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

one day and one track at a time. in honor of Joe Walsh. we can do this, people. and may God have mercy on our souls.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb_x-mJ3FFw/TaSm412HHII/AAAAAAAAAaQ/SDDvvEHKOik/s1600/The-Eagles_l.jpg

http://www.walnutst.com/i/products/f1312567200.jpg

here we go...

"Take It Easy"

http://ring.cdandlp.com/groove-vibrations/photo_grande/114363815.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS442e79mZ0

in the wild...

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

I won't participate unless Ned does.

it's the soft rock shot heard 'round the world. and the world would never be the same. browne/frey at their most browne/frey. plus, banjos.

Something I like about this song: In the last verse, there's a single substitution of an Am where a C has appeared in all the other verses. It's also supported in the vocal harmonies and is unexpectedly sweet-sounding.

it is, in a lot of ways, dumbed down byrds. musically. except for the demented banjos in the background. the vocals are so slow and deliberate and clear its almost as if they were hoping that it would catch on with children. bubblegum country rock? a lot of countru and southern rock from 1970 to 1972 was seriously dusty or backwoods or blues-based or a hippie homage to old bluegrass heroes. this totally cleans all the dust off. but, obviously, this is the genius. simple, direct, and catchy as hell. it was a song designed to be played 4000 times in a row.

As I've said in other Eagles threads, this song exists in the impenetrable part of my mind labeled CHILDHOOD so is kinda untouchable on critical grounds. It came out when I was two-and-a-half years old, and my family was stationed at an Air Force Base in the middle of the Arizona desert. I probably DID hear it 4000x in a row, with my family driving down desert roads with open windows. It was literally created to be the soundtrack for exactly the world I inhabited at that time.

also think its such an appropriate start. and a true test for the cranky. if you can control the desire to feel superior to this song then you are on the path to sainthood. this song is exactly what people hated about this band early on. it is the Urtext of eaglesdom.

When I listened to this song (and this album) the other day, after not having heard the song for years (I don't listen to the radio, like, ever), I was kinda shocked by the banjos. Somehow, they'd never really registered when I heard the song as a kid. Which is weird, because if there's a sound in the world guaranteed to appeal to small children, it would probably be the banjo. I mean, it's the closest thing traditional musical instruments have to that cartoon "sproinggg" sound!

MUSICIAN: Kootch, what was your feeling hearing Don and the Eagles' early stuff?

KORTCHMAR: I'll ell you exactly what my feeling was. When the Eagles first came out, I thought they were absolutely appalling. I couldn't stand them. Absolutely terrible. Especially things like "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Take It Easy."'Cause what they were saying was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to hear, what was going on in my life. Take Jackson's "Peaceful Easy Feeling": here's this song that says "walking down the road in Tucson, Arizona, seven women on my mind." (sic) And here I am trying to keep my marriage together, and this guy's got seven women on his mind! God, it sounded like they were having fun, but I sure wasn't (laughter).

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~markowit/interviews/dh/musician/both.jpg

as with most Jackson Browne covers this sucks some balls compared to the original. yes that includes you Nico, fuck you.

also Kortchmar is misquoting there, obviously.

There are definitely better Eagles songs. This is pretty wimpy stuff.

Pretty cool to see them on the California Jam stage in that clip from the very camera that Ritchie Blackmore would destroy only a few hours later.

it should be noted that this is a standard country and bluegrass song to cover. thousands of country and bluegrass performers have covered this song over the years.

On A Dark Desert Highway: A Vocal Bluegrass Tribute to the Eagles offers heartfelt versions of the band’s greatest songs with soaring harmonies and delightful pickin’ on the banjo, mandolin, dobro and guitar. You won’t believe how beautiful these songs sound in the hands (and throats) of some of the best Bluegrass musicians in the business. If the Eagles had settled in W. Virginia instead of California, this is how their music would have sounded!

http://www.cmhrecords.com/web/images/products/8917_lrg.jpg

do you think that jackson browne oould live off of "take it easy" royalties? not that he has to. but if he had to. i'm going to say yes.

i have a friend whose father wrote a famous song - in the 40's! - and i was kinda impressed by how much money it made the family in a year. not enough to live on, but not nothing either. its a very famous song.

"loosen my load" is such a gross-sounding phrase

Oh man, I never even thought of the sexual connotation there before.

the only thing i have to say in favor of the eagles is that at least they were kinda pleasantly sleazy

just a ragtag band of misfits...

yeah everything about this song is gross, which is compounded by its expert execution. no doubt dudes could harmonize, but not well enough to make me overlook the material or sentiments expressed.... I can think of other harmony or country acts whose singing is so beautiful and intense that it creates a compelling contrast with otherwise bothersome lyrical content, this tension becomes part of the appeal. But the Eagles are not the Louvin Brothers or the Beach Boys. They aren't weird or damaged or desperate enough, nor are they beatific or angelic enough, they're just gross.

xp

at least they weren't trying to sell us abstinence like the malevolent mumford banjo mafia

• I have the best memory of a buddy finally going insane at two in the morning during a poker game when "Take It Easy" comes on and he can't stop laughing over "running down the road, tryin' to loosen my load."

• Rich Hall has this chapter in his Vanishing America about going to Winslow, Ariz., and waiting for a girl in a flatbed Ford to slow down and take a look at him. He gets a ride with her and asks about Jackson Browne. "Kinda quiet," she says and he replies, yeah, that's what he's heard too.

• I'm sure I'll get into it later, but background vocals on Eagles songs scare the shit out of me.

Ok, I think I'm gonna lose my shit about "loosen my load" now.

everything about the arrangement is so uptight, SOMETHING'S gotta get loosened amirite

I imagine a constipated Yosemite Sam running through Roadrunner territory.

Mumford does not take it easy, which sort of makes them worse. The Eagles were hilariously smug and arrogant making lite music. Mumford delivers its music with that annoying faux gravitas, as if it was Important. I'm sure the Eagles though they were Important, too, but only after enough people told them they were, and that probably only came after they were hugely successful and everyone around them was too afraid to say otherwise. "Wow, guys, 'Hotel California' really is like holding up a mirror to America. Like you said, it's about the American dream, but also the American nightmare!"

Song does nothing for me, and never did. Really, the Doobies' "Listen To The Music" is my own personal substitute for "Take It Easy" (not only banjo, it's got steel drums too!) for that 1972 west coast highway-driving feel.

The phrase "There's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford" does sing nice.

I won't participate unless Ned does.

I am avoiding this shit like the plague. Aside from this post, obv.

All right, everyone. Ned's in.

Being from California, these are the songs of your people, correct?

Only Eagle actually from California was Timothy Schmit.

Listen, this isn't the place to start on any of your anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Being from California, these are the songs of your people, correct?

I take great umbrage at this suggestion, good sir

Sorry to get all Soft Rock Civil Defense Corps on you.

All native Californians are from Iowa iirc

"Listen To The Music" is my own personal substitute for "Take It Easy"

i love "listen to the music" to death. its an amazing song when all is sad and done. and the production is arguably just as tightassed as eagles but somehow it opens up into a field of infinite possibilities by the time you get to the psych break where the lazy flowing river does something to the castles in the sky.

lighten up while you still can

apparently frey came up with the flatbed ford line.

http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/2179/3261/5446630016_large.jpg

oh fuck, where is my statues thread.

http://maxmccoy.com/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_0174-769036.jpg

Take It Easy is unfuckwithable; tight structure, sweet harmonising, singalong up to your eyeballs. Was this their first song? What pros.

lol @ the reflection

take it easy is ok

but it is sort of impressive, as far as "first song on first album totally defining the aesthetic of the band"

right up there with "black sabbath"/black sabbath/black sabbath

I feel like the first two missing panels of this cartoon involved Mr. Magoo somehow.

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/9619/hs56.jpg

What's going on in those upstairs windows?

Well, when two trompe l'oeil figures love each other very much . . .

"it's a girl my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me" is the only contribution Frey made to the song. Save for that one line, the song is written by Jackson Browne whose own version of the song I prefer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMA3lIeqV8M

Of course Frey would write the line that makes him look like Paul Newman.

I'm curious about the exact nature of the relationships with those seven women, particularly the one who says she's a friend. Why is that was enough distinction to call her out specifically? Did most of the women he knew not want to be mistaken for being friends with him?

Was there ever was a band less deserving of a close reading

https://i.imgur.com/cXusktI.gif

I actually listened to Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and Hotel California on a long car ride over the holiday, per family request. I hadn't listened to Hotel California in its entirety in at least five years (maybe close to ten), but it actually came off better than expected. I could do without the bathetic "Wasted Time" reprise and some of the lyrics on "The Last Resort." ("Jesus people bought them" is bad enough on paper, Henley's smug delivery is the pits.) But most of it holds together, a good album. The former was kind of pleasant but nearly every track bothered me in some way as either an empty pastiche (Ray Charles on "Desperado," Bee Gees on "One of These Nights," etc.) or more chauvinism. "Take It to the Limit" was a gorgeous sounding track though.

YOu know what holds up pretty well? "I Can't Tell You Why."

^^^an amazing track and the guitar solo is one of the few times I have had to tip my cap to Glenn Frey

Also Walsh with an understated, underrated keyboard performance

look if you are not calling your blog BLOG ALL NIGHT then what is he even doing

Lol

part of me wants to say dude, this is a wasted exercise. in terms of non album tracks, it’s turds almost all the way down. the ones you know are the only thing that will save you (maybe). just do the complete greatest hits & save your sanity.

True Mad Puffin. Something about Walsh's presence, especially when he's on lead guitar, gives even a ripoff like "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You" a solid identity.

* even a ripoff of "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You"

Dude really is an astonishingly complete musician, which is the cherry on top of him being a refreshingly weird person (at least as far as one can tell from documentaries and interviews).

...(and album titles)

Frey and Henley's call-and-response bits in "I Can't Tell You Why" are their tenderest moment.

All this talk of Molotov cocktails keeps getting “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” stuck in my head.

Frey Jr. departs

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/deacon-frey-glenn-frey-son-leaves-eagles-1333746/

They will never forget you till somebody new comes along.

Apparently you can both check out AND leave.

What would Ghost of Glenn say?

DON: It's been great having Deacon out on the road with us these past few years, as we've brought on a new multi-generational dimension to the Hotel California album on sold-out concert stages around the world. As much as I'd have liked to continue this work in the studio, I completely respect young Mr. Frey's decision to build on our foundation alone, making his own unique and special music.

GLENN: Glenn Lewis Frey didn't raise no fools! My boy knows that: (A) real estate is King; (B) if she says she's 18, she's 15; (C) when in doubt, add a sax solo; and above all, (D) there's much more to life than spending six months in the studio punching in syllables with this asshole!

DON: Well, yeah.

I had a friend who used to say, in all sincerity, that "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" was his favorite Eagles song.

brainworms imo

The Long Run - best rocker of all time
I Can't Tell You Why - best slow jam of all time
In The City - best Joe Walsh of all time
The Disco Strangler - best dance song of all time
King Of Hollywood - best prog-rock song of all time
Heartache Tonight - best shuffle of all time
Those Shoes - best funk song of all time
Teenage Jail - best heavy metal song of all time
The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks - best new wave song of all time
The Sad Cafe - best career-ending ballad of all time

The longest run of all time.

The VIP section at The Eagles' Hyde Park concert in London broke into a brawl during the band's performance of "Take It Easy": https://t.co/qbbVlD4l3A pic.twitter.com/YQVyX2B0TM

— Consequence (@consequence) June 30, 2022

a good day in hell

is that at the 1/6 insurrection

I do believe I could CHUD all night

Security guys finally getting to crack some heads

Nah, if they learned anything from Henley, they know how to take care of this. (at 1:41:45) "STAY OUT OF THIS! This is PERSONAL! And it's PRIVATE! Real, fucking, PRIVATE!"

(ah, the Twitter picture didn't come up earlier. I guess they didn't learn anything from the Eagles doc.)

Reportedly, an onlooker kept telling the fighters, “You’ve got to take it easy,” and he didn’t even get punched.

just loosening their loads maaan

Life In The VIP Section

Well, yeah.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Curator Charged Over $1M Worth of Stolen Eagles Lyrics
Craig Inciardi, Glenn Horowitz, and Edward Kosinski are all accused of being involved in a conspiracy that sought to peddle nearly 100 pages of Don Henley’s handwritten notes and lyrics from ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ to potential buyers.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/eagles-hotel-california-lyrics-charged-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-1381952/

Hidden in the margins is a treasure map for finding Glenn's (Eagles) Gold

100 pages of handwritten notes, circa. 1976.

- Toilet paper should be rolled toward the user, to display the design.

- Sunken living rooms should be no more than three feet deep, to preserve sight distance.

- Avacados vary too much in hue to be the standardized name for a certain color of refrigerator. "Philodendron" is a more appropriate name.

"In the City" playing on 880-AM this morning, but it was the Long Run version.

http://twitter.com/seanhowe/status/154766252181273395

Ed Sanders was going to write about Jonestown when the Eagles contacted him in 1978. He completed the 900-page Eagles biography in 1982; it was never published. https://t.co/0dQanOqZ28 pic.twitter.com/Li62CDY9dC

— Sean Howe (@seanhowe) July 14, 2022

that’s pretty fascinating

also i tbh for local color alone i would read Sanders’ Eagles bio

Me too! Can't find anything about it, other than his passing mentions way back when he was working on it, says the new album is real good, The Long Run, I take it.

i am kinda fond of his Manson book for similar reasons, not so much veracity as just local flavor & genuine weirdness - you can’t fake that style

"Peaceful Easy Feeling" in the Publix bathroom supplies aisle, of course.

Okay but wouldn't "Take it Easy" be more appropriate?

"Tryin' to loosen my load" could take on new meaning.

NEW meaning? That's literally what Jackson Browne meant by that lyric.

in case anyone has ever wondered what "hotel california" would sound like with the solo from megadeth's "tornado of souls," and vice versa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc3DY3Lbo50

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0Rq8WoNF1ZeKDgjhLujaLM4gVf3syC4RYHnrJ9VyYvf6ZZiWrLd2CS2MtBUkqzUeal&id=100044525882499&post_id=100044525882499_pfbid0Rq8WoNF1ZeKDgjhLujaLM4gVf3syC4RYHnrJ9VyYvf6ZZiWrLd2CS2MtBUkqzUeal&mibextid=Nif5oz

what might Don 'n' Ghost of Glenn say?

DON: I've never heard of Pavement, but they will certainly be hearing from my lawyers.

GLENN: Why just "Summer Babe"? Equal time for the babes of Spring, Winter, and Autumn, I say! And even better if that equal time is at the same time, if you know what I mean...

DON: Well, yeah.