The News
The Eagles’ original vinyl Asylum Records catalog, including each of their albums between 1972 and 1980, will be released as the Eagles Box, a limited-edition, nine-disc set including the debut of their “Please Come Home For Christmas/Funky New Year” single on CD.
The Eagles Box will showcase each of their first seven albums, from 1972’s self-titled debut to the band’s 1980 two-disc Eagles Live. Each disc will be packaged in a CD replica of the original vinyl album (including original album cover art and original posters) and will be enclosed in a retro, gatefold jacket. The track listings duplicate the original albums. A limited edition of 20,000 numbered units of the Eagles Box will be available in the U.S. beginning March 15, 2005, for a suggested retail price of $129.98 ($116.99 at Amazon).
The Eagles continue their “Farewell I” tour this March and April.
The Music
The Eagles evolved from a highly personal, touchingly sincere Western-rock band ("country-rock" is a misnomer) to a collection of jaded superstars. This evolution played against the band's strengths and shined harsh light on their weaknesses. Ask any filmmaker: lighting is everything.
From the Eagles' original position as a pleasant, unimposing, and lightweight outfit, they could slip in truths without seeming heavy, contrived or pretentious. They had charm. By the time of their highly publicized recruitment of guitar hero Joe Walsh, the Eagles could no longer creep up on anyone.
The Eagles went from overachieving upstarts to defending champions. This is a familiar transformation in sports: the underdog rises through the pack and becomes champ. Every other team gets particularly geared up to play the champions - every team sends its best pitcher against them, even on three days rest. Beating the champs gives a struggling team hope.
The defending champion mentality affects the champs as well: they feel the pressure of heightened expectations. They don't play to win, they play not to lose. The joy of playing gets lost somewhere. The team may bring in high-priced hired hands to shore up perceived weaknesses, but they also may forget how they got to the top in the first place.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
the real fan the context of each of these albums is worth having
damn straight!
2 - Eric Olsen
it is gratifying when my communiques find their intended target
3 - Mark Saleski
and, ironically, i think i own the greatest hits collection.
heh.
4 - Eric Olsen
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
5 - Mark Saleski
here's the rationalization:
i bought it because the band i was in at the time was gonna play "Already Gone".
honest.
6 - Eric Olsen
it would be perhaps cruel to point out that On the Border was a purchasing option at the time as well
7 - sadi
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
8 - JR
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.
9 - Eric Olsen
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.
10 - Vern Halen
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.
11 - Eric Olsen
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
12 - Vern Halen
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?
13 - Eric Olsen
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"
14 - Vern Halen
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.
15 - Eric Olsen
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
16 - Temple Stark
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
17 - Eric Olsen
you rule, thanks