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

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.

glad to see others noting an eagles poker game, can picture frey sitting down at a table already in the middle of a game, taking the cards out of everyones hands, redealing and including himself, and saying 'alright fellas, eagles poker *looks at hand* red 3s, black 7s, and the jack of diamonds are wild'.

That’s good news to the common man!

Eagles poker: full house only counts if Frey or Henley have it. Everyone else is SOL

The Joker cards have Joe Walsh's picture on them.

Randy is not allowed to sit at the table

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

Beautifully OTM.

― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, October 2, 2013 12:46 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

love this

this has always reminded me of that second wave second tier carter era southern rock

this has got me imagining a Skynyrd version of this track -- less arch and louche, but much more ominous

(Skynyrd first wave first tier obviously)

Yeah I don't like this, though it's catchy as hell with great propulsion. I even woke up with it in my head. I think it's the smugness. Even in a song about the hell of being rich and having everything you want, they don't commit - I get the feeling the message is: look at those rich and famous schmucks; we're having a blast.

More generally I have a problem with pure pentatonic stuff, it always lacks colour for me. They fill it in in the coda, but the song has gone by by then.

"Wasted Time"

http://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/images/eaglesHCOdd.jpg

http://youtu.be/uy32Rbovk1U

this song sounds current. kinda. like i could hear it on the radio by someone now. i don't know who, but someone.

the kind of songs singers like. a showcase. doesn't do much for me personally.

Attn: s1ocki

http://i.snag.gy/Arrsj.jpg

GLENN: It’s a Philly-soul torch song. I loved all the records coming out of Philadelphia at that time. I sent for some sheet music so I could learn some of those songs, and I started creating my own musical ideas with that Philly influence. Don was our Teddy Pendergrass. He could stand out there all alone and just wail. We did a big Philly-type production with strings — definitely not country rock. You’re not going to find that track on a Crosby, Stills & Nash record or Beach Boys record. Don’s singing abilities stretched so many of our boundaries. He could sing the phone book. It didn’t matter. We had Golden Throat [laughs appreciatively]. Jim Ed Norman, Don’s old college buddy and former bandmate — and now President of Warner/Reprise Records/Nashville — wrote all of our string charts. He was right there with us in terms of wanting to do something like Thom Bell. It was definitely us loving Thom Bell.

Oh, shit, I was composing my magnum opus on "Life in the Fast Line" and xposted all the posts about today's selection. God forbid any of my genius go to waste so:

I love the opening riff on this, and I love that when I read "Life in the Fast Lane" I hear it loud and clear in my head. I think people are right on about the lyrics being smarmy, but I have always liked the line "He was too tired to make it/she was too tired to fight about it" less for the content (which, come on) but more for the delivery and they rhythm. Same with "They didn't care they were just dying to get off and it was (chorus)." I also like what happens to the guitars at 2:30.

But overall, there's something inherently cheesy about the song, mostly the really goofy bounciness to the whole song, and a lyrical cheesiness epitomized by the delivery on the line "Doctor says he's coming but you gotta pay him cash." Basically, if this song comes on the radio I will leave it on and enjoy the parts I like very much, but I would never seek it out on purpose.

"Wasted Time" is surprisingly lovely, but goddammit if the condescension of the lyrics fucks it all up. And really, they're not that condescending, but if I didn't already know they were condescending misogynistic dickshits I wouldn't mind/notice the condescension in this song as much.

Just in that verse alone:

Well baby, there you stand / With your little head, down in your hand

She's gotta be a baby. She's gotta have a little head.

And girl-hatin' aside, any editor would've ripped that up. She's holding a little head in her hand? He says "down", implying that she's not just palming her forehead like she's had a V-8 either.

Your baby's gone, and you're all alone / and it looks like the end.

So the baby's upset because her baby's gone. Babies get upset and cry easily, I'll give Donald that.

You're afraid it's all been wasted time

I know individual threads usually don't have descriptions out beside them, but in this case....

i think i always thought this was solo henley

You can tell Meisner wasn't long for the band. Check out his thousand-yard stare in that photo.

Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.
Don was our Teddy Pendergrass.

There's just this bridge the Eagles couldn't cross. Teddy Pendergrass says to turn off the lights and light a candle, and before you know it, we're all in between the silk sheets with him. Had Henley tried to turn off the lights, we would've collectively gotten out our mace sprayers.

Spray him right in his little head.

(uh, not a euphemism.)

Trying hiding your lyin' eyes from THIS! PSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHT

Enjoy life in the MACE LANE!

Well baby, there you stand / With your little head, down in your hand
Your baby's gone, and you're all alone / and it looks like the end.
You're afraid it's all been wasted time

What if - and I apologize for the nightmares this will surely inspire - the first "baby" is a dude, and the second baby - "Your baby" - is a girl? Maybe he's saying that the dude is mournfully masturbating while thinking of his lost love...

"tears" on your shoulder....

No that's wrong, later on in the verse he said "but you just can't hold your man" and it's very clear he's only addressing one person in the verse

Now quick run along someone just called Mikey racist

your man = penis

yep, definitely abt masturbation

i like the phrasing, it's an ok song but it's waaaay to pleased with itself for what it is

^^ yes! that is it exactly.

"We did a big Philly-type production with strings — definitely not country rock. You’re not going to find that track on a Crosby, Stills & Nash record or Beach Boys record"

yeah, no big productions w/strings on any Beach Boys records. You wonder sometimes if Frey ever listened to anything but his own masters.

*makes shitty cheesesteak sandwich*

"Ha! You've never seen Graham Nash eating one of these!"

*dresses as Philadelphia cop, beats innocent bystander, frames them for murder*

"I'd like to see Crosby try THAT!"

CROSBY: Ooooh! I eat cheesesteak sandwiches like you for BREAKFAST!

FREY: Oh yeah? I bet you have to EAT YOUR LUNCH ALL BY YOURSELF!

*claims he served in Vietnam*

"Like Stills would ever do this--oh wait..."

imagining scenario where Frey buttonholes Thom Bell at a party and makes him listen to a rough mix of "Wasted Time." "we've beat you at your own game, man!"

"Wasted Time": Seems to me to be too labored. They've got some of the Philly moves down, but Henley is such a tight-ass singer here, with none of the ease or authority of Pendergrass, Phillippe Wynne etc. Henley supposedly played this over the phone to woo back an ex-girlfriend (she of "Hotel California" and leaving the Donster for Bernie Taupin fame) and she told him to fuck off despite his insistence that the song wasn't about his wasted time spent with her, but them together wasting time 'wasting time' (like watching tv or eating sandwhiches instead of doing blow and fucking, I guess). Smooth move ExLax.

with none of the ease or authority of Pendergrass, Phillippe Wynne etc.

This is otmfm, and I actually like Henley's vocal here. But imagining Phillippe Wynne singing this...that would put this song on a whole other level.

you know who could have killed with this song? guns n' roses.

i don't think i EVER would have thought of philly soul if he didn't mention it in the interview.