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

i bet Walsh fell asleep in the studio listening to the upteenth playback of this epic

"The Last Resort": I don't like this one. The opening line is sooooooooooo dopey, and goes down from there. Every once in a while the arrangement feels Jimmy Webb-ish. But...no. We're a long way from "MacArthur Park", much less standin' on that corner in Winslow.

Explaining themselves to the autuer behind Singles:

THE LAST RESORT
GLENN: “The Last Resort” was the final piece of the Hotel Californiapuzzle. We started the song early in the record, and Don finished seven months later. I called it Henley’s opus. I helped describe what the song was going to be about and assisted with the arrangement, but it was Don’s lyrics and basic chord progression.

One of the primary themes of the song was that we keep creating what we’ve been running away from — violence, chaos, destruction. We migrated to the East Coast, killed a bunch of Indians, and just completely screwed that place up. Then we just kept moving west: “Move those teepees, we got some train tracks coming through here. Get outta the way, boy!” There were some very personal references in the song, including a girl from Providence, Rhode Island, who Don had dated for some time. She had taken an inheritance from her grandfather and moved to Aspen, Colorado, in search of a new life. Look where Aspen is now. How prophetic is “The Last Resort” 28 years after it was written? Aspen is a town where the billionaires have driven out the millionaires. It was once a great place. Look at Lahaina; look at Maui. It’s so commercial. It’s everything Hawaii was not supposed to be. Whether we’re carrying the cross or carrying the gasoline cane, we seem to have a penchant for wrecking beautiful places.

DON: The final burst on this one happened in Benedict Canyon at a house I was living in with Irving [Azoff, the band's longtime manager and friend]. I was thinking of all the literary themes based on nature that I had studied back in school — the awesome beauty and the spirituality inherent in the natural world and the unrelenting destruction of it, wrought by this thing that we call civilization or progress.

Some years earlier we had done a couple of benefit concerts with Neil Young for the Chumash Tribe, Native American people who are indigenous to California. We became friends with an elder in the tribe named Samu, and, eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies. Samu was on a mission to raise funds for an education program which would teach the young people in the tribe about their language and their culture. The old man feared, rightly, that the white man’s culture was stripping his people of their identity. They were losing the memory of their language, their ceremonies, their history. We were fortunate enough to be able to help.

Also, I’d been reading articles and doing research about the raping and pillaging of the West by mining, timber, oil and cattle interests. But I was interested in an even larger scope for the song, so I tried to go “Michener” with it. I remember going out to Malibu and standing on Zuma beach, looking out at the ocean. I remember thinking, “this is about as far west — with the exception of Alaska — as you can go on this continent. This is where Manifest Destiny ends — right here, in the middle of all these surfboards and volleyball nets and motor homes.” And then I thought, “Nah, we’ve gone right on over and screwed up Hawaii too.”

I still think, though, that the song was never fully realized, musically speaking. It’s fairly pedestrian from a musical point of view. But lyrically it’s not bad. Especially the last verse, which turns it from one thing into another and it becomes an allegorical statement about religion — the deception and destructiveness that is inherent in the mythology of most organized religion — the whole “dominion” thing. The song is a reaffirmation of the age-old idea that everything in the universe is connected and that there are consequences, downstream, for everything we do.

I wonder if Henley ever paid a hooker to beat him with copies of Michener hardbacks?

We became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named SamuWe became friends with an elder in the tribe named Samu

I still think, though, that the song was never fully realized, musically speaking. It’s fairly pedestrian from a musical point of view.

Henley otm

eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies eventually, we were invited to attend some tribal rituals and drum ceremonies

I bet those injuns were better on the skins than our Donster.

hahaha.

Glenn: They made us honorary members of the tribe, and we were given names. Don's was "Plays With Stiffness"!

Don: And Glenn's was "Big Face Talking Phallus"!

Randy: Those weren't tribal elders doing the ceremony. I think it was some drunk teenagers.

Don: You're on thin ice, "Sings Like Chipmunk"!

Felder: I think he's right about those teenagers.

Glenn: Shut up, "Ass I'm Gonna Kick"!

So after this I cranked up a random track on Rumours (You Make Loving Fun) and I gotta say the difference is startling. There isn't a way in which this isn't inferior - it's just so flabby, like the bloated corpse of the worst kind of complacent 70s rockstar. Not a second of the Fleets' is wasted, there's always something interesting and new happening; with The Eagles *every* second is wasted, it's all this-and-hold-for-four-bars, then change to that-and-hold-for-four-bars, then repeat. Even the intro bores me.

Glenn: I'll tell ya what: that bucktoothted squaw that Henley fucked? She was "Ass in the Air"!

Don: Well, yeah.

"DON: I was thinking of all the literary themes based on nature that I had studied back in school"

"White Fang"? "Last of the Mohicans"?

in re: comparing Hotel Calif. to "Rumours." You put most of "HC" against Eddie Money's debut album, and the latter sounds like gold by comparison.

or bat out of hell for that matter. or the stranger. speaking of 1977. and the stranger even had a (reprise).

speaking of 1977 FM gold anyway.

(technically HC a '76 album but it came out in december so you know...)

Well that changes everything.

two months after HC came came out, rumours came out.

and a few months before, songs in the key of life came out. which may be a better analog to rumours and aja.

This is my brain problem, apparently, but I like this song.

Hey now, I'm a 'fucking' jr college professor' and I'm not only smarter than Don Henley, but I play the drums with more feeling than he does. I'm glad others are finally feeling the real burn of the Eagles -- being condescended to by someone stupid!! It's the worst. They remain the worst.

La Lechera - i sincerely did not mean to lump professors in with Don. please accept my apoligies. that's a horrible thing to do actually now that i think of it. :(

I'm not offended, but we do get a bum rap. No harm done!

You know who else got a bum rap? The red man.

This changed Don's life: http://youtu.be/j7OHG7tHrNM

I am going to be so intrigued to learn what you guys think of the cocaine psychosis called the Long Run. There are two songs in particular, deep —and deeply hypocritical— cuts, that I will be really surprised if many of you guys hate it like you hate most of their shit…

what about eagles Live?

I'm gonna risk becoming a figure of fun on ilx and go on record that I actually like the final verse. "Call anywhere paradise and kiss it goodbye" is kind of sharp IMO.

Of course, the song as a whole is loaded with groaners. But at least it feels felt in comparison with most Henley.

Xpost I think we should at least cover the exclusives on Live: two solo Walsh numbers and "Seven Bridges Road".

the latter-day live album has four studio tracks i think? will definitely cover those. if there is studio stuff on the first live album than yeah otherwise i might have to put my foot down...

Is the plan to head through all of the "unplugged" versions? Keep in mind that the days are getting darker sooner.

jesus they didn't have an unplugged album did they? no, i just wanted to do all the studio stuff. to hell with any live stuff. it would kill us all.

yeah i agree - only studio stuff

Know what's worse than hearing "Hotel California" so many times that you begin to actively hate it?

Hearing the unplugged version even more.

man i'm so exhausted by the eagles and i know the true challenges have only begun.

They're really pushing the boundaries of what studio can do atm, seems a shame to sully it with inferior live stuff.

The live album wasn't that 'live' if you catch my drift...

I'm gonna risk becoming a figure of fun on ilx and go on record that I actually like the final verse. "Call anywhere paradise and kiss it goodbye" is kind of sharp IMO.

Yeah, especially because the paradise referred to in that stanza is heaven, so it's quite a decent gag about gentrification in the afterlife.. or alternatively a cogent point about how religious ideas are simply a reflection of social culture.

Otm about groaners tho

Also: if we do the three bait tracks on the '80 album, that puts three more days in before we get to "Get Over It".

Think about it.

hate will keep us alive

wow. i'm reasonably sure i've never heard "the last resort" until five minutes ago. there's the beginning of a song there, sort of, but it goes terribly awry before they get to the end of the first verse.

i totally get how a song as poorly written and executed as this could wind up on an early album by any number of major bands -- there's plenty worse out there -- but i'm genuinely curious as to how a song like this could wind up on their signature album, on the album they made at the peak of their career. was there no one in the studio that day who could raise their hand and suggest another chord here or another lick there? was there no one who could hide in a corner and come up with a "journey of the sorceror" or something as a replacement while everyone else was eating lunch or screwing drunken teenagers? had they lost j.d. souther's number?

do people who own this album even today know that it's there? i mean no one actually gets all the way to track nine, do they?

tomorrow: my favorite Eagles song!

yeah that's the thing - i mean they were part of that whole so-cal/soft/country rock/geffen axis so it's like goddamn they had access & the cash to get songs from some of the most killer pro songwriters.

"We started the song early in the record, and Don finished seven months later."

i'd like to think that it actually took him seven months to record the song.

it feels like it takes seven months to listen to it anyway.

"tomorrow: my favorite Eagles song!"

everyone loves christmas songs!

they had access & the cash to get songs from some of the most killer pro songwriters.

"desperados under the eaves" would have been an awesome song to end this album with.

Frey-Henley would argue that J.D. Souther was a killer pro songwriter.

i'm not saying he wasn't i'm saying get MORE stuff from him! instead of the last resort!

I was waiting, or more like laying in wait, for this one. (and the first track on the next LP)
It is an epic, for sure ... I like the lyrics, but as with most Eagles tracks, the production and arrangement are annoying, not to mention Henley's stretching for the next faux-sincere note. (he just about finds the right touch when he launches into that 'You can leave it all behind ...' verse, though)
Second thought, were this a democratic band, Randy shoulda sung it.
I always thought this aspired to be a gospel song, not a soul song. And in the early verses, don't those keyboards seem to have trouble keeping up with the slowwwwww steady pace?

Going back a song, 'Try and Love Again' is a pretty good Randy song, that could benefit by being about 2 minutes shorter. Production-wise, it's got too much in common with the Eagles' more cloying work, and with the standard AOR pap of the era. Kind of a clump of missed opportunities there... it could have had a little KICK. Maybe it's his bid for a 'Peaceful Easy Feelin' , the kind of song couples want to fuck to.

More on TLR in a sec...
D

Scott, are you gonna do the three bait tracks on "Eagles Live"?

putting garbage into space? 'we were interested in anti-nuclear benefits' ?? In 1976? -- WTH was Glenn smoking?

The last verse is a slam at religion, but it's only informed by the lie of California being paradise. The paradise these guys RULED like GODZ by the way... their climb to the top of the garbage heap and subsequent subhuman hijinks could have happened nowhere else.

As for whether anyone who owned the album even getting this far, get this: A couple I knew in the late 1970s, my friend's brother and sister-in-law, had lived in Cali about the time of HC, and one time after they had moved back to upstate NY they insisted on sitting us down and playing this song, having us HEAR what it had to say. They believed it summed up the experience of living there, in a very profound way. I don't agree, and I didn't even come close to getting it then, but they truly bought it as a grand statement. I suppose they got suckered in by the form - earnest gospelly white-boy soul - as much as the words.

But that doesn't preclude the damn thing from having some power.

Another outsider - Kelly Jones of the Welsh band Stereophonics - does a killer cover of this song. Take it away from Henley and 1976 L.A., and it ... shines. (not on youtube, paste this in yr browser and hit return...
<http://allmuz.org/audio/9759962/-250305/Stereophonics-The_Last_Resort>;

D

myonga, i don't know if i ever got back to you about that seger tribute tape my pal josh put out. it came out pretty good. i keep forgetting to ask him if he has copies. he gsve me one without a cover before he put it out.

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-4124712-1356107794-1898.jpeg

A1 Ruth Garbus – Main Street
A2 Steamrollers – Old Time Rock N Roll
A3 Jurt Bansch – Beautiful Losers
A4 Uke Of Spaces* – Ship Of Fools
A5 Baab Ceegar – The Fire Down Below (The River Up Above) Excerpt
A6 Shawn McMillen – Night Moves
A7 Cop Pride – Ballad Of The Yellow Beret
B1 Duck That – Heavy Music
B2 Frozen Corn – Tales Of Lucy Blue
B3 Magik Markers – Ramblin Gamblin Man
B4 Super Spirit – Feel Like A Number
B5 I Love Rust – Turn The Page
B6 Bob Fay – Still The Same
B7 Dark Master – Sunspot Baby
B8 Big Blood – 2+2

oops, here's the cover: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=4124712