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

I had a dream about this thread last night, btw. The regular participants were sitting around a large picnic table on a train and scott put on the daily Eagles song, but it was one from the dreaded upcoming albums and we all just looked at each other unhappily, unable to even summon up the energy to talk about it.

(I was on the train commuting to my job as a basketball coach at an all-girls private high school, btw. I don't know where the rest of you were going.)

ave et vale, Randy. You will be replaced by a more pliable edition.

This is fine, mellow gold Seventies stuff, meant to be heard pleasantly murmuring over the PA at some lakeside bar: it could be Dan Fogelberg; Loggins and Messina; Randy: it's all good. As usual, the guitars are ace.

yeah, this is the best song on the record for me after "New Kid" and the title track.

mellow gold Seventies stuff

Ah, bingo. That's why I like it so much.

DC FATTBOY 4 months ago
love Randy's soulful, high-pitched vocals and Don Felder's ringing/chiming guitar. to me the eagles stopped being eagles when Randy and Bernie left. from then on they were more like Fleetwood Mac. sorry, I just like the originals. Desperado was one of the best concept albums of all time

I'm almost getting a Big Star feeling off this, somewhere between "My Life Is Right" and "Try Again." Kinda digging it; unlike Glenley lyrics, you don't get the sense that the sensitivity is masking douchey motives.

I could tell it was a Randy song because as good as it is, I checked the YouTube timer to see how if it was almost done and saw that it still had two minutes left.

Farewell, bass playin' Poco man. It will be impossible to replace you.

Randy's hair is so perfect in that picture!

This song is ok, he sounds enough like Chris Bell that I can deal with ignoring the lyrics, but as soon as I try to pay attention to what he's saying, he does some little totally Eagles vocal flourish and i realize what I'm doing: I'm somewhat enjoying an Eagles song.

ha i just went back and read two posts up
exactly -- everything was good until the illusion broke
that took ~ 2min

i've said this elsewhere but i really like try and love again! it's a song i would actually choose to listen to once in a while.

re: pretty maids, the comment that it's better with walsh's voice than it would have been with henley's is right on. i also think i just really hate henley's voice.

love the intro guitar lick on this song.

totally hear the Big Star comparison someone made on the "one. by. one. the lonely feelings come" part

this is one of my favorite album tracks so far.

what was the other eagles song we heard that reminded me of big star? i can't remember now. it was an early one.

yeah i know what you're talking about but can't remember either

my brain's not the same as when we began this journey

iirc, it was something off the first record.

ctrl + f "chris bell"

This is another good one. I was four minutes in before checking to see if was ending. That said, the coda isn't as pointless as previous ones in the catalogue. See ya Randy...

is this a bad rip or does the volume really drop precipitously at 2:38?

me too, getting mostly a Poco/Firefall vibe off this one, but yeah it could just as easily have been the uncredited track left off Radio City in favour of "Back of a Car"

(xxp) also ctrl + f "try again"

I'm sorry Randy but I cannot get with this one at all. It is the boringest kind of music I can imagine. I've tried listening to Big Star and reached the same conclusion - it is one place where the ILM cosmos and I will never meet.

Speed

I said listen driver
I can't afford the fare.

You can get off when you want to,
but I cannot stop it here.

Slow it down now captain,
that chick just missed her stop.

Can you feel the pressure in the air?
this bus is going to pop.

We have to keep it moving,
or else we might explode.

This ride will be the death of us,
a bomb's a heavy load.

Okay, I've got it out of my system. This thread's just got me thinking about metaphors.

Stepping onto the asphalt,
plastic bags in the air.

Cashier say I've still got time,
He can still sell beer.

I wander through aisleways,
Look at all of those fruits.

bought some Negro Modelo,
pack of Phillies Cheroots.

Glenn: It's not a trip to the corner store, it's an EAGLES trip to the corner store.
Timothy: Can you get me some pretzels?
Don: Quiet you!

The Gashlycrumb Eagles

Okay, the next one actually IS a doozy

It's the one called "pretentious and condescending" by Robert Christgau.

I'm waiting for the knives to come out...

"The Last Resort"

http://www.donhenleyonline.com/images/eaglesGEFnoscore.jpg

http://youtu.be/RG-XBz1tjIU

She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea

She heard about a place people were smilin'
They spoke about the red man's way,
and how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide

Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all,
what it's like up there
And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

Then the chilly winds blew down
Across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the Malibu
Where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea

You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming"
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign

Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here

We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name
of God

And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

The Eagles do privilege

"She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island"

move over, Wallace Stevens

Glenn Frey told Redbeard on an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard (which devoted an entire episode to the making of Hotel California) “I have to give all the credit for "The Last Resort" to (Don) Henley. It was the first time that Don, on his own, took it upon himself to write an epic story. We were very much at that time, concerned about the environment and doing anti-nuclear benefit (concerts). It seemed the perfect way to wrap up all of the different topics we had explored on the Hotel California album. Don found himself as a lyricist with that song, kind of outdid himself...We're constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at some point there is going to be no more new frontiers. I mean we're putting junk, er, garbage into space now. There's enough crap floating around the planet that we can't even use so it just seems to be our way. It's unfortunate but that is sort of what happens".

In a 1978 interview with Rolling Stone, Henley said: "'The Last Resort', on Hotel California, is still one of my favorite songs... That's because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence — by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment. The environment is the reason I got into politics: to try to do something about what I saw as the complete destruction of most of the resources that we have left. We have mortgaged our future for gain and greed."

Poor Randy looks like he's getting pushed right off the sofa

when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence

I believe that was printed on their satin tour jackets that year.

If anything on here, I'm justifying my Eagles hate.

Not sure if it's worth sitting through seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds of how the west was wasted.

more leaden drumming, a non-melody endlessly repeated, 7:28 minutes long ... welcome to the Hotel Califillernia

He found his voice alright: Henley's been bitching and moaning about lost paradise ever since

More than 25 tracks left and we haven't even started The Long Run yet, I'm starting to get the "check in any time you'd like...." feeling.

more leaden drumming, a non-melody endlessly repeated, 7:28 minutes long ... welcome to the Hotel Califillernia

― Brad C., Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:33 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep. Awesome track. Audacious in its douchbaggery.

"man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment"

ever owned a dog, Don?

ugh, this track is the slog to end all slogs. It's merciless. The trudging pace. Henley singing the same phrase ("call it PAR-uh-DISE...she came from PROV-uh-DENCE"...light their NEE-on-WAY") over and over again and again. The schlocky accompaniment of the Irving Azoff Light Orchestra. The sense that Henley got the idea for the lyric while griping about an ugly new luxury condo being built down the road from "The Eagles' Nest." The knowledge that this is the start of the line that leads to the high ponderousness of "End of the Innocence" and scores of other such songs.

The Last Resort. The Sad Cafe. The Sunset Grill. The Abandoned Luncheonette, o wait.

This is horrific, everyone otm.

Farewell Hotel California, I will never hear you again. Amazing to see this upthread: this album/aja/rumours. the holy trinity of FM sound. It doesn't even *sound* that good.

god from the mopey opening piano ripped off from "Imagine" to the hackneyed "gear shift" with Hollywood strings, this is a total fuckin' piece of shit. Wow.

Honestly, I think some of these I'm hating even more than I would otherwise because of all these posted snippets of interviews where Frey or Henley sit there and "explain" their painfully obvious "metaphors" like a fuckin' jr. college professor, one of the things that will most burn me up in life is being condescended to by a really stupid person and the Eagles are basically the musical version of that experience. They are so fuckin' shallow and mediocre and just not that good at what they do but they have this totally unjustified smugness about their own supposed quality.

also the whole idea of "i'm going to write an epic" - that's like trying to give yourself a "cool nickname" is high school u idiot.

"It doesn't even *sound* that good."

i meant the singles. the singles will always sound great on fm radio.

Put like that I'm astonished they could put this on the same album as the title track, an actual epic, and not see the difference.

i mean, they were truly made for it. those singles. i hate to say it but the car radio may have been invented to play something like life in the fast lane. its just the optimal sound for the fm frequency. a scientist could tell you why probably.

scott, is the Xmas single up next, or does Long Run start? (forget the order when they came out)

Hey remember that awesome Walsh/Felder guitar outro on Hotel California

ITS DEAD WE KILLED IT WHY COS WE'RE THE EAGLES MAAAAAAN

MWAHAHAHAHA

The line from this to "The End of the Innocence" is complete.

the henleybot-1000 is complete