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Thread: Eagles' opinions on their own work

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    Default Eagles' opinions on their own work

    Firstly, sorry for the poor title, I couldn't think of anything else! Also, if this has been covered before please direct me.

    I made a comment a while ago on the thread about what we'd like in Don's Cass County tour, about how I believed Don didn't like how BOML sounded live. Whilst I was trying to remember the source for that it got me thinking about what we know about what the guys think of their discography. I know Glenn's favourite Eagles song is One of These Nights and someone on here said Bernie loved the end of Hollywood Waltz (Don's drumming) but I was wondering if anyone knew of any other opinions held by them about their work?

    Cheers

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    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    A few that spring to mind, with sources given:

    - The liner notes of 2003's The Very Best Of indicate that Glenn is very keen on I Can't Tell You Why, his second favourite song after OOTN. I think he also says he thinks After The Thrill Is Gone is underrated, and praised The Last Resort, which he has referred to as 'Henley's opus'.
    - Don H refers to Those Shoes as 'one of my favorites' in the same liner notes.
    - According to a 1989 interview I came across, Randy prefers the rockers to the ballads and cited Too Many Hands as a song he was fond of.
    - Don H and Glenn were not crazy on JOTS (from Don Felder's Heaven and Hell) and did not like IWYP at all (numerous sources).
    - Don Felder's opinion of Hotel California is well known and it is fairly obvious that he considers it his proudest achievement with the band. He is also fond of The Sad Café (Heaven and Hell).
    - Don Felder dislikes Teenage Jail and The Girl From Yesterday (both from Heaven and Hell).
    - Joe is evidently fond of Desperado as he plays it in his solo shows even though he had no involvement with the original and has his own ballads he could play instead. Unlike with Don Henley's shows there is no expectation from the public for him to play Desperado. I think I read that Joe connects with the lyrics hence why he performs it in concert.

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    Stuck on the Border NightMistBlue's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    Congrats to TLR on your 1000th post milestone

    My eyes got big when I read (yesterday) Don H. say that "Those Shoes" was one of his favorites. He's written so many things that are SO much better, IMO.

    In the same interview*, he gently dissed "On the Border" (which I think is brilliant) as disappointing, saying, "I’m not sure it ever became what it could have been, musically."

    Similarly, in an interview with Songwriter magazine in 1994, he opined that "The Long Run" - the song, not the album - could have been better. Au contraire, Don!

    * with Cameron Crowe, 2003: http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/...of-the-eagles/

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    It's a great title for a thread TLR.

    I can recall praising Don's climactic drums at the end of Hollywood Waltz but It was my own opinion, I wasn't quoting Bernie Leadon.

    I believe Randy's comment about preferring the fast songs were to do with live performances. During the ballads he tends to just play the root note at the beginning of each line. The up-tempo numbers are a little more interesting to play. Randy always seems very positive about the songs he's played on.

    Joe picks out Lying Eyes as his favourite song to play in the Eagles set list. Sorry I can't remember sources.

    Henley is the most publicly critical Eagle. He wanted them to spend more time on Long Road Out Of Eden. He's said Best Of My Love sucks live, although he has performed it solo.

    He's apologised for the quality of the new HFO songs, saying they had a deadline to meet. He's critical of his vocal performance for Desperado, blaming Glynn Johns, for not allowing him more time to nail it. He was hoping Glynn would make him sound like John Bonham on record too.

    In fact when Don was asked, which early Eagles tracks he'd like to go back and re-record, without hesitation, he answered "All of them!"

    Glenn commented that, in their second act, they sound much better than they ever did in the 70s although he did also say, some years later, how great they sounded during the 1977 show, that they released with the HOTE documentary.

    Glenn also said, at the time of LROOE's release. that LROOE had 17 or 18 great tracks on it, compared to 3 or 4 on their previous albums.

    Also related to LROOE, Tim didn't like I Don't Want To Hear Any More the first time he heard it and Joe presented Guilty Of The Crime to the rest of the band on more than one occasion before it was accepted.

    Off the top of my head, that's all I got.

    Oh Joe's unforgettable comment about All Night Long on his Anthology CD sleeve. I'm quoting so I checked, "This was an Eagles encore for a while"

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    I read show reports here from one of Glenn's 2007 solo shows. Apparantly he described "Long Road Out of Eden" (song, not album) as "ponderous".

    Glenn has also grumbled that "Peaceful Easy Feeling" is off-key and he should have been allowed more takes.
    Last edited by UndertheWire; 07-02-2015 at 02:04 PM.

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    I've heard that Long Road Out Of Eden originally had a slower tempo. I'd sure like to hear that! Maybe Glenn got them to speed it up a bit.

    A regular intro from Joe "If I knew that I'd have to sing this song everyday for the rest of my life, I'd have written something else." I'm sure he's used it for both Rocky Mountain Way and Life's Been Good. Maybe Funk #49 too.

    Classic Henley; "Sometimes I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than sing Desperado."

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    I remember Glenn saying in some interview that their 70's albums were...what's that phrase in English..."Three songs deep", or something like that, was what he said. He was saying that their albums had two or three great songs (the hits) and the rest of the album was usually fillers. I think he was talking about ones before Hotel California. I'm pretty sure he mentioned the OOTN album, which was surprising. It's not that bad! Francis Rossi has said the same thing about the classic Status Quo albums.

    EDIT:

    I must admit that I don't know whether Glenn was talking about his own tastes or what the "masses" like.

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    I would completely disagree with that statement for On The Border, which I feel is consistently strong throughout, and even more so for Desperado, which was always meant to be (and IMO is) a very cohesive album largely devoid of obvious hit singles. I can perhaps sympathise with his view more on the debut album and OOTN, although if he said they were 'Five songs deep' I'd agree with him a bit more. I personally definitely would not want to lose TLHTM, Take The Devil, Too Many Hands or ATTIG.

    If you made an album out of the best five songs from OOTN and the Eagles LP you'd have a pretty great record in my book. I'd miss most of the other songs to some extent but not nearly as much as I would miss losing any of the songs from Desperado, OTB or the IMO near flawless Hotel California. The Long Run is a bit different as I feel that while there a couple of fillers (I actually like TJ quite a lot, the other two obvious candidates not so much), the core of 6-7 songs from the album is very strong so the two songs I am not crazy about don't affect my enjoyment of the record much (it also helps that they are both relatively short).

    The best artists tend to be self-critical I think, Roger Waters is a good example (he once said he wouldn't play Atom Heart Mother if you gave him a million pounds). There are cases where I think the artists are totally wrong about their own music, like Coldplay's Chris Martin who criticised Parachutes as being 'terrible music' when most music experts I've come across tend to say that the compositions on that album were the best they've ever written musically.

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    Quote Originally Posted by Jonny Come Lately View Post
    If you made an album out of the best five songs from OOTN and the Eagles LP you'd have a pretty great record in my book.
    Develop that idea a little more. Strip it down to Glenn's 3. Throw in tracks from Desperado and On The Border and you could just get the top selling album of the 20th Century.

    I think the track choices they made for the 1975 Greatest Hits album are absolutely spot on. To name just one track, I'd like to have seen Saturday Night added to it but I really don't know what I'd take off to make a space for it.

    Quote Originally Posted by chaim
    Francis Rossi has said the same thing about the classic Status Quo albums


    Francis Rossi, has owned up that he prefers country pop to the heads down rock that made his name. The best concert he's attended, The Eagles at Wembley Arena during the Hotel California tour. One of the few occasions when Randy's Take It To The Limit was accompanied by a 40 piece string orchestra. Wish I Was There!

    A very recent non vocal comment that I read here in a HOTE Show review. Bernie introducing Witchy Woman crediting Don with writing the great lyrics. Henley demonstrably shaking his head,
    Last edited by Funk 50; 07-03-2015 at 05:14 AM.

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    Default Re: Eagles' opinions on their own work

    Very interesting thread - I've enjoyed reading everyone's contributions.

    "People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
    Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016

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