Hypotnetical 1982 Eagles Album

[Freypower]

I think you've summed it up well. With respect to Soda, I don't think Henley would have allowed Sea Cruise, which was a fun track to play live, but hardly 'Eagles' standard. Despite your comment that Henley's tracks would have had less keyboards I think they would have gone with Long Way Home as another big piano driven ballad, with Glenn of course playing piano. But I think they certainly could have beefed up the guitars on Lilah, ICSS or YBHU (I am drawing on both my list and Soda's here).

As far as Henley giving his 'two cents' to Glenn's songs I am less sure about that. As we have seen from Glenn's LROOE songs he pretty much did them on his own with hardly any input from Henley (which I have to say I found very disappointing. The exceptions are How Long & What Do I Do With My Heart). At least in All Those Lies or Don't Give Up he could have used Henley's incisive harmonies as well as some Walsh/Felder guitars.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I missed this thread when it was first started, so I thought I’d go ahead and reply now since it has been revived. I decided to include at least one track for everyone, and I gave Joe two songs. Since this would have been his third album with the band, I figured he had earned it. Even though it was tough, I excluded the tender “love” ballads such as Lilah, The One You Love, I Volunteer, or That Girl since the band didn’t do these kinds of songs back in the day. I guess that Dirty Laundry seems to be the most appropriate name for my album too considering the tracks I chose. I did try to pick songs that I could envision the Eagles performing although some of them are more solo efforts. However, there were times even on some of the 70’s albums that the songs did appear to be more solo than collaborative.

1. Dirty Laundry (Henley)
2. She Can’t Let Go (Frey)
3. Life of Illusion (Walsh)
4. Long Way Home (Henley)
5. Gimme the Money (Schmit)
6. All Those Lies (Frey)

7. Nobody’s Business (Henley)
8. All Night Long (Walsh)
9. I Found Somebody (Frey)
10. Heavy Metal (Felder)
11. Talking To the Moon (Henley)
12. Partytown (Frey)

As far as Henley giving his 'two cents' to Glenn's songs I am less sure about that. As we have seen from Glenn's LROOE songs he pretty much did them on his own with hardly any input from Henley (which I have to say I found very disappointing.

FP, I’m not sure I agree with this comment. IMO, you can’t compare the LROOE effort to what the band put out during the 70’s. There were exceptions in the 70's as I mentioned above where Don and Glenn didn't collaborate, but it was nowhere near as prevalent as it was on LROOE.

[Freypower]

Dreamer, I would be very interested to know which 70s songs you regard as more 'solo' than collaborative work. On which exact Eagles songs did Don & Glenn not collaborate? If you are referring to very Henley dominated lyrics like Wasted Time and The Last Resort, those songs at least have Glenn's piano all over them. Glenn did the music and the arrangements. Perhaps he's less obvious in tracks like Those Shoes, but he's there. As Glenn's songs reduced so much in number as the decade went on, I can't think of one of his songs where he sings lead where you can't hear Don too, on drums or on harmonies. This is as opposed to ILTWADW where Don does a basic harmony, and IDTWNW where he does not appear at all.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

FP, many of Randy’s and Bernie’s Eagles songs were written by them individually. IMO, they do not come across as much of a collaborative effort with other members of the band. Obviously, this is not truly the case because the other members contributed instrumentally and vocally on their songs. However, the songs that Randy or Bernie wrote on their own have a different sound than the songs that Henley and Frey co-wrote that have become so much a part of what we now have come to think of as the “Eagles” sound. In the early days of the band, there was no “Eagles” sound – each member brought in individual contributions and the band accepted or rejected them. Glenn’s early individual contributions were Chug All Night and Most of Us Are Sad. I’m not saying that there was no collaboration with other members of the band, but they started off as songs that Glenn wrote and brought to the band and they sound that way to me. However, as time went on, Don and Glenn collaborated on most all of the songs, and developed a ‘niche’ that morphed into the legendary “Eagles” sound.

It seems to me the band kind of reverted back to the early days in their approach to LROOE. They all brought in some individual songs and, again, the band either accepted or rejected them. There was, obviously, some collaboration on the songs, but it appears that it was nothing like what was going on at the band’s peak in the 70’s. However, to be fair, because the LROOE credits are so sketchy, I would hesitate to guess how much collaboration and input occurred among the band members on each track.

[eaglesvet]

OK- here's mine. I would go with the pattern the Eagles had established of no Felder songs, one Tim song, and one Joe song. I would be called Dirty Laundry after their first single, whch turned out to be the highest charting song on here (even though, as I explain later, I think including that song is kind of cheating - but what are you gonna do? Circumstances make "cheating" inevitable).

1. Dirty Laundry
2. All Those Lies
3. You Better Hang Up
4. Things
5. The One You Love
6. Talking to the Moon

1. Sea Cruise
2. Playin' It Cool
3. Partytown
4. I Can't Stand Still
5. That Girl
6. Long Way Home

I didn't always include what I liked if I didn't think it would be as much of an Eagles song as others. For instance, while "Playin' It Cool" isn't the strongest track on Tim's album, it was co-written by JD Souther, which makes it closer to an Eagles song than his other material.

As far as including my favorites - "Talking to the Moon" was also co-written by Souther. In Glenn's case, "That Girl" was co-written by Seger. "All Those Lies" includes a reference to Azoff. I can hear "The One You Love" being re-arranged to feature more of an Eagles sound with additional harmonies.

Timothy sings harmony on "I Can't Stand Still," "You Better Hang Up," and "Long Way Home," giving them an Eagles sound. Same for Joe's "Things" - it has Timothy on harmony, making it sound more Eagle-ly, although I think "Life of Illusion" is a stronger song. Since "Sea Cruise" was included in Eagles live sets, I included it although it's not a favorite. "Partytown" seems in the spirit of some of the earlier Eagles work.

One thing FP noted, though, that is essential - she didn't include "Nobody's Business" because she hoped that if the Eagles had gotten together, the situation wouldnt have happened. Really - especially in the case of Don, whose songs are so driven by what's happening in his life - several of these songs would arguably not have been written if the Eagles had not broken up. "Dirty Laundry" is one of them, as it is closely related to the theme of "Nobody's Business," I think - plus it was written with "Glenn songwriting partner replacement" Danny Kortchmar. However, I included it anyway because the Eagles have currently made it their own, and you never know - maybe the news would have inspired it anyway!

I haven't read any further posts, but your arguments make a lot of sense in terms of why these are the songs that should be on this album!