Celebration of "On the Border"

[sodascouts]

Reviving this thread as On the Border turns 41!

[DJ]

Absolutely one of my most favorite albums and the cover. Cannot believe it's been 41 years.

[SilverAcidRayne]

On The Border? yeah i'm so new to this... lol

[Ive always been a dreamer]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ON THE BORDER!!!

Love this board style and love this album! This album is very underrated IMHO. It was the beginning of the band's transition to a 'rockier' sound and jammed packed with some REEAAAALLLY good music.

[thelastresort]

Happy anniversary On the Border

My favourite Eagles album

[Elizasong]

My two favorite songs from this album "Already Gone and "Best of My Love".

[NightMistBlue]

I think this is a great album. With the exceptions of "You Never Cry Like a Lover" and the title track, I love every song on it.

Woah! Soda, you don't like "On the Border"?! May I ask why? I think it totally rocks.

[Brooke]

Love it!

My favorites haven't changed, Already Gone, Best of My Love, and Good Day in Hell, but enjoy every song!

41 years?

[Jonny Come Lately]

Happy 41st Anniversary to On The Border!

This album is my third favourite Eagles album overall and is my favourite out of the non-thematic albums*. I love it - I think it's an excellent album with many very strong songs and no fillers. I think it's arguably the most definitively 'Eagles' album out of the lot, featuring a blend of rock and country with terrific harmony vocals and guitar parts (am I alone in loving the lead guitar on You Never Cry Like A Lover? I love the way that it builds during the middle of that song, I've always seen as it as their most rocking ballad if that makes any sense).

I think this album has become somewhat forgotten outside the core Eagles fanbase save for The Best Of My Love. Usually when this happens to one of the albums by any band (I'm sure most of us can think of one) it's generally because it isn't very good, but this isn't the case with On The Border so this is rather regrettable in my view.

I like all of the songs on this album a lot although my number one favourite is Already Gone. AG is a song which is firmly in my Eagles top ten. They may not have written it in the first place, but their character is stamped all over it. I find it difficult to believe that Jack Tempchin did not at least have Glenn in mind when he wrote the song.

My top five songs from On The Border would be roughly in this order:

1) Already Gone
2) My Man
3) Good Day In Hell
4) The Best Of My Love
5) James Dean

Good Day In Hell is one of their very best rockers - I was delighted to see it do well in the recent Underrated Songs Survivor and am baffled at its exclusion from the various compilation albums. My Man is such a beautiful and moving song, and is a fine tribute to Gram Parsons. It edges out Bitter Creek as Bernie's best Eagles song in my view and is greatly enhanced by Bernie's pedal steel - the solo before the final chorus is gorgeous. The chorus harmony is also delightful especially accompanied by the lyrics. I've always loved the 'We who must remain go on living just the same' lines in particular.

I find it difficult to rank the songs beyond this as I do enjoy all of them and am drawn to different songs when I am in different moods. I think this is partly due to the variety of the songs on this album - for instance, if I want something bluegrass-y then I really dig Midnight Flyer. If I'm in the mood for rock 'n' roll then James Dean would probably move above BOML.

In some ways I think the title track was an important song for the band as it was the first song they did with rhythm & blues influences (apart from the non-album B side Get You In The Mood) and also their first true social criticism song, with the attack on the invasion of privacy and government interference. It took me a few listens to get into it but I really love it now. The two things I love most about it are the bridge (it was a great idea to share out the vocals between the four singers) and the guitar tag that plays towards the end.

*I should clarify this by saying that my two favourite Eagles albums are Hotel California and Desperado - I consider the latter to a 'rock opera', that is a concept album with a storyline (other examples include Tommy by The Who and The Wall by Pink Floyd) whereas the former is thematic in that it's not really a true concept album like, say, The Dark Side Of The Moon but has several songs with a common theme (I think Wishbone Ash's Argus also falls into this category).

[thelastresort]

(am I alone in loving the lead guitar on You Never Cry Like A Lover? I love the way that it builds during the middle of that song, I've always seen as it as their most rocking ballad if that makes any sense).

Nope, I love it too; YNCLAL could well sneak into my top three songs from that album (Ol'55 is top and Already Gone probably second). I think the problem people have with it is the lyrics: whilst the Eagles are exceptional lyricists most of their love songs usually fall into the highly charming (Best of My Love or ILTWAWD) or gleeful 'victory song' (Lyin' Eyes, Already Gone) categories: YNCLAL doesn't, it seems very harsh in some regards, almost like it lays the blame directly on the female in question for whatever reason Henley sings about. I suppose you could say it's almost awkward. That said however, I looooooove the way 'But your life goes on, like a broken down carousel' line is sung and subsequent solo, that could well be one of my favourite Eagles pieces of them all.