Best Ever Eagles Song!!!

[NightMistBlue]

But what if you could only pick one? That was the original poster's premise if I understood her correctly.

It's way too hard to pick just one Eagles song, but if you were forced to choose - upon pain of death or lengthy exposure to rap music - what would you choose? My heart says "Witchy Woman." It's not their greatest, most worthy artistic statement but it's thrilling, powerful music that never gets old.

[thelastresort]

This is my top seven - not in exact order but pretty close:

New Kid in Town
Doolin-Dalton / Desperado (Reprise)
The Last Resort
Saturday Night
Doolin-Dalton
Long Road Out of Eden
Pretty Maids All in a Row

One very boring day back in early spring I made a list of every Eagles song to this effect, split up into brackets of how much I like them, and those above are the top tier. Any of those in the next tier (numbers 8-21) could easily make the final three places, depending on my mood; but the seven listed are set in stone. If I was doing the top ten today, it would probably be Sad Cafe, Waiting in the Weeds and Tequila Sunrise.

[Jonny Come Lately]

If I could only pick one then I think I'd have to go for Take It Easy, on the grounds that it is probably the single Eagles song that I've listened to most. I've loved every version of it I have ever heard them do - the studio original of course, but also the stripped back, mostly acoustic Voorburg 1973 version, the California Jam performance with Jackson Browne, the rocking Washington 1977 with Joe's excellent final solo, the HFO version which confirmed that they were 'back'.

I could not pick Hotel California as my absolute favourite because although the music (especially the guitars) and the lyrics are absolutely outstanding, I think there are definitely better Eagles songs vocally (Henley's lead vocal is great, but they have plenty of songs with superior backing or harmony vocals in my view), whereas Take It Easy feels like a more 'complete' Eagles song to me. I'd say the same holds true for songs like Already Gone and One Of These Nights.

I have to agree though that it is very difficult to pick just a single Eagles one as my favourite! Too many great candidates which have different qualities to them (e.g. The Last Resort has some of the finest lyrics on any rock album IMO, whereas LITFL's main attraction to me lies in its guitar work).

I was searching for a suitable thread where I could try and make a list and this seemed to be the best one for it that wasn't tied to any poll or game thread. I apologise if I have missed a better thread for this.

[thelastresort]

But what if you could only pick one?

I would probably go for New Kid in Town, but D-D/D (Reprise) and Long Road Out of Eden would put up a very close fight. NKIT's listenability over and over again though would probably see it through, despite the other two being more 'epic'.

Edit - 1,000th post

[NightMistBlue]

I can listen to (and have listened to) TIE over and over again. I still can't play the fricking intro properly though - why the hell do they start it on the fourth beat instead of the first?! To frustrate wannabe guitarists like me I suppose.

[Jonny Come Lately]

One very boring day back in early spring I made a list of every Eagles song to this effect, split up into brackets of how much I like them, and those above are the top tier. Any of those in the next tier (numbers 8-21) could easily make the final three places, depending on my mood; but the seven listed are set in stone. If I was doing the top ten today, it would probably be Sad Cafe, Waiting in the Weeds and Tequila Sunrise.

I'm quite tempted to give splitting the songs into different brackets a go myself actually, would be interesting to see how it would work out.

I have already done something vaguely similar for my favourite bands (including the Eagles), albeit mainly focussing on identifying my favourite albums rather than favourite songs, whereby I gave the songs on my favourite albums a rating out of 10 and then took an average to give the rating out of 10 for the album. I think I posted my 25 top albums by this measure on the forum although I did it for about 50 albums in total. I must admit this exercise did change my perceptions slightly (the Eagles debut album went up in my estimation, as did an album like Neil Young's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, whereas Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and to a lesser extent One Of These Nights came out with a ranking lower than I expected).

[AlreadyGone95]

My list, counting down:

20. Long Road out of Eden
19. You Are Not Alone
18. Peaceful Easy Feeling
17. Desperado
16. One of These Nights
15. Somebody
14. Lyin Eyes
13. The Long Run
12. New Kid in Town
11. Witchy Woman
10. Take It Easy
9. Seven Bridges Road
8. How Long
7. James Dean
6. Heartache Tonight
5. In the City
4. Hotel California
3. Already Gone
2. Life in the Fast Lane
1. Outlaw Man

(I made this list and I forgot TITTL. It'd rank somewhere around #15)

[VAisForEagleLovers]

OOTN is my favorite Eagles song, but if I had to pick only one, I think I'd pick Take It Easy. It's more than a song to me. So many always try to bundle the Eagles up into one song, and it's usually always Hotel California. For me, it's Take It Easy.

[AlreadyGone95]

I didn't see the part about picking just one. Ugh, that's tough. I want to go with Outlaw Man as its my favorite. However, HC has been in my musical brain forever. I think that I'd have to go with Life in the Fast Lane, though. There's something about that song that clicks with me a bit more than the other 2. Maybe it's because as a 12/13 y/o, I felt like such a bad*ss being able to say g*ddamn without my mom getting on my case. I can't really explain it. I think that in some ways, it transports me back in time, and for a brief few minutes, I feel like I'm part of the 70s. Does that make sense?

[Funk 50]

Nice to know that some old threads are being revitalised. Thanks JCL.

Best Ever Song - Desperado.


Going by lead singer:
Henley; Desperado
Frey: Ol' '55
Walsh: Pretty Maids All In A Row
Schmit: I Can't Tell You Why
Leadon: I Wish You Peace
Meisner: Take It To The Limit
Felder: Visions

I originally had King Of Hollywood down for Glenn but I'm not sure it'd qualify as a Frey lead vocal.