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Thread: Dumb things said about The Eagles

  1. #11
    Moderator Ive always been a dreamer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Quote Originally Posted by Houston Debutante View Post
    The Lebowski quote ~ . What's so great about it anyway that people still quote it, he says he hates the Eagles and cusses, what's so genius about that?
    I would have to agree with you, HD. But, admittedly, I'm a tiny bit biased.

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    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    I can think of a few dumb ones I've read about the band.

    Although Allmusic is undoubtedly an extremely useful resource, I have to say I often myself disagreeing with their opinions - for instance, to use an Eagles-related example, I cannot agree with One Of These Nights getting a higher rating than Desperado. Occasionally though they just don't get it right, and I will point to their description of Take It To The Limit as an example.

    http://www.allmusic.com/song/take-it...t-mt0026914454

    The statement that bugs me most is 'By this point in their career, the Eagles had become successful with stately, string-filled ballads that emphasized their harmony singing'. Examples of such songs prior to TITTL include Desperado, and...er...erm...does the Doolin-Dalton/Desperado Reprise (which features strings in the latter section) count? Terrific song though it, has no claims to being a hit, and those two are about it. It irritates me because if the description substituted 'stately, string-filled ballads' was replaced with 'laid-back country rock songs' or something along those lines, they'd be right!

    One other thing that irritates me is statements like 'Witchy Woman initiates the band's career-long examination of supernaturally evil females' (which comes from allmusic's review of the debut album. Only three Eagles songs feature this theme, one of which was One Of These Nights which only really mentions this idea briefly in one verse and while the narrator may be searching for the daughter of the devil himself, he's also searching for an angel in white (of course, ideally, a little of both) - so the only two Eagles songs which are really about these evil women are Witchy Woman and GDIH - from the first three albums. Thus the Eagles have only one more song about supernaturally evil women than they do about frat parties or sleazy film directors, and the same number as they have about trains. None of these are subjects one immediately associates with the band!

    Does the B-52s having more songs in the Rolling Stone Top 500 songs of all time than the Eagles (not to mention several other bands vastly superior to the B-52s, such as the regrettably yet all too predictably ignored Dire Straits) count as a dumb thing said about them? I think it should. I don't care what Rolling Stone thinks, it's just that I've often seen this list used as a guide to some of the best songs of all time when, to my ears at least, Take It Easy and Sultans Of Swing are clearly better than Love Shack or Rock Lobster.

  3. #13
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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    I agree about the alleged misogyny the band was always accused of. They were no worse than the Rolling Stones in this regard. They didn't write songs called Under My Thumb or Stupid Girl.

    Rolling Stone never got Dire Straits any more than they got Led Zeppelin.

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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Regarding JCR's last point:
    I have very little regard for any of the thoroughly tedious lists or polls music magazines or websites create in order to justify their own existence, as that is exactly what it is: pointless rambling in order to actually still be relevant.

    Stuff like the top 100 songs of all time or 50 best guitar riffs is absolute codswallop and serves no purpose at all other than to delight or rile certain quarters and get some more ad revenue in for them. Music should be about uniting people, unique expression and individual association, not some desperate journalist in an office block blindly trying to rank everything so they sell a few more issues that week.

    I am of the belief that both The Last Resort and Long Road Out of Eden are better than Hotel California. Obviously neither have had a millionth of the impact that HC has, but as a devout fan who has wasted hours of my life listening to every last note that is the opinion I have reached that verdict. No list anyone compiles ever will reflect that, similarly The Who will always have Won't Get Fooled Again, Led Zepp Stairway to Heaven, Dire Straits Sultans of Swing as their top / sole entry in any list as it's the only common denominator a general rock fan could relate to. You see an infinite amount of times on here how a core of about 30-40 Eagles fanatics disagree on their best song, most underrated work, finest album, best solo, most profound lyrics etc. This just proves the point that any attempt to list or rank music is futile gibberish. *

    * - I mean in professional or assertive publications, obviously the many debates and Survivors on here are all just for fun and appreciation of the guys' work.

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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    For me it's always dumb when people use the ICTYW solo to prove how much Felder is missed. And like I said in another thread, I'm sure most of them couldn't actually hear the difference between Don ("the original", ha!) and Steuart ("the copycat") playing it.

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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Quote Originally Posted by Witchy Woman View Post
    I know he wasn't trying to be a jerk, but Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters was asked in a recent edition of Entertainment Weekly what his favorite underrated album was. This was his response :



    Of course Joe's contributions to the band have been significant, but to imply that the band would be nothing without him is ludicrous and stupid. They are all valuable members, but Taylor must have forgotten that the biggest selling album of all time does not feature any songs played,sung,or written by Joe Walsh, and 2 of the members quit and 1 was dismissed, and they still manage to tour the world and make a buck or two here and there.

    I'm sorry to rant, but I really hate it when people don't get their facts straight before they open their mouths and say dumb things.

    Thanks for posting the link Witchy Woman. Taylor's love of Joe has made me a fan of Taylor. Now I know he loves Barnstorm too, I like him even more. Furthermore, I agree with his comment about the Eagles.

    Ignoring the stuff from the last Century (Millennium) The Eagles are a successful touring band. Joe's performance is a large part of that success. That's why they brought him into the band in 1975.

    Without Joe, it's debatable whether the Eagles would be able to sell out huge arenas. The audiences are almost unanimously positive about Eagles shows when the shows over but it's not quite so positive after the first set when Joe's been, pretty much on standby. If they can't sell tickets the Eagles wouldn't tour. If the Eagles don't tour they're done.

    Taylor didn't question how great the Eagles were/are. He just said they'd be dead without Joe. I'm sure they could make a great album without Joe but these days, they're only interested in selling concert tickets.

    IMO the best thing that could happen in 2015 is Joe to re-release Barnstorm with Vitale and Passarelli and tour the world to give it the promotion it deserved in 1972. It's a brilliant, no hits album.

    A while ago my brother was dragged to see a big arena show by Take That. He enjoyed the concert. I asked him "What was the highlight of the show?", "The Inflatable Elephant" he answered

    That's where I think the Eagles could be heading.

  7. #17
    Stuck on the Border NightMistBlue's Avatar
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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Clearly, some of the people writing for music publications and other outlets don't know as much as they think they do and can't be bothered to learn. Rhapsody, a streaming service I subscribe to, has little factoids that pop up onscreen as you're playing a certain artist's music. Rhapsody credits *Randy* with steering the Eagles in a country-rock direction as exemplified by "I Can't Tell You Why"! It actually says that. I don't have the heart to tell them that ICTYW was towards the end of the band's recording career and Mr. Meisner was no longer with the band at that point. Geez, it's easy enough to Google things these days, it takes all of 20 seconds...

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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Quote Originally Posted by Funk 50 View Post
    Thanks for posting the link Witchy Woman. Taylor's love of Joe has made me a fan of Taylor. Now I know he loves Barnstorm too, I like him even more. Furthermore, I agree with his comment about the Eagles.

    Ignoring the stuff from the last Century (Millennium) The Eagles are a successful touring band. Joe's performance is a large part of that success. That's why they brought him into the band in 1975.

    Without Joe, it's debatable whether the Eagles would be able to sell out huge arenas. The audiences are almost unanimously positive about Eagles shows when the shows over but it's not quite so positive after the first set when Joe's been, pretty much on standby. If they can't sell tickets the Eagles wouldn't tour. If the Eagles don't tour they're done.

    Taylor didn't question how great the Eagles were/are. He just said they'd be dead without Joe. I'm sure they could make a great album without Joe but these days, they're only interested in selling concert tickets.

    IMO the best thing that could happen in 2015 is Joe to re-release Barnstorm with Vitale and Passarelli and tour the world to give it the promotion it deserved in 1972. It's a brilliant, no hits album.

    A while ago my brother was dragged to see a big arena show by Take That. He enjoyed the concert. I asked him "What was the highlight of the show?", "The Inflatable Elephant" he answered

    That's where I think the Eagles could be heading.
    All of the current members are important to the Eagles, not just Joe.

    Not everybody goes to see the Eagles only to see Joe & are tapping their feet impatiently when he isn't so prominent, as you seem to be implying. This is a generalisation. It is certainly not the case with me and for many others for whom Joe is not their favourite member.

    The endless 'they are nothing without Felder' stuff, however, along with the tiresomely predictable Big Lebowski quotation, go without saying for most of us in the 'dumb' category.
    Last edited by Freypower; 02-13-2015 at 06:28 PM.

  9. #19
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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Quote Originally Posted by NightMistBlue View Post
    Clearly, some of the people writing for music publications and other outlets don't know as much as they think they do and can't be bothered to learn. Rhapsody, a streaming service I subscribe to, has little factoids that pop up onscreen as you're playing a certain artist's music. Rhapsody credits *Randy* with steering the Eagles in a country-rock direction as exemplified by "I Can't Tell You Why"! It actually says that. I don't have the heart to tell them that ICTYW was towards the end of the band's recording career and Mr. Meisner was no longer with the band at that point. Geez, it's easy enough to Google things these days, it takes all of 20 seconds...
    That's pretty dumb of them, and bad research on all fronts. Wrong guy, wrong sound, wrong song! The only sensible explanation seems to be that whoever wrote that hadn't actually heard ICTYW and therefore didn't realise that the song wasn't country rock and that it was the other former Poco bassist singing.

    While I agree that Joe is certainly centrally to the second half of the Eagles live show nowadays, I can't agree that they'd be nothing without him - Joe has written great songs, yes, but most of them didn't appear on Eagles albums, and as someone who loves the early years as much as the Walsh era while I can see how he helped raise Take It Easy and Outlaw Man to a new level in live performance, there's not a lot I'd want to change about either original recording. Also, Joe wasn't the only other great guitarist in the band, which leads us on to the next issue...

    What these comments about Joe do show is that any claims that the Eagles are nothing without Don Felder don't stack up. He is a terrific guitar player, and I would say he has been a loss to the band musically, but he isn't a great singer or songwriter and his contributions to these aspects were limited compared to several other members (not just Henley and Frey). He was able to provide strong musical ideas but not whole songs - out of all the Eagles songs he co-wrote I think he contributed most to Visions, which is credited to just Felder and Henley, and it's far from being a classic. He was crucial in the writing of Hotel California, but frankly in the UK at least I think, as discussed elsewhere, there's a stronger argument for the Eagles being nothing without HC than being nothing without Felder.

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    Default Re: Dumb things said about The Eagles

    Yes, there certainly wasn't any evidence in the 70's that Don F was a great songwriter. I don't know if there's now, because I haven't really listened to his solo stuff. Also, he doesn't seem to realize that his precious song didn't become Hotel California until Glenn and Don made it Hotel California. It was a nice arrangement before that, but not a song. In his book he implies that when they played it live, the other members followed him to the Hotel California. I think it was Henley who led the way to the Hotel California, because he sang the song and wrote most of the lyrics!
    In his book there's the picture with the text "writing Hotel California". I'll ignore the fact that I don't think that picture has anything to do with writing that song. It was just taken in the same room. But anyway, it should have read "writing what became Hotel California". Don H's and Glenn's songwriting skills turned it into a song - and into HC.
    Off-topic again...

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