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

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

no: looked like someone had used it for a coaster. would've grabbed a half-decent Allnighter

"Little Tin God"

http://www.forgottenbooks.com/bookcover/0240/With_the_Tin_Gods_1000507174.jpg

http://youtu.be/sNa1N-Ct37c?list=PLB0xGdhVdMlb_infE7eF-9hFcjqGT7X11

Guys, get ready: the lyrics and fanmade video are made for each other.

wow: "the Nobama Mix!" as for the Henley original, like "Shangri-La" it starts out oddly promising and then pow! lifeless session-man reggae. "Six Flags Over Jesus!"

"Gimme What You Got"

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/06/5c/7d/065c7ddc00036f2cb64c9080e13a4efb.jpg

http://youtu.be/vEedAfnMmmQ

The first minute -- those crosstalking guitars -- is the album's best.

"If Dirt Were Dollars"

https://ethicsalarms.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/muddy.jpg

http://youtu.be/7PKgYpjQgCI

http://peripateticbone.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/body-1.jpg?w=356&h=498

http://indieethos.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/scarfe-illustration-for-the-wall.jpg

"Gimme What You Got": guitars are great in the beginning & throughout. Then Don sings "home of the brave, the land of the free" in the first fucking verse (& we get "golden showers" later on, plus "you don't see no hearses with luggage racks," which you know Don thought was a zinger). If I can zone Don's voice out, this is an enjoyable track, but it takes work. Edie Brickell and Melissa Etheridge recruited to sound like anonymous backing singers.

"If Dirt Were Dollars": sometime in the early 1990s, a friend proposed a rule that anyone who wrote a lyric that referenced Elvis, Jesus or both should be fined by the government. This would've qualified. again, the guitars help, but this is labored, cluttered stuff.

We end The End of the Innocence with what Don calls his best song...

"The Heart of the Matter"

http://www.fredsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/don-henley.jpg

http://youtu.be/Xezg3z5IE8I

J.D. Souther of course wrote the best parts.

if only he'd retired after this song, it would've worked as one last, grandiose statement, with some self-awareness and a few good recriminatory lines (probably Souther); it's almost an atonement for the Eagles. but no....

the FORGIVENESS section is welcome and unexpected

Damn, four tracks behind. Let's do this.

"Little Tin God": NOBAMA MIX HAS BEEN BLOCKED ON COPYRIGHT GROUNDS. Song still available from others. David Paich was one of the masterminds behind Silk Degrees. As fo this, cool opening gives way to less interesting but still competent and admittedly infectious cod-reggae. Like the keyboard tones. Donster hectoring but reigned in. Uses track length well.

"Gimme What You Got": Opening keys sound like a xmas song. Guitar riff is "Born Under A Bad Sign" brought into the '80s. Digging this, it's top-flight Michelob Rock. Lyrics dissing money grubbing and lawyers? Oh Henleypaws!

"Jf Dirt Were Dollars": More modernized blues licks--good. Don lyrically lamenting Trash Culture--not so much. Uses its time well.

"The Heart of The Matter": Mike Campbell bringing the best Byrds licks he could keep from Petty! Actually, as a child this was probably where I first heard and loved electric 12-string (certainly encountered this before the Byrds and possibly before the right Petty tracks). Another great Grown-Up person song, effectively showing up Frey's attempts at same. There's a funny story in To The Limit how during the sessions Henley would have women in and around the studio complex brought in to hear this track and fawn over how sensitive it (and by extension Henley himself) was. The album's best track.

I know we're all in a hurry to get back to the Little Tin Glenn, but there are a handful of Don duets and soundtrack bits from the pre-Hell Freezes Over period to discuss yet.

In The Wild: Used copies of both The End of The Innocence and Inside Job in the clearance CD bin at Half-Price Books ($3 each).

Merry Xmas from Glenn!

"Livin' Right"

http://www.glennfreyonline.com/images/singleLivinRight.jpg

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zzos_glenn-frey-living-right_music

"My anthem to fitness. Jack and I both started working out, eating right and generally tightening up our acts. Having tried nearly every other way to feel good, we've wound up back in gym class. Who'd of thunk it!"