Anyone crazy enough to open this thread ~period~ deserves what they get.
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 00:33 (ten years ago) link
sometimes i'm afraid ilx will explode someday cuzzs that facebook thread i started:
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― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 00:52 (ten years ago) link
"cuzza"
which isn't actually a word.
You definitely tapped into some collective hate with that thread.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 01:05 (ten years ago) link
"Desperado"
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2013/0812/eagles_desperado_g_mp_576.jpg
http://youtu.be/iDNtqy0zjJA
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 12:48 (ten years ago) link
every youtube clip of this song i listened to sounds terrible. including this one. so, sorry for the sound quality. even the ones labeled HD and REMASTERED. most of them seem to come from the same source? do people just copy other people's youtubes to make their own? i guess they do.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 12:51 (ten years ago) link
nice linda ronstadt live version from 1977.
http://youtu.be/oAK5Ids7l5g
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 12:55 (ten years ago) link
i still think that langley schools music project version might be my favorite though. so poignant.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 12:56 (ten years ago) link
langley schools version is kinda the justification for the eagles
don't like the johnny cash cov tho', doesn't seem like the right song for him at all
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 12:58 (ten years ago) link
This is flawless of course. Why on earth did they not release it as a single though? Was that a trend at the time, holding the best thing back for the album, like Gimme Shelter or Stairway to Heaven?
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 13:06 (ten years ago) link
yeah, this is on another level from the rest of the album. Lyric in the second bridge is one of Henley and Frey's finest: pure prairie depression.
― col, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 13:10 (ten years ago) link
langley schools version definitely my fave also
http://www.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-shot-2012-03-07-at-11.15.11-AM.png
― balls, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 13:23 (ten years ago) link
warren zevon, who ran in the same circles as the eagles and who was equally capable of parodying them and paying them homage, wrote and recorded two songs with desperado in the title: "desperadoes under the eaves" and "gorilla, you're a desperado." it's pretty clear, i think, that both titles are directed at henley, frey and company, though the two songs are very different. but i never noticed until today how much "desperado" itself sounds like a zevon song, musically, lyrically, delivery, everything. zevon was a detail guy and may have felt moved to make the lyrics a bit more place-specific or person-specific, but otherwise, if you told me wrote this, i'd believe you. a great song.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 13:48 (ten years ago) link
Sending this one out to VG. Not a loser was lonesome in this place!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q47FDEfT9DY
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 13:49 (ten years ago) link
"Frank and Jesse James" off Zevon's first LP also seems like an outtake from Desperado.
― col, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 13:52 (ten years ago) link
henley sings on 'gorilla you're a desperado' right?
― balls, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:03 (ten years ago) link
I recall the Grace Lichtenstein re: "Desperado" in "Stranded" is pretty good.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:04 (ten years ago) link
Ooo I have a childhood anecdote about this one: my father dragged me along with him to visit one of his sundry girlfriends and after getting me set up with some crayons and coloring books in the kitchen, they adjourned to the living room where the girlfriend put on Desperado and said to my father, "This song reminds me of you." I have a very distinct memory of rolling my eyes.
Anyway, I like this one, too, but definitely not for the same reason.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:06 (ten years ago) link
I live the bit about how over time the desperado will become bleached of all feeling, less human.
― i believe we can c.h.u.d. all night (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:06 (ten years ago) link
Love the bit*
Maybe I'm livin it too
― i believe we can c.h.u.d. all night (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:07 (ten years ago) link
henley, j.d. souther and jackson browne. browne sings on "desperadoes under the eaves" too.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:07 (ten years ago) link
Girlfriend was right about that part, at least. xp
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:08 (ten years ago) link
Freedom as loss of self/progressive neurasthenia
― i believe we can c.h.u.d. all night (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:08 (ten years ago) link
lol carl
― balls, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:10 (ten years ago) link
One of my two fave Eagles tracks (it'll be a while before we're at the other one). Corny as hell, but effectively and rather nakedly so; it'll be a long while before its bleached of all feeling for me.
― the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:18 (ten years ago) link
if ever there was an eagles song destined to be sung at talent shows and karaoke night or just about anywhere its this one. its great if you can hit high notes like linda ronstadt but you can be a pretty limited singer range-wise and still pull it off. just make a sad face and look like you're gonna cry. you can sing it softly. or you can go big.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:35 (ten years ago) link
Desperados Under the Eaves is beyond great. Desperado... not quite there.
― g simmel, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:40 (ten years ago) link
Starting to feel like I'm the only one here whose appreciation of the Eagles works its way backward from The Long Run.
The cowboy shit annoys the hell out of me. These guys weren't exactly Marty Robbins.
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:41 (ten years ago) link
No I'm with you on that. The % if tracks I like per album goes up with the more rockin aor albums.
― i believe we can c.h.u.d. all night (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:50 (ten years ago) link
But the cowboy shit has its moments!
Would've loved to have seen an exiled Bernie Leadon listening to "Hotel California" for the first time and going, "But where are the banjos?"
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
Or Bing Crosby for that matter. Faux cowboy stuff is fine by me btw.
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:03 (ten years ago) link
Such a fine line. It's why Uncle Tupelo could pull it off and Whiskeytown couldn't. It's much easier for me to picture Kid Rock as a cowboy than Don effin' Henley.
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:07 (ten years ago) link
I didn't think I hated this song, but after listening to it again, yeah, I do. It's the moment when the Eagles finally realize they will never, ever be the Band, so hey, let's dress up like them!http://theband.hiof.no/band_pictures/band_mfbp_back.jpg
The song seems to be about this realization: they've resigned themselves to their fate as slick L.A. studio flumpfers, and their strengths were in writing shitty faux-soundtrack music for slick, painless cowboy movies that they imagined themselves starring in.
― Shart Week (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:21 (ten years ago) link
and they got haircuts!
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:23 (ten years ago) link
Tarfumes on the mark. May have been bigger egos in The Band too, but they pulled it off.
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:26 (ten years ago) link
Just closed my eyes and did a search for Don Henley Robbie Robertson, and hey look, it's a Scorsese soundtrack.
― pplains, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:28 (ten years ago) link
soooo many groups wanted to be The Band! (in the BBC documentary based on the Hoskyns bk, David Crosby makes a point of saying how terrifying it was to have The Band watching em from the side of the stage during their second ever gig (at Woodstock))
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:31 (ten years ago) link
http://www.bb-ochiai.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/sholo.jpg
http://www.glennfreyonline.com/images/longbranchpennywhistlecover.jpg
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:32 (ten years ago) link
guess don didn't want to cowboy up for the shiloh cover shot.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:33 (ten years ago) link
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/qq285/atthetroubadour/Don%20Henley/DonCuteBlueEyes_zps53a95334.jpg
http://www.thirteen.org/13pressroom/files/2012/08/HN720023.jpg
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:36 (ten years ago) link
http://www.donhenleyonline.com/images/DHenleyShilohInsert.jpg
http://www.donhenleyonline.com/images/felicity3.jpg
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:38 (ten years ago) link
http://www.donhenleyonline.com/images/DHenleyfourspeeds1966.jpg
i don't really get the band thing. always felt like they were going for the dusty desert west coast thing. byrds-derived more than band-derived. the byrds were dressing up like cowboys pretty early on. the charlatans, etc.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:41 (ten years ago) link
i mean i've never thought of the band when hearing the eagles. lets put it that way.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:42 (ten years ago) link
the band were more civil war and the eagles more gold rush.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 15:44 (ten years ago) link
That's true. And I didn't see the Eagles as Band wanna-be's at all until I saw the doc. Their whole attitude seemed to revolve around being a version of The Band that made a shitload of money and had huge hits (two things The Band never really did).
And yeah, the Byrds and the Buffalo Springfield and other bands wore cowboy hats and western gear in '65-'67, but the Band inspired the whole neo-"authenticity"/"back to the land" post-psychedelic hangover thing that so much of country rock took its cues from. True, there was a ton of country rock prior to Big Pink, but a lot of it was Dylan/Band/Basement Tapes influenced (the tapes made the rounds among musicians in '67-'68), and the scene went from hippies dressing as slick country bands and playing the Opry (as the Byrds did) to hippies digging in the dust with mustaches.
(but I'm probably wrong/oversimplifying a lot of this)
― Shart Week (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:08 (ten years ago) link
many xposts to pplains --- aaahhhh!! thank you for posting that LRB version, I love it!!!
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:14 (ten years ago) link