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

DON: The truth is, we really thought we could change the world with love and freedom.

GLENN: Hell, there's at least a thousand chicks in Topanga Canyon and the Bay area who know what love and freedom are, thanks to us.

DON: Well, yeah.

...and back to the Eagles High-concept stuff. The electric piano is nice. Did it really take them this long to have a sax on a track? Not a great song, which was fitting for a not great band to wave goodbye. This kind of earnestness was nagl for this band.

Our heroes explain it all...

THE SAD CAFÉ
GLENN: The title comes from the book by Carson McCullers. I love the title, which didn’t have anything to do with the song, other than it was a great title. The line that really resonates for me in that song is “I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free.” There were so many of us aspiring musicians hanging around at the Troubadour. Some nights when Doug Dillard got drunk enough, and Gene Clark got drunk enough, and Harry Dean Stanton got drunk enough… near closing time… they would all start singing. There would be these unbelievable impromptu versions of “Amazing Grace” — all sorts of Ozark spiritual things with the whole bar singing… That stuff never really happened. We were getting older (when we wrote the song), and there was a sadness because we had seen, close-up, that everybody’s dreams don’t come true. Or, at least, not in the way they think they’re gonna come true.

DON: A train used to run down the center of Santa Monica Boulevard, right outside the Troubadour. Steve Martin actually had a routine where he’d get the entire audience to exit the club, hop a flatcar on that slow-moving train and ride up to La Cienega, a few blocks east. Then, everybody would hop off and walk back down to the club together. I don’t think that happened very many times — maybe not even more than once or twice, because the railroad people didn’t like it. It was kind of dangerous and there was liability involved. Still — and I don’t want to over-mythologize — it was something to remember. That was a wonderful time in Los Angeles. The city was alive with magic and a sense of possibility. People were warmer and more open than they are now.

Then, of course, there was the dark side. Friends and acquaintances of ours (from that era) had begun to meet untimely ends — classic cases of “too much, too soon.” It was either that or “too little, too late.” So we were struggling to make sense of that dichotomy, that contradiction. Is fortune a good thing or a bad thing, you know? Is being fortunate, before you’re ready to accept it and deal with it, actually fortunate — or is it unfortunate? We were struggling with our own success — riddled with feelings of guilt and unworthiness. I think a lot of young artists feel that way. We always identified with that great song “Fakin’ It,” by Paul Simon. It takes many years and lots of experience for a man to get comfortable in his own skin. But the Troubadour, Dan Tana’s restaurant, the train — all those things served as a great metaphor for the search, the journey that so many of us were on.

I don’t think that happened very many times — maybe not even more than once or twice, because the railroad people didn’t like it. It was kind of dangerous and there was liability involved. Still — and I don’t want to over-mythologize — it was something to remember

I like this, it's so unlike the 'John would pee on nuns!' school of rock war stories

I like how every name they drop in those particular anecdotes is someone waaaaaaaaaaaay cooler than them.

From Flatbeds to Flatcars: The Oral History of the Eagles

...and with any other band, I wouldn't be immediately regretting my choice of words there.

Did The Sad Cafe have a Soul Kitchen?

It was down the street from the Sunset Grill.

were we doing "Seven Bridges Rd." or no? if not, i've gotta brace myself for tomorrow's song.

and I will not go quietly

this actually makes some sort of sense in a what-if way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4jM6vMDxLE

Frey's "The One You Love," one of his first solo hits and an oppressive presence on Roanoke VA radio in 1982, seems to have come out of the Sad Cafe:

http://youtu.be/qmV9vk2950o

some wonderful Youtube comments on this one. "*-* I SPENT SEVEN WONDERFUL YEARS KNOWING THE ACTOR RAUL JULIA WHO WAS AN INTIMATE FRIEND. HE WILL ALWAYS BE THE ONE I LOVE AND I'LL ALWAYS BE HIS GIRL !! REMEMBERING RAUL." Also: "The beginning reminds me of Porn."

i'm gonna break the rules in a minute here. bonus time...

*taken from Selected Works: 1972-1999*

"Long Run Leftovers"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edXZ6Pb79II

"Random Victims Part 3"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqkD-NnjdRs

http://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/images/eaglesRS79-03.jpg

^^ the Disco Stranglers, ready to par-tay.

so, this way, we can blast into the 90's tomorrow. not gonna do the live harmony thing on the live album.

if only all their non-singles had been 20-second instrumentals

ugh the 90's

prepare your cyanide capsules, everyone

^^ get over it

:(

If anyone needs help stepping in from the 70s to the 80s, I posted this video with today in mind:

https://vimeo.com/76572721

that's inspired! Frey's 1980s equivalent of "Chug" is "Partytown," which is the song that the worst neighbor in the world is blasting through your floor at 4 AM.

http://youtu.be/54NWWRGLPA4

I was so mad about YouTube muting the original audio...

That assortment of random riffs is one of my favorites so far

oh pplains, that Chuggler's Blues vid...

Since we're not doing the live album, can we talk about Joe and the real Chug All Night (Long): http://youtu.be/QYBguT7mPHU

Guys, listen to "Partytown."

Glenn Frey is tired of his job, tired of his wife, so he's ready to kick some ass.

That's right! He's writing in character. Oh.

dlanor epmart 2 months ago

This became my favorite song in 1982. I had just gotten divorced and I lived that line..."I told everybody they could kiss my ass"

Another solo Eagle gem from '82: Henley's "Johnny Can't Read": sorta-New Wave in which the Donster (playing a frustrated school teacher in video) complains about those damn soft coddled kids. It's very much the predecessor to tomorrow's song:

http://youtu.be/VYEm76840Yo

"is it the President's fault? OH NO. Is it Johnny's fault? OOOOH NOOOO!"

He should sing in this register more often.

I like The Sad Cafe. It's hardly Abbey Road, but after the junk of almost the entire Walsh-era Eagles, it's an unexpectedly dignified exit for them.

That sad, it plods a bit - even now they still often can't develop a melody - and the drums are same as ever. This thread has made tedious drumming set my teeth on edge, when I'd've given it a free pass before. The same old hissy cymbals too I note. The Rhodes is good and the sax beds in nicely. So welcome after the sub-rock rock they've been squeezing out these last few.

I Can't Tell You Why is the best track here by far obviously, but Sad Cafe takes a comfortable second.

one for Alfred: Frey's "It's Better in the USA". Check this mighty piece of Reagan-era jingoism (co-written by Tempchin!)

live recording link:

"Well, they look to the east
They look to the west
The Third World wonders
Which way's the best
We got freedom, we got soul
We got blue jeans and rock'n’roll

Man, there ain't no choice
It's better in the U.S.A.
(It's better in the U.S.A.)
You can be what you want
Say what you wanna say
(It's better in the U.S.A.)
Why can't I make you understand?
It's better in the U.S.A.
(It's better in the U.S.A.)

I hear the same propaganda day after day
It's gettin' so hip to knock the U.S.A.
If we're so awful and we're so bad
You oughta check the night life in Leningrad"

sorry here's the link: http://www.glennfreyonline.com/multimedia/MP3/BetterintheUSADelMar85.mp3

Why couldn't he make us understand?

I like how every name they drop in those particular anecdotes is someone waaaaaaaaaaaay cooler than them.

who on earth could they have name dropped who wasn't way cooler than them? steve garvey?

hahahaha

Are you seriously asking if the Buzzcocks bassist isn't cooler than the Eagles? You shittin me??

this is an eagles thread man, he ain't talking about steve garvey from the buzzcocks. disgraceful.

listening to "Partytown" and I feel like I'm in a Chevy Chase movie

this is like the real 80s, the 80s that no one ever revives, this kinda lame rock n' roll pastiche done with bad sounding drums and instruments and synths and shit.

this live version actually changes "night life in Leningrad" to "ugly women in Leningrad"

what a fuckin asshole

and the Chevy Chase movie is Deal of the Century not Fletch or Vacation.

lol thought y'all were talking about 'johnny can't read', which struck me as henley biting 'holiday road'

Don: Glenn's insensitive remarks kept us out of Russia for years, denying us the opportunity to bring our music to these once oppressed people.

Glenn: Putin set me straight though. Let's just once the Eagles rolled into Stalingrad, we learned the true meaning of a 'Free Pussy Riot!"

Don: Well, yeah.

Buckingham plays on BAPB, and Henley's solo career consists of recording his kind of "edgy" adult contemporary.

sadly, solo Frey is in short supply on Youtube, but there are two songs from his just-before-the-reunion album that look amazing. "He Took Advantage (Blues for Ronald Reagan)" (Glenn breaks up with the Gipper) and "Love in the 21st Century," which apparently has a spoken phone-sex line interlude (like "Sex Over the Phone"!).

i leave you with Henley in the Thunderdome:

http://vimeo.com/68243359

i've come so close to playing BEAST on spotify over the past couple of weeks, havent been able to pull the trigger yet. i'm not sure if i want to listen to it when i'm able to pay some attention to it or if i want to listen to it when i know i won't be able to pay attention to it.

try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ut5nc9X04

Since the "Eagles Live" outliers, can I just say that Joe has a bit of fun with the "Eagles Live" take of "Life's Been Good", throwing in woozy guitar and changing a few lyrics ("they write Tim letters/Tell Glen 'Don's great!'")

outliers AREN'T BEING DONE, grrr

Life's Been Good was playing in a diner today. I don't know if there's been an uptick in Eagles or if I'm only noticing it now or what, but in response to Prof Whiney's hypothesis that the Beatles are everywhere, I would counter that it's really the Eagles that are so damn ubiquitous. If I weren't so tire I would try to extrapolate that into some kind of insight about the current state of our country.