 |
| Cheer the fuck up for fuck's sake, you miserable fucking sons of bitches. |
Country Rock, I'm sure we all agree, represents perhaps the highest evolutionary point of Western Culture. The genre enables the basic qualities of popular tunesmithery more completely than any other. Melody is here, and harmony in abundance. Technical virtuosity - unequalled by the finest classical string quartets - is harnessed to the needs of the song, and never featured merely to satisfy the ego of the musician. And all is built on a propulsive but never dominating rhythmic foundation. It is, in a word, swell.
Th' IoF© has featured many proponents of the genre - the Buffalo Springsteens, Micky Nesmith, and countless others, to a reception of ragged cheers and hats thrown into the air. Yet the elephant in the room is a bird - that noblest of winged creatures, the Eagle.
Why does this band - shining exemplar of all the heretofore mentioned qualities - merit such opprobrium? Such contumely? I posit [do you mean PostIt© - showing results for PostIt© - Ed.] that any reason for disliking their music is based on non-musical - and therefore irrelevant - reasons. Basically, I'm saying if you don't dig Eagles albums, you're full of shit. No, no, hear me out. Hear me out, I say!
The if-you-will rockumentary History Of The Eagles was far from a whitewash, showing the band to be the insufferable nuisances we've always thought they were - quite as horrible as The Byrds. So, and indeed, what? They're unlikely to swing by my house with their whining demands, shabby table manners, and appalling sartorial gaffes, so what care I? Art, not the artist, has ever been the tenet of th' IoF©, and nowhere is it more applicable than here.
Is it because they were so commercially successful? And therefore, by the law of averages, liked by millions of embarrassing dumbasses in trailer couture? But is not the Palace of Success - when built upon the Twin Pillars of Talent and Hard Work - a temple to girt with garlands of flowers rather than hurl handfuls of your own excrement? At? Which to?
If you're willing and able to shed these two spurious prejudices, you are free to judge the music on its own merits. If you like Poco, the Byrds, Crazy Horse - any of the hundreds of acts working in the same genre - it's hard to put a case for the Eagles to be in any way inferior. But go ahead. Knock yourself out. Or ... Get Off My Lawn!
This is the first in a new series of timely and provocative Get Off My Lawn features. Next up - Santana. Oboyoboyoboy!
Let's not forget about Gene Clark, former Byrd & partner in Dillard & Clark Expedition... Nice to see Poco listed; another favorite.
ReplyDeleteWell, yes, I suppose we could list all the country rock artists we can think of. We could do that.
Delete
ReplyDeleteFirst things first.
And First thang is good - thank you...
DeleteI declare jonder's December 8, 2021 at 4:22 AM comment to be accurate.
ReplyDeleteA source familiar with the situation also offered confirmation.
DeleteFarq decrees that any reason for disliking the Eeegles is based on non-musical "and therefore irrelevant" reasons. Here's my reason (based on the music "and therefore relevant") for disliking them. It's ham-fisted and obvious. It's blatantly designed to appeal to as many people as possible. You are welcome to call that an achievement. I consider it crass and calculated.
DeleteThere's a difference between artistry and craft. The Eagles are (to my ears) the equivalent of Thomas Kinkade. They are Tom Hanks. They are Air Supply with beards. Call me a snob, say that I'm full of shit, but I am repulsed by anything that is so nakedly desperate to get into my wallet. They are the sound of strippers at closing time.
In what way ham-fisted? Not technically/musically. They play and sing (five-part harmonies?) extremely well. Their songwriting falls mostly within the genre, it's necessarily formulaic, so in that sense it might be called "obvious". Like much free jazz sounds like any other free jazz.
DeleteAs to crass and calculated - it's pop music. Not indigenous ceremonial music (though in some ways it is that). Anyone making pop music and hoping it's not in some ways a hit, that it gets them known beyond the street they live in, is lying to themselves. And of course there's nothing criminal in playing music for money (most symphony orchestras would be behind bars if it was).
Want to make millions of dollars? It's insultingly easy, and obvious - write and play a few mega-hit songs, and suffer the consequences.
(I liked your "strippers at closing time" analogy, although having heard a few I can't say they reminded me of the Eagles particularly.)
"They are the sound of strippers at closing time."
DeleteI really ought to catch up with them beyond the heavy-rotation mega-hits if they were that keen to grab little old me.
Another way of looking at an eagle:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J94MJsxLTU
Brilliant!
DeleteThe measure was passed and the law at last
Was entered on government logs.
J Edgar didn't care. "Poodles are queer.
America's gone to the dogs."
Great stuff, thanks Clarence
DeleteMason Williams is a treasure.
DeleteAh, they're alright. They sold...26,000,000 copies of their Greatest Hits LP/CD in the USA...so that's roughly 1 out of 12 people. Numbers like that, well, if it's that popular, it can't possibly be any good, right? Plus...over-play. There's several thousand songs...that are wonderful, well-done, brilliant...that I just don't need to hear anymore. I like the Eagles enough to have bought their Eagles, The Studio Albums 1972-1979 back in 2013. I played it once. I'll play it again, and love it when I do...but there's a lot of other music I want to hear before I hear the Eagles again. They're a great group with a great back catalog. Plus Joe Walsh...Ringo's brother in law, that's gotta be worth something....
ReplyDeleteI judge people by if they own The Eagles Greatest Hits.
DeleteThere, I said it.
I'm pretty sure I "own" only three Greatest Hits albums - Creedence's "Chronicles", The Who's "Meaty Beaty", and the Beach Boys' "Endless Summer", none of which is titled "Greatest Hits". Oh wait - Dave Brubeck's Greatest Hits. But not The Eagles, so I must be borderline acceptable to you.
DeleteSo, a world-class windup artist, like yourself, took this seriously?
DeleteDude...
Yebbut I was being ironic too, and you didn't pick up on it? (Etc.)
DeleteAh, the curse of the Big Lebowski. Millions of hipsters could finally smirk in agreement - if the Dude declares "I hate the fuckin' Eagles" he must be right, even if he gets thrown out of a taxi. It's so easy to hate this band, mainly because Henley and Frey are/were two of the biggest dicks in the history of rock bands and boy, do they have competition there. Frey essentially was a jock dickhead who liked to bully people, but Henley's the worst of the worst, as his smarmy condescension comes from a place of supposed superiority, as mr. Henley couches everything he says in a veneer [??? -Ed.] of intellectualism. Prof. fuckin' Henley is also a habitual liar - especially when it comes to his own band. That's the part that really annoys me personally: The Eagles don't do "outtakes", or "demos", or "unreleased songs" - it took them almost fifty years to release a freakin' B-side. We will never get to hear songs we know exist, because Prof. dr. (Major in Douchebaggery) Henley says they don't - "we combed the archives and there's nothing". Fuck you Henley, just say you don't want to release the stuff.
ReplyDeleteBecause having said all that, I love most of the Eagles' output, especially from the first four albums (teh Leadon-Meisner era). There's a bunch of deep cuts that are quite good. They're of course only deep cuts because everything that most self-proclaimed Eagles own is the greatest hits album, plus Hotel California and The Long Run. The latter by the way must be one of the worst anticipated, multi-million dollar follow up ever. At least the Mac did something interesting with their cocaine and idle studio time when they came up with "Tusk", "The Long Run" has three and a half good songs and a whole lot of nothing around it.
Boy, this sire is getting long.
Just one more thing: "Desperado" is a great album, top to bottom, and a much better concept album than "Hoytel California" which isn't but was sold as such to everyone by Prof. dr. Henley (Minors in Lying and Grandstanding). "Doolin-Dalton" is great. Oh, and Randy Meisner is of course the most underrated of the group. Also, according to everyone one of the nicest guys in the business, surrounded by a bunch of habitual assholes. So, he's a nice guy, look where that got him. Sigh.
Let's listen to some freakin' country rock.
(Also, let me see if I can post something useful from the Eagles archive that Farq hasn't put up here already...)
Thank you, sire!
DeleteOBG, bringing back proper etiquette to the Isle of Foam for the first time since...well...ever
DeleteI've seen that the posting du jour o' the day is the Eagles' first platter, an interesting case study in four guys doing that country rock thing, but not being sure where to go with it. So they do a bit of everything.
Leadon, the traditionalist, goes for pure country.
Frey, the fake country guy who really wanted to be a Detroit rock'n'boogie dude goes for some horrendously fake 'sensitive balladeering' that he gives Meisner to sing ("Most Of Us Are Sad") but already gives a preview of his brainless bar room rock with "Chug All Night".
Henley, surprising considering how his vocals and songwriting would overshadow everyone from pretty much the next album onward, gets a measly single co-dredit (!), and for his second lead vocal they have to go to a Jackson Browne song. He seems pretty tentative here, as he was clearly a freshman in the University of Eagles Assholery (Los Angeles campus).
And finally Meisner, who free'd from the very restricted Poco approach, does a bit of everything. Pop on "Tryin'" and a touch of spooky mini-psychedelia mixed with country rock on "Take The Devil" - that's one of those deep cuts that's well worth listening to - it's a shame the band never pursued that direction a little more.
Manly applause and head nodded with pursed lips.
DeletePshaw. The Dudeness, always a man of sound judgement, was right in dismissing The Eagles and favouriting Creedence. The Eagles are so hideously white they make ELP look like Fela Kuti. And the diaspora that were around and followed The Eagles. Dreary earnest Americana at best. You enjoy what you will, man, but I prefer my music with a bit of natural rhythm and swing. CSNY managed it. This lot don't.
ReplyDeleteThe sound of an egg salad (egg mayonnaise to the Brits) on white bread.
DeleteBabs abides...
See you can talk shit about the Eagles all you like and there's a good chance they deserve it, but I really don't get that whole 'they are so hideously white' argument made above. That makes no sense to me. They were four really white guys, playing in a predominantly white genre. Does that make it inherently bad? Or should they get their black blues growl on? Criticize them for being glib or fake or misogynist or what have we - but whiteness...I don't know, man.
DeleteNot to mention that them being and sounding white is probably better than Stills singing about "white niggers" or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band discovering reggae and singing in an exaggerated fake Jamaican accent... (which gets a laugh out of me but is musical blackface no matter how you slice it...)
My comment wasn't based on their "whiteness", but rather their blandness.
DeleteI couldn't agree more with your blackface comment.
...Sting...cough...
DeleteRegatta Da Blanc! Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not that much of a Police/Sting fan, but I don't remember him singing in a fake patois...?!
DeleteColin Whatshisface from Men at Work.
DeleteAs Draftervoi alluded to, the overexposure of the Eagles Hits, had resulted in me not playing their music anymore. I could say the same about so many bands, Dire Straits etc etc. However now I don't listen to mainstream radio, which resulted in the overexposure, somehow Mr Henley's Boys of Summer, I can still tolerate - just don't tell anyone.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with dozens of bands. When I want Beatles, Temptations, James Brown, Fleetwood Mac, Springsteen...I pick out the songs that are not over-played. I'm conciously avoiding music that I often think is an artist's best work. I'm 65. I have a huge music library. Time is limited. And yes: radio. I dearly loved radio, but they gave us what we wanted, which was to hear the familiar. You have two seconds to decide if this station is for you or if you switch stations, you hear something you've never heard before...you ("we") moved on. A song not in the "genre" of the station? Something too old, too new, foreign language (I'm talking to you, America...), you moved on. Radio died because of many factors, but one of 'em was our fast-fingered response to anything that didn't slot into our pre-conceived expectations. And the Eagles fit right into what we wanted.
Deleteif everyone got off my lawn there would be nothing but bare dirt where the grubs feasted. i am however going to need a can of OFF! for most of the bands in the "country rock" list. the byrds do not belong with that annoyingly tepid gang. the byrds are their own genre. jerry lee lewis is country rock. i have no idea what all those canyon boys are trying to play.
ReplyDeleteFair point for the Byrds, or, as I like to call them, the band that invented everything.
DeleteElectric folk-rock, space/raga rock, country rock - they were in the first years at the forefront of what was happening...
Their later country rock years do have a good amount of admittedly smaller treasures.
Clarence's solo vocals are vastly underrated - there are times when "Bugler" just might be my favourite track ever.
DeleteThey're really quite the mixed bag. His extremely nasal delivery of "Oil In My Lamp" isn't great and the vocals on "Truck Stop Girl" are nasal and mumbly.
DeleteHe really hit his stride on "Jamaica Say You Will", "Farther Along" and "Bugler". You're right about that one, it's a beauty. Clarence purposefully fucked up his vocals in London to get to sing it right back in the US and it is by far his best vocal performance.
A short lived Baton Rouge country rock band of the same era, The Copas Brothers (if memory serves) had some Eagles sideman in it who claimed they were pretty nice (at least to the hired hands) and basically in it for the money. At 16 or so, I was appalled, but, tbh...they've got some fine tunes and, from my perspective helped fuel the rise of punk, not a bad thing. I turn up "Take It Easy"--their version or Nico's guitarist's--every time. Wonder whatever happened to that youngel?
ReplyDeleteBack in the 70s I had an ex-girlfriend who was a concert producer. When a new band failed to draw much of a crowd she'd arrange tickets for me if she thought I'd like the band. I'd never heard of Springsteen at the time but in spite of a pretty small crowd he gave it everything he had for almost two hour, and made me a fan for life. So when she suggested I might enjoy this band called The Eagles I took her up on it. I left after about a half an hour. They weren't bad, just boring, and I was surprised some people were singing along. I don't remember ever leaving another concert early.
ReplyDeleteI still listen to the first four albums and I still enjoy them very much. Yes, they're occasionally very smooth, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - I prefer to view that quality as an example of the craft that went into their music.
ReplyDeleteI just don't know what Walsh is doing in the band - his solo output declined in quality from that time and I didn't see him adding much to the band in terms of innovation - it just got more AOR.
Thinking back to that first album, it created quite a wave in the UK counter culture and was very well regarded by OZ magazine and its readers - so it was hip once at least!
In the end, it's just more music - you like it or you don't, so you take it or leave it.
I don't think I will convert someone here who just goes with the Dude, but hey...
ReplyDeleteSo here's a selection of my favorite Eagles Deep (or, you know, Deep-ish) cuts
You'll also notice that there's a bunch of Meisner and Leadon on here, for reasons stated above
Doolin-Dalton is all three parts of the song edited together.
For my money, Midnight Flyer from Kirshner's rock concert blows the studio version out of the water, so that's here
And even though they stole the arrangement wholesale from Ian Matthews, I start with their backstage warm up song, because they damn sure sing it beautifully...
Anyway, if anyone wants it, here's Eagles - Nestled
https://workupload.com/archive/NHNvJW9n
Thank you, OBG. I can not often fully separate the art from the artist, but can agree that the effort is worth making. I agree with others that several tracks can play in my head any time I want, making the stereo or the radio quite irrelevant. Also agree with the sentiment that the Desperado album meant something at the time, and that being smooth is not always an insult.
DeleteThanks OBG I'll give this a spin.
DeleteI'll pass on the download, OBG if only because I'm pretty sure I have it all already. I just want to add my vote for Desperado as a consistently great album from start to finish (Bitter Creek is probably my favourite track). That and On The Border are the Eagles albums I enjoy most - One Of These Nights was the start of my parting company with them.
DeleteThere's never a bad time for this...
ReplyDeleteHe's a tortured artist
Used to be in the Eagles
Now he whines
Like a wounded beagle
Poet of despair!
Pumped up with hot air!
He's serious, pretentious
And I just don't care
Don Henley must die!
Don't let him get back together
With Glenn Frey!
Don Henley must die!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt81bVae4tQ
Visious
DeleteDon didn't mind and Mojo wasn't being totally serious.
DeleteYou mentioned Sting earlier, is everyone on the Isle familiar with the Richard Thompson song, Here Comes Geordie?
DeleteHere comes Geordie, back in town again
Here comes Geordie, strutting down the lane
Girls all want to toy with his affection
Boys all say, he loves his own reflection
Hey now, Geordie, sing us all a song
Whoa there, Geordie, where's your mother tongue?
That don't sound like Tyneside to me
Geordie, are you from Jamaica, ee?
Here comes Geordie in his private plane
Got to save the planet once again
Good old Geordie, righteous as can be
Chop down the forest just to save a tree
Good old Geordie went to buy a hat
Geordie says, my head won't fit in that
It's so swollen, much to my surprise
They're all too small, there's nothing in my size
Here comes Geordie acting in a play
He's no Gielgud or Olivier
Stiff as cardboard, isn't it a drag,
Can't act his way out of a paper bag
Here comes Geordie, back in town again
Here comes Geordie, strutting down the lane
Girls all love him, think he is the end
Boys all say, the mirror's his best friend
RT - one of the UK's musical national treasures.
DeleteHe's also done a similarly scathing job on Kenny G and Janet Jackson.
Best Don Henley song ever.
DeleteVery good, I wasn't aware of those two, but just read the lyrics, very funny, especially the Janet Jackson one. National treasure indeed. I used to collect stamps, but now collect live versions of sloth, far more rewarding!
DeleteIn your mind's ear listen to Desperado and imagine it sung with a lisp.
ReplyDeleteThat'th too funny, Clarenthe
DeleteDethperado
Why don't you come to your thentheth?
Come down from your fentheth, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there'th a rainbow above you
You better let thomebody love you
(let thomebody love you)
You better let thomebody love you
Before it'th too late
Oh booger, there goeth another thong
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93VbNiVpAXw
Tequila Sunrise is their only song worthy of a complete listen, and I do find it hard to resist harmonizing to Peaceful Easy Feeling when I hear it on the radio. I should mention Take It Easy, but Jackson Browne's version is much better. In truth, Joe Walsh's "But Seriously Folks" is the best Eagles album.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you manifesting your earthbound form in our humble comments section! AUUUUUMMMMMMMGN ...
DeleteJoe Walsh is the talent in the band.
DeleteSitarswami, those Hiromasa Suzuki albums are very much being enjoyed on the Bambi hi-fi these last two weeks, thank you. OMMMMMMMMMnnnnnnnnYYYII RAMA.
Delete"Joe Walsh is the talent in the band"?
DeleteTell that to the guys who actually wrote and arranged most of those mega hits. (Hint: it wasn't ol' Joe)
"But Seriously, Folks..." is a really good listen, though. Also due to those no talent hacks from the Eagles
All Music is NOT equal.
ReplyDeletejohn
Not equal to what?
DeleteOpinions, opinions. I imagine that all these critiques ( it that's a word) could fill an entire edition of Rolling Stone Magazine ( which I stopped buying years ago, after reading Marshall Crenshaw's fawning over The Boss, who insisted on clambering on stage to jam whenever anyone appeared in Asbury Park NJ). Regardless, I couldn't find fault in the Eagles. Each member was just a man, after all and like us, had their individual problems and weaknesses. What they DID have was an extraordinary musical and technical skill, each one of them, and were loved by millions. At the risk of seeming crude, opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one.
ReplyDeleteSay what you want about the Eagles, but for a band that is accused of being bland, they surely can get musical conversation going...
ReplyDeleteI used to loathe the eagles, as they were overplayed to death. Given the passage of time I got over that, & enjoy them fully now. imho, the best eagles record is the reunion studio album.
ReplyDeleteNothing is overplayed or over-familiar to me. As part of my extensive research *cough* for this piece I listened to the Hotel California album, and was enjoyably "immersed" in it, just as I'd ever been. I can listen to any of the supposedly worn-out iconiclassic songs, the great global hits such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, Free Bird, Layla, Good Vibrations, Born To Run, etc. etc. with undiminished pleasure. I wouldn't want to play any of them over and over, but that's the same for everything. I don't feel my musical diet is thinner for playing them, nor that I'm squeezing out lesser-known but just as good songs. Nor that I'm indiscriminate - I can't stand even a few seconds of mega hits by (say) Queen, Abba, Prince, Madonna, or [YOUR CANDIDATE HERE]. But these guys ... I don't care if they were in it for the money or dislikable twats (pretty much required fields for most successful acts). They made some swell records.
ReplyDeleteSo what's your stance on Bowie ? I noticed a lack of David Jones-related content here on the isle. Coïncidence? Or he doesn't do it for you?
DeleteThere's not much U.K. Of Britain music here, because reasons. There are exceptions; I have always liked and will always like the Fairports, the Who, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, and a few others, but U.K. music failed, mostly, to make the step in the early seventies that U.S. bands managed, and degraded into pantomime music ("glam" if you're a fan), which still leaves me utterly cold. Bowie's roots are more thespian, wrist-to-forehead theatrics than (say) rock n' roll, or the blues, or folk, or any deeper wellspring than end-of-the-pier entertainment. He's an actor, a ham. I've had all his stuff at one time or another, gave it my best shot, and ended up with Heroes, Low, and Station To Station, none of which I listen to more than once a year.
Deletehas foam ever done a WHO DID YA USETA LOVE?. i don't mean bands whose later music you do not like. i mean bands or artists that were in your pantheon that you have come to realize actually stink and always have stunk. what or who do you blame for your WHAT WAS I THINKINGS? i never blame myself. it was always the fault of outside idiots.
DeleteI came closest with pretending to like The Clash, asserting that London Calling was one of the Great Double Albums. But they made a handful of great singles (which I never listen to). I was seduced into the pose of rating them because Rock Critics were saying things like "the Clash is a GREAT rock band", and I felt I should move with the times. Didn't last long. Right until the end of Sandinista, when I made a face and said, "ehhhhh ... nope."
DeleteI saw the Clash live at the Rainbow - apparently a Legendary Punk Event. They were OK, but only seemed competent relatively, because they were substantially less inept than Siouxisie and her incipient Banshees who opened for them. Even the Tom Robinson Band were as tight and punchy as the Clash, and he couldn't sing either.
Deletei would love to know the REAL truth of how people were not convinced but TOLD that the clash had surpassed sliced bread. who did that? why did it work? who was the marketing genius? why are many still blindly going along with that? some decent singles seems like thin circumstantial evidence that THIS IS IT!
DeleteMaybe they were seen as a "safe punk" band for superannuated hippies (like me) to adopt as they got jobs and married an' shit. The illusion of rock n' roll rebellion, staying young ... that's a marketable hook. The only UK punk music that actually got through to me (and still does) was the first Damned album. All the rest was a pose. The Police? The Blockheads? Blondie? They had hits because they were already veteran musicians, styled young.
DeleteTrouble with that theory, though, Farq, is that Strummer himself was an Old Fart as well - he was all of 26 when they hit big. The Stranglers were another punk(ish) band with a good few miles on the clock. I also saw them live - pretty good, although I always struggled to get past that sub-Doorsy organ.
DeleteBut can you ever properly seperate the music from the time that it was conceived in and how old you were at the time etc etc.. I was 14 in 1972 when I first "discovered" music, so missed out on the great hippy experience and was thrown in to the prog rock years. The first band I saw was Pink Floyd and wasn't overwhelmed because when they played DSoM and echoes you might as well have just sat there with your record player. When punk came along I missed out on the first wave, because I still had my Greenslade tshirt on. But was then blown away by the first Stiff tour and Elvis C in particular. Then discovered the joy of seeing bands in a small club instead of a City Hall and it was the experience of seeing a bunch of kids in grotty jumpers enjoying themselves like the Undertones that really blew me away. Nowadays when we have access to all music from all eras its interesting finding out how it stands up these days, especially if it has no connections to your individual past, e.g. in my case, randomly: Spirit, The Steelys and other bands favoured in the Isle.We are all products of our times....discuss.
DeleteThere was some distinct marketing going on with The Clash, though. I don't remember which British journalist coined the "the only band that matters" catchphrase for The Clash, but well...they weren't and they aren't...iyt sure seemed to have helped concince the gullible, though...
DeleteNobody told me to like the Clash, I just did, and do. Listening to them made/makes me happy and I don't ask for much more than that. Got a liking for Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros too and I do sometimes wish Joe was still around.
DeleteThe Damned's New Rose was a total blast of fresh air when I first heard it, and definitely cut through my old fart prog rock consciousness, but it didn't make me throw away my ELP, Tangerine Dream and Yes albums. Just opened up a whole lot more to enjoy.
I was ten in 1974, and it was Sparks on Top of the Pops that got me serious about music - the next day at school it was "Did you see Hitler on Top of the Pops last night? wasn't it brilliant." From the late 70's on I bought secondhand albums often for the cover art, so it was lots of early 70 prog and rock, mainly UK stuff. I loved ELP, but please don't hold that against me, If I'm feeling nostalgic I can still listen to their stuff - though Tarkus is pretty awful really.
DeleteWith reference to The Clash, I wasn't into them but...I did like Sandinista, and have the vinyl here, no-one liked that lp. I must listen to it again, probably not played it in 15/20 years.
Farq said 'There's not much U.K. Of Britain music here' - well, I'll send some Welsh U.K. Of Britain music shortly, for hopefully a future feature. Possibly the first Welsh IoF feature.
Nobody told me to like the Clash, either, in fact I didn't at first (I remember thinking that they sounded like Led Zep, who I never rated, but can't quite see the link now!!) Turned down the chance to see them in late 1977 and then they came out with White Man in Hammersmith Palais, and I was totally converted, and have regretted not going ever since.
DeleteWelsh music - I picked up a copy of Man's lp Be Good To Yourself in a charity shop a few years ago, which has the best lp sleeve ever(other best ever lp sleeves are available), would make a great IoF feature in itself.
Farq sez: "The only UK punk music that actually got through to me (and still does) was the first Damned album. All the rest was a pose. The Police? The Blockheads? Blondie?"
DeleteBlondie. UK. Really.
No, not really. I do know that Blondie was a US act. I may have posted The Wind In The Willows album already. My point was in the following sentence that you omitted. Really.
DeleteYeah, I love the Clash. I recently made a t-shirt reproducing their 1979 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper ad. Hey, there was no "merch" back in the Olden Days, so I'm making my own up, forty years later.
DeleteWhile I love the Clash, they're a band that I've winnowed down to the tracks I love...and the tracks I don't love don't o get played very often. I love almost every track on the 1st LP, maybe 1 song on "Rope," at least half of "London," a smattering of Sandinista, 2 songs on "Combat," and never bought "Crap" until about 10 years back, played it once (sort of like the Eagles box....) and never again.
It may have been a pose, but as one of my first loves was the Monkees, I don't value "authenticity" as much as some. I loved that first wave of British bands in '77/'78, and didn't care that Vibrators had been hippies just six months prior, or that Strummer was "too old."
The critical assessment? Oh, it was overblown. I didn't think it at the time, but now suspect some of that is because the Clash fit in with the "politics" of rock critics (and certainly fit mine at the time).
I saw the Pistols at the Leicester Square theatre, Janet Street Porter's TV show.
DeleteDidn't think much of the singer, but the bass and drums reminded me of Entwistle & Moon. Really. Joe Jackson, Nick Lowe & Elvis Costello more my bag, but I'm old now and was pretty old then.
I think OBG has got my own view of the mighty Iggles covered pretty much exactly, but with a couple of caveats. Yes, Glenn Frey's dream was to be a Detroit rocker but only up to a point - he was no Ted Nugent or Bob Seger - because he had his sights set much higher than that. His teaming up with Henley was a meeting of two very shrewd, ambitious minds, and the country-rock niche - or ghetto, even - was never going to be more than a stepping stone for them. We didn’t see the Pure Prairie League, the New Riders of the Purple Sage or McKendree Spring hopping on the red-eye to London to get their first album produced by the Rolling Stones’ engineer, did we?
ReplyDeleteBut that ambition was backed by a lot of talent and a lot of hard work. Like Bread - their fellow inmates at the lazily constructed “BLAND AOR” penitentiary - the Eagles crafted a whole bunch of songs that millions of people can hum to this day. And when the time was right, and that bunch of songs went global in the form of a greatest-hits record filled with tracks that are now standards but at the time could barely be considered hits at all ("Tequila Sunrise" and “Already Gone” failed to make the Top 30 as singles Stateside and they never bothered even the lower reaches of the UK charts), they wisely dumped Bernie Leadon's twang-driven stylings and hired Joe Goddam Walsh in his place. Chet Atkins is all very well for as long as you're still staking your claim as serious musicians but it's unlikely to fill Giants Stadium.
And that’s not all! Their sheer musical skill can't be stressed enough. They managed to marry killer melodies with barbershop harmonies and Joe Goddam Walsh strutting his wailing-Stratty stuff, crafting songs often delivered by what, in Don Henley, many believe to have been the finest rock vocals ever sung (with apologies to Brad Delp). And they managed to keep that flame alive across decades of touring the world and playing shows that, while hardly spontaneous, displayed a level of tightness and professionalism that only the E Street Band could really compete with.
Yes, they could be unchallenging and non-spiky. But so what? The middle of the road is much maligned, but it's the best place to be if you want to keep your car cruising along for decades on end. Forget the coke and the excesses and the limos and the dressing-room bickering blah blah. It was that combination of ambition, talent and sheer hard work that got them where they wanted to be and allowed them to stay there until they were wealthy old men. I call that an achievement to be acknowledged rather than one to be dismissed on the sole grounds that they weren’t edgy enough. Rock music can be an outlet for handwringing creative expression for those who want that (and most don't - they want something to dance or drive or make lerv to, is all), but surely there’s also room for artists who view it as a long-term career, unashamed to take pride in their only-rarely-equalled musical chops and their also only-rarely-equalled long-term mass appeal.
Hey, Arch. Don't be a stranger so much.
DeleteI'm not sure they dumped Leadon so much as it was a mutually motivated divorce. Leadon wanted to be in a country band, not a arena rock band, so this really was inevitable. The "History Of The Eagles" doc also makes a good point about how their musical get-up began to get counterproductive. In order to concentrate on their lead vocals, Leadon would take lead guitar on Frey songs and Frey on Leadon songs. Meaning Frey would want to play rock'n'roll but was mainly playing on the most country material the band had and Leadon inversely would play his country style on numbers that Frey and Henley wanted to rock. That simply couln't last.
DeleteIf I have my own caveat with your caveats, Archie (aren't caveats fun? Much more than cavities, that's for sure), it's the overstated role of Joe Walsh in the Eagles. Creatively he didn't bring much to the Eagles. Sure, killer guitar on Hotel California but the riff was Felder's. The riff of "Life In The Fast Lane" is pretty much his claim to fame.
Other mini caveat: "Keeping that flame alive across decades" - everybody forgot the decade plus they hated each other and communicated only by lawyers? Or do we mean since 1994, where the Eagles busted open barriers for ridiculous ticket prices for too-well-off baby boomers (first band to ask for more than $100 for concerts, if memory serves) and really truly turned into a corporate service provider rather than a rock band.
I remember being disgusted by Pink Floyd when they signed a sponsorship deal with Volkswagen (who badged a limited edition Golf - I think - with Pink Floyd graphics). I don't remember the Eagles being quite so vulgar, neither did they have an alternative/counterculture heritage to betray.
DeleteThe real counterculture Floyd member was Syd. I suppose Rog counts, but I'm not sure that many people viewed the Floyd, after Syd, as anything other than another stadium rock band. I remember quite a few people getting a bit hacked off by Rog's posturing. I find him a bit hectoring and preachy.
DeleteThey were definitely a full-blown counterculture act after Syd, right up to '72. But they got a taste for the billions after Dark Side.
DeleteTrain Leaves Here This Morning
ReplyDelete...And I watched as the smoker passed it on
And I laughed when the joker said, "Lead on" [Bernie]
'Cause there's a train leaves here this morning
And I don't know, what I might be on...
Written By
Bernie Leadon & Gene Clark
Here's Don Felder's book - "Heaven And Hell; My Life In The Eagles (1974 - 2001)"
ReplyDeleteEpub format.
https://workupload.com/file/he82DBbMQMS
Thank 'ee!
DeleteHighly interested, but does anyone have any idea with what other app/software this thing can run?
DeleteYou just need an ebook app or client. You can view epub files on any device.
DeleteYeah, I got it, thanks.
Delete80 comments so far.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Santana will provoke as many?
I'll do my best to ensure it doesn't.
Delete(Seriously tho' folks - the standard of comment here has been brilliant. It's like reading early seventies NME or Creem. Big matey terrorist fistbumps to all youse bums).
I saw them in ‘73 at Glasgow Apollo, when they were the support act. They were slick, clean, polished to a fine sheen and played and harmonised terrifically well. They went down a storm with a notoriously tough audience.
ReplyDeleteWho were they supporting? Well, since you ask, it was Neil Young at his most drunk and frazzled. It was the infamous ‘Tonight’s the Night’ tour, where Neil played the unreleased album from start to finish, while the vast majority of the audience waited impatiently for ‘Heart of Gold’. After around 40 minutes of ramshackle playing, he announced ‘here’s one you’ve heard before’, to loud, relieved cheers. You know the punchline.
The contrast between the two acts could not have been starker.
Neil's new one - and it's hard to bring myself to type this out - is actually pretty good. Maybe better than pretty good. I've found it hard to sit through an entire new Neil album since [THAT ONE], but I played Barn right through three times, and I'm looking forward to hearing it again. Nothing remotely new or unexpected about it, and it's hard to define just why he got it right this time. But he did.
DeleteI hear you, I felt the same. This album makes me feel I'm in the same room with Neil and gangs. His best in 30+ years for sure.
DeleteMajor qualities of the New Neil: each song makes you feel good when it starts up, and some end a little too soon (a neat trick). There's no filler, nothing I want to skip. A deep pleasure to listen to all the way through. Maybe it's the law of averages after so many stinkers, but the stars were in the right place for this one. Roberta Christgau (The Amish Schoolmarm Of Rock Criticism) gave it an A, FFS.
Delete