my they should have put "one of these nights" on this album and tried to expunge any remaining country rock from the mix and just make this the urban freeway cocaine eagles album all the way

you all do realize the joe walsh riff in "fast lane" is a metaphor, right?

I have bought beer at this metaphor.

http://www.fastlane-cstore.com/Images/fastlane.jpg

Was 'life in the fast line' a cliche before Frey lifted it?

I don't know.

I know that this once existed: http://youtu.be/0iPCrZk-pPM

during the time in my life i hated the eagles the most this was the eagles song i hated most. today i'm fine w/ it though god the lyrics and henley's vocals still disgust me. i can remember this schmuck in high school who at any outside of school function would whip out an acoustic guitar and either play a tortured version of this or the unplugged version of layla. he knew i despised the eagles (and may have suspected i despised him) and repeatedly would try to sell me on their edginess or whatever on the basis of 'faster faster'. maybe it's just popping up in the same playlists but this has always reminded me of that second wave second tier carter era southern rock, more so than any of their other hits at least.