The cowboy shit annoys the hell out of me. These guys weren't exactly Marty Robbins.
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
I really like this song but I think I like it more when Linda Ronstadt sings it. She brings a bit more feeling to it, where as Henley just sings it nice but he's kinda holding back.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:15 (ten years ago) link
"Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them. "Hate" is the kind of up-tight word that automatically excludes one from polite posthippie circles, a good reason to use it, but it is also meant to convey an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult to pinpoint. Do I hate music that has been giving me pleasure all weekend, made by four human beings I've never met? Yeah, I think so. Listening to the Eagles has left me feeling alienated from things I used to love. As the culmination of rock's country strain, the group is also the culmination of the counterculture reaction that strain epitomizes. "
Christgau, '72: http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/eagles.php
― col, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:16 (ten years ago) link
its kind of hard to overestimate the influence of the byrds on so many different types of people from 1966 until the 70's. but certainly dylan/band had just as much influence. both coasts were covered. folk people in general get lost in the shuffle as far as getting credit for bringing old country/mountain music to the kids/hippies. people like mike seeger and a million others toured college campuses for years all through the 60's and made country music cool to non-country audiences. thus the college jug band/string band phenomena of the 60's. every hip college having their olde-tyme combos. just as their were a million collegiate hot jazz societies and bands all across the country in the 40's and 50's.
(not to mention the endless stream of actual folk/blues/country vets who made the college circuit back then.)
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:31 (ten years ago) link
Their whole attitude seemed to revolve around being a version of The Band that made a shitload of money and had huge hits
Flying Burrito Bros surely?
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:38 (ten years ago) link
But, yeah, the Byrds, but if you thought the Eagles were "hardly Marty Robbins", what about McGuinn?
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 16:40 (ten years ago) link
A related question: what was the relationship, if any, between this album and the crossing-over of outlaw country, which I guess came a little later? Coincidence? Common influences? The idea that Waylon, Willie, and the boys were somehow copying the Eagles seems comical, but something was going on.
― Brad C., Wednesday, 4 September 2013 17:09 (ten years ago) link
it was in the air. well, a lot of things were in the air, but this was one of the things in the air. southern rock via allman brothers and Capricorn really starting to take off too.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 17:25 (ten years ago) link
outlaw also a reaction to country pop of the era. those dudes weren't having it. no sir.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 17:30 (ten years ago) link
Their whole attitude seemed to revolve around being a version of The Band that made a shitload of money and had huge hitsFlying Burrito Bros surely?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Poco_1970.jpg
(Frey said as much)
― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:49 (ten years ago) link
As for "Desperado", I get kind of a Tumbleweed Connection vibe off of this one. Haven't heard Linda's yet, but it seems like the lyric (which, iirc, is written in the voice of a female character) would suit her well. I also remember hearing how bad Henley sounded on the Johnny Cash version when it came out, and at the time if I'd been able to wager money on who'd be dead within a year of it's recording, I wouldn't have picked Johnny.
― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:56 (ten years ago) link
The idea that Waylon, Willie, and the boys were somehow copying the Eagles seems comical
Waylon's rock roots pre-date the Eagles (and the Byrds too for that matter). Willie never rocked, really.
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 19:01 (ten years ago) link
Nash has got a tell-all book coming out in a couple of weeks.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:13 (ten years ago) link
drug the one you're with
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:17 (ten years ago) link
Suite: Judy Glassy Eyes
― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:22 (ten years ago) link
wineevere
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:28 (ten years ago) link
Take It, Sleazy
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:29 (ten years ago) link
Crosby himself had just recently ended things with Mitchell, but he was generous with his women, one night even asking his girlfriend, Christine Hinton, to head downstairs to share Nash’s bed.
bleargh...
― Same old bland-as-sand mood mouthings (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:44 (ten years ago) link
yet Joni Mitchell is never called 'generous with her men' despite bedding the three of them.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:48 (ten years ago) link
I don't see Frey nor Henley doing that.
― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:48 (ten years ago) link
Crosby's sexual appeal is a complete mystery to me
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:52 (ten years ago) link
o
t
m
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:53 (ten years ago) link
I mean I get the whole "power is an aphrodisiac" thing but he was a bald, bloated coke-addled walrus
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:53 (ten years ago) link
he's so hobbity
Shakey is good at demystifying the fucker. Those in the know laughed their asses off looking at him.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:54 (ten years ago) link
i think david crosby had extremely high levels of #swag
some women find it irresistible
― My Little Pono (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:55 (ten years ago) link
J.D. Souther is the only one of these soulless miscreants I would've allowed to fuck me, after which I'd cry and write a ballad for Linda Ronstadt.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:55 (ten years ago) link
lol
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:56 (ten years ago) link
yeah in Hotel California Souther comes off as this super Lothario who seemed to hold sway over Frey and Henley even at their peak....
― My Little Pono (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:57 (ten years ago) link
loooool Alfred
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:57 (ten years ago) link
like in the band private jet JD got to sit in the front w.Frey and Henley and the other dudes in the Eagles had to sit in the back
as far as desperado
i can't really hear this song anymore
― My Little Pono (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 21:58 (ten years ago) link