Say something charitable about the Eagles.

As far as satanic - man, I don't know but the gatefold to Hotel California is downright creepy. That sort of sepia washed-out photo of all those people staring back at you; and what's that guy doing up there on the terrace?!

... which sounds like a Teamsters' wet dream!

Did I suggest otherwise?

Anyway, I think you proved what I've always suspected: People hate the Eagles because of what the Eagles supposedly STOOD for. But I don't CARE what they stood for. I care about their SONGS.

I think their music is staid, trite, lifeless, dull, banal and unexceptional. Walsh added a bit to their arsenal, but not enough to save them from inspiring lethal ennui.

Did I suggest otherwise?

Anyway, I think you proved what I've always suspected: People hate the Eagles because of what the Eagles supposedly STOOD for. But I don't CARE what they stood for. I care about their SONGS.

Well, I think their music is staid, trite, lifeless, dull, banal and unexceptional. Walsh added a bit to their arsenal, but not enough to save them from inspiring lethal ennui.

Ha! The Christian youth pamphlet cited that very gatefold. It claimed the guy on the terrace was Anton LaVey and that the whole song was about the founding of the Satanic Church. (Also cited as servants of the dark lord, for reasons that now escape me, were Olivia Newton-John, the Bee Gees and Fleetwood Mac. Oh, Fleetwood Mac was because Stevie Nicks is a witch.)

I like "Boys of Summer" better than any Eagles song, but I give most of the credit for that to Mike Campbell. OK, the lyrics aren't bad, in a self-important aging Baby Boomer way. The Eagles themselves...they were an OK singles band, right? "Heartache Tonight" is pretty great. "Lyin' Eyes" is nice. I can live a long, long time without ever hearing "7 Bridges Road" again, tho.

the 1978 eagles = the 2003 phillies (jim thome = baseball's joe walsh. both thome and walsh are connected to cleveland, so the comparison fits!)

Ah, but unlike Nugent, they don't look like they are thisclose to keeling over.

The Eagles: Destroy by Fire Bombing or with Thermonuclear Devices?

Also, I had meant to second Ben Boyer on the Langley "Desperado" - it was easily the best thing about that record, which I generally didn't care for.

I think it's impossible NOT to factor in what 'they stood for' when you make an estimate of a band's career -- it's part of the whole Eagles package, same as their clothes, their album covers, etc.

sure ... or #6, since the housemartins aren't indefensible at all!

Which doesn't really answer the question of why Dylan, the Stones et al. get away with their rage. (Maybe that's why I've never wholeheartedly loved them, either, except for Costello and even then not his most enraged stuff, unless Blood and Chocolate counts, which it probably does.)

Johnny Cash's cover of "Desperado" is also quite nice.

TS: the eagles v. SARS!

i wouldn't, either. although if the alternative is listening to the eagles, and since SARS isn't necessarily fatal (if caught early enough) ...

2. the one with the long hair's kinda cute

3. they're easy targets for the jokes of elitist hipsters who're afraid to like anything a)their parents listen to and b)release the 2nd highest grossing album in history

4. their horribly almost proggy usage of harmonising guitar solos hides the fact that harmonising guitar solos can seriously kick ass, thus making it more likely that people will be surprised when and if i use them tastefully and my fanbase will be ever the more rabid

5. ditto on the langley school comment

Donny wore his hair real nice some say...

The reputation of "The Boys of Summer" on this board is starting to snowball, which I'm fine with, misogynist or not.

Jackie N. and I used to listen to his sister Belinda's copy of The Long Run when she wasn't home. Sam S. and I rocked out to "Witchy Woman," and Scott H. and I used to sing "Take It Easy" when we went over to the elementary school gym to dunk on their little hoops. But I've never really met many women who love the Eagles.

It's funny how thin and whispy the guitar sound is! Like you wouldn't expect a band like them to attempt something like that, it's almost .. vulnerable.

And that kick-hihat (boom-tchik) sound is so not disco (hi-hat's would never be clipped off like that) it makes you wonder if it's this intentional piss-take or this horrible misapprehension!

(it's the same pattern on Zep's "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" and um, some other cut that came to mind when I was listening but I forgot)

"King of Hollywood" really sucks though.

I don't understand Chuck's claim that they 'rock', since they almost never rock, either in the Little Richard earlyearlymorning sense nor in the Kiss Detroit Rock City sense, nor even in the 1-2-3-4 Ramonesy sense. "Life in the Fast Lane" comes closest, but even it peters out into synth-boogie about halfway through. And the lyrics suck.