They Will Not Go Quietly: The Official ILM Track-By-Track DON 'n' GLENN Listening Thread

Was all the programming by Glenn?

sounds like it, right? It has that demo quality.

"Living In Darkness": Woah, where'd this come from? Why didn't we get a whole album of synth jams?* The bridge does feel out of place, but I can hang with the coda. Glenn's falsetto is becoming never not funny. Another track that would sound good in Hot Tub Time Machine II: The Next Day.

*Just noticed that The Allnighter was in stores a good five months before Building The Perfect Beast--Frey actually was the vanguard for a moment.

Man, is there nothing good in store until Don's next album?

Well, yeah. (Although I think we've already had Peak Henley--from what I recall albums 3 & 4 are heavy on the cranky and turgid.)

Eh, End of Innocence is not lacking in quality. Turgid, cranky quality, perhaps, but look who we're dealing with here.

One more!

"New Love"

http://33.media.tumblr.com/3bb478da1e5608f41e2848a0c72fd81f/tumblr_nadn9byGom1slk631o1_500.jpg

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6160137/glenn_frey_new_love_studio_version_with_lyrics/

the Magnum PI years. are we going straight into the next Glenn, or are you going to switch back to End of the Innocence (I think Glenn's next one is first, chronologically)

End of the Innocence will sound like "Hey Ya."

Anyone surprised by often The Allnighter is merely serviceable instead of dire?

yeah, apart from the 2 body blows of "Better in the USA" and "Sexy Girl," it's a decent, mediocre mid-Eighties album.

"New Love": I like the keyboards. If the Eagles had managed to limp into the mid-80s, this song is exactly how I'd imagine they would sound. Is "Divorced Dad Rock" a thing? This would be a good example of the form: It doesn"t really 'Rock'; lyrics about "starting again"; probably sounds good on the Bose in an '86 Corvette.

As for the album, Alfred OTM "serviceable > dire" pretty much sums it up. Frey is finally getting out of the shadow of the Eagles, and while, true, he does fall flat often, we are hearing a fair amount of risks being taken that wouldn't have been otherwise. I do think it's telling that the standout track here is the one that breaks most with the romantic subjects he was mostly occupying his (and our) time with.

next time he'll be soul searchin'

and getting Harry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eysYg_2ybxk

awwwwwriiiiight back to Don and his second famous solo hit:

"The End of the Innocence"

http://www.overduereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Henley.jpg

http://vimeo.com/34856033

ah, Don's "Sarah Lawrence English professor" era, looks-wise.

give him credit: Don had a Bowie-like ability in the '80s to lock in on whatever was hitting and pull his own version off. So here, the genteel late '80s AOR of Bruce Hornsby, recruited to produce & all but play the piano line of "The Way It Is," and its self-pitying, "whatever happened to the Sixties" mood cued perfectly for Reagan's departure, as if commissioned by CNN for a decade retrospective.

and another sexy video but with falling leaves and shit

David Fincher!

also, Wayne Shorter guest star spot ("top this, Sting")

the peak of his flirtation with pop, right? He played on a lot of eighties-era Joni tracks

cast list for this album is insane: Don seemed to have hired anyone on the charts in '87-'88

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Innocence_%28album%29#Personnel

It baffles me that this outsold Building a Perfect Beast.

Well, it was his first release in the CD era, and was a bit more of a singles monster. It also landed in the last big wave of old fogies being successful before the soundscan/grunge/hip hop takeover.

I think it makes sense - Winwood, Clapton's Journeyman, the Wilburys - a great time for Henley to get some of that for himself

Wait.
No "You Belong to the City"? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the order?

I had the same question 'til I checked and it's way up there in the thread.

With "The End of the Innocence" it's fun to imagine Fincher making Henley do 90 takes.

I owned this on 45. I gotta say, I'm not crazy about it but the autumnal mood fits Henley's lyrics, which are fairly precise for once.

"How Bad Do You Want It?

http://waytofamous.com/files/images/images/don-henley.jpg

http://youtu.be/_VjtnEB1OOU

I can imagine Don telling co-writers Kootch and Stan Lynch, "Alright, guys, I need a manifesto."

Sounds like Phil Collins-produced Eric Clapton.

wow, look at that leonine mane. corporate hippie in excelsis

link goes to "I Will Not Go Quietly!" But "How Bad Do You Want It" is also Clapton-style yuppie beer commercial stuff.

from the YT comments:

"MrGenXer
1 year ago

They're coming out with a movie about Don Henley's life and Mark Wahlberg is going to play Henley!"

this cannot be true

oh damn I screwed up. I'll change it in a new york minute.

HENLEY: THE PONYTAIL PERIOD

"The End of The Innocence": Some nice atmospherics, very much his Borg-like assimilation of 'thoughtful' Adult Contemporary/AOR (Hornsby, Phil Collins' "Another Day In Paradise", that ilk). Melody's kinda same-y, of course we're supposed to listen to words--everything in service of the words--which feel a little generic to me. It's sort of a fusion of ideas from "TBOS" and "Sunset Grill", but lacking.

The Video: A less artful and discreetly symbolic take on the clip for "TBOS" The Fincher involvement makes me think of a Henley taking over for Affleck in Gone Girl for some reason. Best Part: Hitchhiker Henley getting snubbed by the hottie in the vintage Corvette.

"I Will Not Go Quietly": AXL! Wonder how that meeting of the minds went? Must admit, I got swept up in this, what with all the shifts and callbacks it goes. May be a hair too long, but for the most part he keeps it interesting, mainly by not exactly 'rocking' or being 'metal', but by making wayward cuts and pastings from both.

OK here's "How Bad Do You Want It"

http://www.overduereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Henley-and-Axl.png

http://youtu.be/AqUmCCM0uws

(the image goes with yesterday's but I couldn't resist)

Ugh: Henley's going with Frey's David Letterman's band sax .

Don looks like a "hip" divorced dad playing drums in his ne'er-do-well teenage son's first band

Forgive this link, which is gross on multiple levels, not least for the Don the Mon reference around the 6:30 mark, where the notorious douche in charge pushes his point too far and Patty Griffin just gives him this perplexed wtf look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2urQgb-wkE

"How Bad Do You Want It?": This song is very nearly 1989 in song form. The sax hook is somewhat grating, but maybe that's the encode. <checks grooveshark> No wait, it's in the production. Some pitch shiting thing. As Glenn rips from our Donster go, I'll stick with "Man With A Mission".

"The Last Worthless Evening"

http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/407/001712_42.jpg

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1uavx_don-henley-last-worthless-evening_music

After "She's On the Zoom" and "The Boys of Summer," my favorite Henley single. He navigates through the self-disgust and disgust -- signaled by the octave jumps in his vocals -- like a pro.

"New York Minute"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/New_York_Minute.jpg

vimeo.com/76748289

boy do I loathe this song. Is a New York minute approximate to an eon in real time?

I've missed two heavy Henleys: apologies. Will try to listen to 'em later. But I already know I hate the ironically named "New York Minute"

"The Last Worthless Evening": This is a good example of Adult Contemporary--clearly a song for older people, but not too long in the tooth. I like some of the lyrical detail ("it's been two years for me"), and the chorus is some kinda wish fulfillment.. It doesn't need to be 6 minutes long.

The Video: Video Diva Don with the wind machine blowing those long locks. Getting a serious Rick Von Sloneker vibe from this visual era of the Donster. I can even see him reviewing the video later, going over the actresses: "Hit it...Hit it...Dyke...Passed, Frey Hit it already...Pulled A Train".

"New York Minute": Now That"s What I Call A Portentous Opening! This is like some humorless Billy Joel pastiche. I do like the 'cinematic' sax break.

The song is rumored to be about actress Michelle Pfeiffer. Henley himself tells the story to concertgoers that he was at a Hollywood party in the late 1980s when, from across the room, he spied the beautiful blond "It girl" of Hollywood. She had just broken up with her husband and was sitting on a couch smoking a cigarette next to her recent co-star, Jack Nicholson. Henley says that he, like every man in the room, wanted to meet her. As he tells it, he walked up to the woman and asked if he could bum a cigarette. Without ever looking up at him she thrust a cigarette in his direction. As he slinked away, he says Nicholson chortled, "Well played, Henley."

http://www.coverjunkie.com/uploads/1289039937.jpg
"Well played, Henley. Well played."

MADRAS RETURNS!

"Shangri-La"

http://i.vimeocdn.com/video/459714841_640.jpg

http://youtu.be/rf1Pjstyyco

all right, need to catch up:

"Last Worthless Evening": yeah, this is the gem of this album, if it comes off a bit like Richard Marx made good. Goes on a verse too long, not helped by the "time keeps tick-ing" filler bit. Don's hair flip in the video is charming.

"New York Minute": Christ, why are all these things like 7 minutes long? Curse of the CD age. Yeah, the intro is pure Billy Joel-esque fantasia and also (calling back to an old thread), The Fox-era Elton John. Verse melody reminds me of Dana Carvey's "Choppin' Broccoli" bit. Chorus takes 2 minutes to show up and just sits there. Well played, Henley.

"Shangri-La": starts out mildly weird, as if Don's heard Janet Jackson and stole a couple ideas; refrain is grim but catchy---fear I'm going to be humming it in the grocery store later

"Shangri-La": Nice groove on the verses, let down by a dopey placeholder-feeling chorus. The title comes off better on the coda. Overall this feels like filler.

in the wild: a battered copy of No Fun Aloud in a 99 cent bin outside the local record store in Northampton

Did you go for it