Eagles Short Run vs. Longevity

[GlennLover]

That's a fair point.

I am glad, however, that we got Long Road Out of Eden. Its virtues outweigh its shortcomings in my mind.

I agree with you, Soda. I really enjoy most of LROOE.

[BillBailey1976]

That's a fair point.

I am glad, however, that we got Long Road Out of Eden. Its virtues outweigh its shortcomings in my mind.

I think Long Road could have been a great single cd. I wonder if they made up their minds BEFORE they started that they were going to do a double album and stuck to that even though the material didn't really support a double album?

[UndertheWire]

I'm always mystified why someone would think LROOE would be better as a single album. I haven't seen anything close to a consensus on favourite tracks and so almost everyone would have missed out on something.

[Funk 50]

There's a lot of info documented about Long Road Out Of Eden. When it was released in October 2007 (10 Years!) it was extensively premiered on Gold Radio in the UK with all the tracks played intertwined with comments and interview segments from all the band. It was run over several hour long episodes, presented by Nicky Horne.

In a recent interview, Tim said he had fond memories of jamming new music in the early stages of LROOE's creation. He revealed that he felt that they discarded some tracks than the ones they kept.

Glenn declared that most previous Eagles albums had 3,4 or 5 tracks that were a lot stronger than the rest of the album whereas LROOE had over a dozen strong tracks.

He asked an engineer how much music could be put on a CD, When given the answer of about 72 minutes, before the quality starts to decline, Glenn opted to aim for a double CD, giving two tracks, each for Joe and Tim, as he felt that they already had more than 90 minutes worth of music in the can. Don always intimated that he would have preferred LROOE to be a single CD.

I don't know how Don would take being told that the title track was for the chop. It was already being lauded as an Eagles classic before the album was released but I'd say it's the obvious track to be omitted as it doesn't fit in with the rest of the material. I feel tracks like Center Of The Universe, You Are Not Alone, Fast Company, Business As Usual and It's Your World Now have suffered from being overshadowed by the title track. Long Road Out Of Eden is a magnificent track but most of the time I'd rather listen to the other tracks, even I Love To Watch A Woman Dance which I believe was the least liked track in early discussions about the album.

As far as I know, How Long was one of the last tracks recorded. Henley didn't rate Busy Being Fabulous. I Love To Watch A Woman Dance and What Do I Do With My Heart were among the earliest LROOE tracks

http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interv..._john_mcnally/

In September of 1999, as I recall, I got a call from Don Henley and Glenn Frey. The Eagles were re-forming to do a new album and they wanted to record my song "I Love to Watch a Woman Dance." I had sent it to Don after we had talked about him recording "For My Wedding."

That was certainly an exciting call. Eight years went by before it was released with zero communication from the band. My moods swung between high hopes and despair. Finally in July 2007 there was a bootleg of Glenn singing the song at a solo show and mentioning that it "might" be on the new Eagles album. It was, and done very nicely I must say. That may be the last triple-platinum album I hang on my wall.

Larry John released his own version in 2002 on his album Dandelion Soul. https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/LarryJohnMcNally

I love Long Road Out Of Eden as much , if not more than any of the Eagles previous records.

Joe's recently said he's not making any more albums but I really hope I get to hear new music from all the Eagles, separately or together.

[UndertheWire]

Thank you for that roundup of the history of LROOE. I rarely skip tracks on the double CD and I don't think I play one disk more than the other. It has no clunkers of the order of The Disco Strangler.

However, I'd still choose the initial run, particularly when it was the original four. That probably has a lot to do with me being that magic age at the time (I've heard a theory that most indivual's musical tastes are formed around the age of 14).

[scottside]

Thanks, Funk 50, for that analysis and stroll down memory lane. Thinking back to the release of LROOE, I'd have to say that my initial thoughts after hearing the set for the first time was mild disappointment. There were a lot of reasons for feeling that way, but I think the one factor that hit me the hardest was the thought that this would be the last Eagles album and I didn't think it was the best they could do overall.

It grew on me since then, but top to bottom, it is my least favorite album by them, but mostly because it doesn't sound like a band record. To my ears, it sounds like a number of solo songs with a few scattered group sounding songs thrown in. I still feel that it should've been the two disc set it was, but am curious about the 4 or 5 songs that were incomplete at the time that Don Henley felt were better than some of the ones that were included. I had high hopes that we'd hear those at some point and now it doesn't appear that will happen.

[maryc2130]

I really like LROOE and am very glad it was recorded, but most of the time, I only ever listen to the first CD. Even that has a couple of songs that I usually skip. I like the title track, but feel the time could have been cut quite a bit on it, and it might have gained more popularity.

I go back and forth on I Love to Watch A Woman Dance. It has pretty tune and lyrics, but at the same time, I get just a little bit of a creepy vibe from it. I'm not sure why that is, but it's there, and it keeps me from loving the song. (And that's just my opinion, so please don't beat me up over it.)