Eagles Box - First Seven Albums Reissued in Set
Published February 18, 2005
The band changed stylistically as well. When they traded the bluegrass-based Bernie Leadon for the '70s-rock based Joe Walsh, they lost their contact with the desert: their source of high-lonesome inspiration. Gone were the banjos, the pedal steel, the fancy finger picking that informed even their most un-Western material. The falsetto R&B vocals of "One of These Nights" were "Western" R&B vocals.
When the Eagles looked out over the city lights of L.A. in "Lyin' Eyes" or "Hollywood Waltz'" they saw the city for what it really was: an irrigated desert. They saw the ancient smoke of the indian's campfires backing up against the San Gabriel Mountains. The Eagles traded this view for a windowless luxury suite at the Hotel California.
When I listen to to warm dry breezes of "Peaceful Easy Feeling," or "Tequila Sunrise," or "Lyin' Eyes," I remember an incident from my childhood: When I was 10 my family lived a few doors down from an open field of Southern California sage, tumbleweeds, sun-beaten dust and desert critters. Kids rode dirt bikes and flew kites and went on hikes and searched for old spent shells from the WWll firing range. We lived where Southern California confronted its former self.
One fall day, I went to the field to practice my boomerang - the real thing that my grandmother had brought back from Australia. I gave the stick a mighty heave and it swung out in a beautiful, soaring arc. Unfortunately my trajectory was off and the boomerang landed in a forbiddingly tangled mess of prickly brush. Heedlessly I charged through the crackling brown tangle, and spotting the hole that the boomerang had neatly sliced through the brush, I reached down to claim my prize.
I was momentarily confused when my hand connected with something smooth, firm and circular. Then it rattled. I nearly yanked my arm out of the socket as I extracted it from the hissing brush in an exaggerated umpire's "you're out" gesture. To my added horror, the rattler had lodged a fang in my shirtsleeve and it came twisting out of the tangle following my arm.
Freaked, I swung my arm over my head in a feverish calf-roping motion and the writhing menace broke free, pinwheeled through the air and landed with a pronounced thud somewhere behind me.
I sprinted all the way home - feet barely touching the ground - slammed the door behind me, and threw up. The desert is not to be trifled with. The field was replaced some years later by a luxury mobile home park with begonias and imported palms: a mobile Hotel California - pretty good analog for your Eagles before and after.
Though the hits collections are fine, for the real fan the context of each of these albums is worth having, although the price is a bit steep.
- Eagles Box - First Seven Albums Reissued in Set
- Published: February 18, 2005
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- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: Country and Americana, Music: News, Music: Rock
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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it is gratifying when my communiques find their intended target
and, ironically, i think i own the greatest hits collection.
heh.
in the case of the first Eagles Greatest Hits, the one that is the best selling album of all time with something like 28 million copies sold, it is, ironically, great as an album itself, not just a collection of songs. That can happen too
here's the rationalization:
i bought it because the band i was in at the time was gonna play "Already Gone".
honest.
it would be perhaps cruel to point out that On the Border was a purchasing option at the time as well
excellent review, Eric... thanks for this. i used to listen to the Eagles back in the day, but it's been years. perhaps i'll pull out the old stuff... great writing here.thanks for this - sadi
in the case of the first Eagles Greatest Hits, the one that is the best selling album of all time with something like 28 million copies sold, it is, ironically, great as an album itself, not just a collection of songs.
Yep. And the day I drive back to California, that CD is going in the player as I drive across the border.
Great rattlesnake story, by the way.
thanks very much Sadi and JR, much appreciated! I honestly still have nightmares about that incident: running and running and never able to get away from it.
I'm a reformed heretic - back in the 70's, I couldn't stand the Eagles (or Fleetwood Mac, or Queen for that matter). But all of those bands get airplay in my house nowadays.
Sometimes good taste is not innate, but acquired, as it were.
for me there has always been something real and fundamental about the Eagles' best music, which stands completely apart from the sales and the hype. There is actually something almost modest about them (until Hotel Cal anyway, as I try to explain), which is endearing
I sometimes wonder if (for me anyways) it's simply a case of nostalgia - like I said, I never liked the Eagles much much, but let's face it - durinng their time, they were practicaly omnipresent on the radio. Heck, they still are a major presence on classic rock stations, country stations and MOR/adult oriented rock stations - they cover all the bases. Is this simply a case of their music being beaten relentlessly into our heads over a long period of time until we're so familiar with it that we absorb it into the soundtrack of our lives? I think of a band like...I think it's called the Thorns - Matthew Sweet's new band. They play a somewhat similar country/folk/rock style, but I don't care to go out & buy it.
Would the Eagles have made it if they had released Desperado just this year? Or maybe the better question is: can retrospect be 20/20 when you're looking through rose colored glasses?
excellent questions, but for me personally, I was really into them and was on top of each new release dating back to the first time I heard "Take It Easy" and shortly thereafter "Witchy Woman"
Interesting...I was into Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc. as well as the Stooges, MC5, and all that New Yaaawk punk like Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group when I heard the Eagles the first time - I just didn't care for them. However, I did like CSNY, Tull, Yes, EL&P and all that progressive stuff too, so it wasn't just a case of being a hard of hearing headbanger.
I think simply their music has wide appeal, and it was likely only a matter of time before my tastes developed to the point where the Eagles could be included, much like Queen & Fleetwood Mac. Those old Sabbath & Alice Cooper albums don't get much play anymore - but I still know them off by heart.
I was in my mid-teens and wildly exploring music in every direction at the time and they seemed to perfectly fill one of those directions and be something I could rely on while I kept on a-probing. It also helped that I played guitar and sang some and they were great for that
Eric, I moved this up and over to Advance.net, which includes these places.
Potentially read by hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Thank you for the post. - Temple Stark
you rule, thanks
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the real fan the context of each of these albums is worth having
damn straight!