Eagles Rock (Fast Lane)

[Funk 50]

There's been quite a bit of discussion about the Eagles ability to rock on various topics. I didn't buy any Eagles albums until I I'd purchased all Walsh's albums. I was surprised how lame, Life In The Fast Lane sounded in comparison to Joe's solo albums, despite having the same producer. Maybe being placed between New Kid In Town and Wasted Time had something to do with it.

The Eagles have actually produced a rock album. Eagles Selected Works (The Fast Lane). Named after the definitive Eagles rocker that I thought sounded so lame. IMHO, despite including some of the greatest Eagles tracks, it's the worst Eagles CD.

Disc three: The Fast Lane
01 One of These Nights (Intro) – 1:59
02 One of These Nights – 4:49
03 Disco Strangler" – 2:45
04 Heartache Tonight – 4:25
05 Hotel California – 6:29
06 Born to Boogie (out-take from The Long Run Sessions) – 2:16
07 In the City – 3:44
08 Get Over It" – 3:29
09 King of Hollywood – 6:25
10 Too Many Hands – 4:40
11 Life in the Fast Lane – 4:44
12 The Long Run – 3:41
13 Long Run Leftovers – 3:02
14 The Last Resort – 7:29
15 Random Victims, Part 3 – 9:42


Given that it's required to include the Eagles best up-tempo tracks it'd be more of a challenge to make it worse rather than better.


Major Negatives:


One of These Nights (Intro)
I'm not a fan of Felder's official "One Of These Nights" intro so I was really looking forward to hearing an alternative. The actual track isn't just disappointing it's annoying. How can you start a rock album with an un-listenable radio extract. This isn't even good enough to be a secret track at the end of the CD. It's not just the worst Eagles opening track, it is the worst Eagles track full stop.

The Last Resort
Whether it's a rock song or not is debatable but it's certainly not "Fast Lane " material, even in the Eagles catalog. Again it's not something you'd want to listen to if you feel like rocking.

Born to Boogie
This was even lame on the Soul Pole LP. It's inclusion is an insult to tracks that didn't make Selected Works like Good Day In Hell (Felder Factor?) and Journey Of The Sorcerer.

Long Run Leftovers & Random Victims, Part 3
I'd be mildly interested in a full disc of unfinished Leftovers but a couple of medley's, again completely out of place, is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Disc Strangler
Should've been a Long Run Leftover, even if it made the album a track shorter.

Quite a few Long Run outtakes were finished and released on solo albums. The Eagles could have included those or re-recorded versions of them, on "The Fast Lane" or some pre-Szymczyk rockers that didn't make, "The Early Years" disc, or one or two of of the solo tracks, the Eagles had performed live, hundreds of times, by the time the Selected Works CD came out. Even soundcheck versions of those tracks would have been an improvement to some of what went on that disc.

The fact that there isn't any new material on Selected Works may show just how toxic Felder's presence in the band had become.

Selected Works was re-released in 2013, probably just to get rid of old, unsold stock but by that time, with the addition of the Long Road Out Of Eden tracks, The Eagles probably had enough decent rock songs to make an Eagles compilation that you could stick on the player and rock out to.

If you were making your own, or already have an Eagles Rocking Compilation disc or playlist, What would/did you put on it?

[Lisa]

Um, ... I love "One of These Nights," and I also think that "Life In the Fast Lane" is a classic Eagles hard rocker!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

F50, I will have to give this some thought! I have Eagles playlists, and they include the solo stuff as well, and it's all inclusive. I don't have a rocking playlist of any type. When I'm in the mood to rock, I'm not wearing a headset, so it's all CD, and I put Seger or Van Halen in. Oddly enough, this is the music I listen to when cleaning the apartment, so when I was at Seger's concert a month or so ago, I felt like I should be cleaning something.

I also have playlists I've burned to CD to play when exercising, and again, they aren't limited to one artist, and it can be rock, dance music, or even Christian contemporary. Anything with a beat that moves.

I've never thought about limiting an Eagles playlist to music types, and when I have the Selected Works discs playing, it's always on random or shuffle. I hesitate to say this, but once I find that darn random or shuffle button that takes pretty strong reading glasses to locate, I leave it on so I don't have to look for it again.

[Freypower]

There's been quite a bit of discussion about the Eagles ability to rock on various topics. I didn't buy any Eagles albums until I I'd purchased all Walsh's albums. I was surprised how lame, Life In The Fast Lane sounded in comparison to Joe's solo albums, despite having the same producer. Maybe being placed between New Kid In Town and Wasted Time had something to do with it.

The Eagles have actually produced a rock album. Eagles Selected Works (The Fast Lane). Named after the definitive Eagles rocker that I thought sounded so lame. IMHO, despite including some of the greatest Eagles tracks, it's the worst Eagles CD.

Disc three: The Fast Lane
01 One of These Nights (Intro) – 1:59
02 One of These Nights – 4:49
03 Disco Strangler" – 2:45
04 Heartache Tonight – 4:25
05 Hotel California – 6:29
06 Born to Boogie (out-take from The Long Run Sessions) – 2:16
07 In the City – 3:44
08 Get Over It" – 3:29
09 King of Hollywood – 6:25
10 Too Many Hands – 4:40
11 Life in the Fast Lane – 4:44
12 The Long Run – 3:41
13 Long Run Leftovers – 3:02
14 The Last Resort – 7:29
15 Random Victims, Part 3 – 9:42


Given that it's required to include the Eagles best up-tempo tracks it'd be more of a challenge to make it worse rather than better.


Major Negatives:


One of These Nights (Intro)
I'm not a fan of Felder's official "One Of These Nights" intro so I was really looking forward to hearing an alternative. The actual track isn't just disappointing it's annoying. How can you start a rock album with an un-listenable radio extract. This isn't even good enough to be a secret track at the end of the CD. It's not just the worst Eagles opening track, it is the worst Eagles track full stop.

The Last Resort
Whether it's a rock song or not is debatable but it's certainly not "Fast Lane " material, even in the Eagles catalog. Again it's not something you'd want to listen to if you feel like rocking.

Born to Boogie
This was even lame on the Soul Pole LP. It's inclusion is an insult to tracks that didn't make Selected Works like Good Day In Hell (Felder Factor?) and Journey Of The Sorcerer.

Long Run Leftovers & Random Victims, Part 3
I'd be mildly interested in a full disc of unfinished Leftovers but a couple of medley's, again completely out of place, is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Disc Strangler
Should've been a Long Run Leftover, even if it made the album a track shorter.

Quite a few Long Run outtakes were finished and released on solo albums. The Eagles could have included those or re-recorded versions of them, on "The Fast Lane" or some pre-Szymczyk rockers that didn't make, "The Early Years" disc, or one or two of of the solo tracks, the Eagles had performed live, hundreds of times, by the time the Selected Works CD came out. Even soundcheck versions of those tracks would have been an improvement to some of what went on that disc.

The fact that there isn't any new material on Selected Works may show just how toxic Felder's presence in the band had become.

Selected Works was re-released in 2013, probably just to get rid of old, unsold stock but by that time, with the addition of the Long Road Out Of Eden tracks, The Eagles probably had enough decent rock songs to make an Eagles compilation that you could stick on the player and rock out to.

If you were making your own, or already have an Eagles Rocking Compilation disc or playlist, What would/did you put on it?

I am only aware of the song Heavy Metal (Takin' A Ride). What are these other finished outtakes? Which albums are they on?

I don't normally do playlists of one artist. However my favourite Eagles rock songs are as follows:

Take It Easy
Witchy Woman
Out Of Control
Outlaw Man
Already Gone
Good Day In Hell
Life In The Fast Lane
Victim Of Love
Heartache Tonight
Get Over It
Long Road Out Of Eden
Somebody
Business As Usual

I consider the song OOTN to be R&B, not rock.

[UndertheWire]

Don Felder said that "Bad Girls" and "Haywire" were two song ideas he'd come up with for The Long Run but they were not accepted so he finished them himself. (I wrote that in another thread a while ago. I think I'd been listening to a 1980s radio interview recorded about the time of the release of Airborne)

[NightMistBlue]

Outlaw Man and On the Border are satisfyingly nasty rockers, IMO. I love Good Day in Hell too, and wouldn't want to live in a world without Life in the Fast Lane and One of These Nights.

[StephUK]

I wouldn't want a world without LITFL either, but I think that the Eagles rock songs sound much better live than the recordings do.

[Funk 50]

I actually did some time travelling last night!

Trying to come up with an Eagles Rock playlist I pulled out some of my old Eagles Compilation Cassettes from the late 80s/early 90s and I was transported back to the time when all the solo stuff was new and exciting rather than inferior and unwanted as it appears to be regarded as now.

I recall I had started one playlist with Hotel California (Live) but I wasn't satisfied with the second track.

I think that the Eagles rock songs sound much better live than the recordings do.

I'm with you there StephUK.

Trying to avoid a second Henley lead vocal, I tried Outlaw Man, James Dean, Good Day In Hell, Glenn's Part Of Me, Part Of You, Joe's Rocky Mountain Way, Meadows, Told You So, Funk #49. No such thing as random-play on a cassette player.

I couldn't find that cassette so I guess I must've ditched the idea and made it into an Eagles live tape instead.

I did find one side of a C90 Cassette that I'd inked a star next to the track list;

01 I Will Not Go Quietly (DH)
02 The Heat Is On (GF)
03 Life In The Fast Lane (Eagles)
04 Smuggler's Blues (GF)
05 The Boys Of Summer (DH)
06 Already Gone (Eagles)
07 Life's Been Good (JW)
08 The End Of The Innocence (DH)
09 All Night Long (JW)

I'm thinking track 08's a bit iffy too

[Jonny Come Lately]

I recently came up with a playlist intended to be played on shuffle on car journeys which was entitled 'Rock, Rhythm & Blues'. In truth it was mostly Rock, with the latter bit being included to enable the inclusion of certain bluesy tracks (mainly by Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan). It included its fair share of Eagles tunes, for what it's worth these songs featured:
- Witchy Woman
- Out Of Control
- Already Gone
- James Dean
- Too Many Hands
- Life In The Fast Lane
- Victim Of Love
- In The City

The playlist also featured Joe's Rocky Mountain Way and Life's Been Good, none of Don's solo songs though. Songs like Tryin', Outlaw Man, Those Shoes and Get Over It would also have been good fits I think, and I didn't own LROOE at the time - Somebody would be included for sure if it did it again now.

When it comes to determining the difference between Eagles rockers and Eagles R&B, I would say that On The Border and Frail Grasp On The Big Picture are rockers whereas One Of These Nights and Fast Company are more R&B. Get You In The Mood is definitely on the blues side. The Long Run lies somewhere between the two I think, the R&B influences are prominent yet it still feels like a rock song to me in a way that OOTN and Fast Company don't. The title of my playlist nonetheless would have allowed these songs in, in much the same way as the bluesy Since I've Been Loving You featured alongside the out and out hard rocker Communication Breakdown.

To give some idea of the general flavour of the playlist here's some of the other tracks that featured. Nearly all of the songs on the playlist were by artists I've expressed my liking for previously on here:
Tombstone Blues - Bob Dylan
Expresso Love - Dire Straits
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin (Perhaps unsurprisingly, Led Zep were the most represented artist in this playlist)
Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Young Lust - Pink Floyd
The King Will Come - Wishbone Ash