They Will Not Go Quietly: The Official ILM Track-By-Track DON 'n' GLENN Listening Thread

yes, the Huey "Piano" Smith tune.

yes, he sounds like he influenced Bruce Willis.

No Fun Aloud is Glenn adhering to your typical B-rate 60s band sequencing. Put the hit(s) up front, fill the rest of the LP up with soul covers, slow jams and anonymous rockers (I think there's one more single buried on Side 2 though). This is okay: high-end bar band music, or the sort of thing you'll hear at a lunchtime performance at some city-sponsored park event.

for once his lyin' eyes were tellin' the truth. He wanted to have Big Fun on this record, which for Glenn Frey means not even trying.

yeah "All Those Lies" (heh) is comin' up.

man, today's Glenn photo is basically "married guy who harasses the au pair"

That, or "(1) Frey snorted so much coke that he required an operation to restore the lining of his nose"

which is why I look forward to Building a Perfect Beast, to which I'm relistening as I type.

A Vision Quest track comes before dessert.

you bet!

Meanwhile, a flashback to 1989:

Glenn Frey of the Eagles signed an endorsement deal with Jack LaLanne fitness centers, showing off his muscular body, which he described as the result of 1,500 sit-ups a day, five days per week. What motivated him? "They offered me a shitload of money," he said, and made a spirited defense of commercial endorsements: "I do not cling to this antiquated hippie mentality that says it's us against them. I personally do not consider Pepsi-Cola or Old Style Beer or the Health and Tennis Corporation to be the enemy. This is the age of adult rock stars."

man, today's Glenn photo is basically "married guy who harasses the au pair"

GLENN: 'Au pair'? More like 'Nice Pair", amirite?

DON: Well, yeah.

"Sea Cruise": Wow, Glenn applies himself quite well here. Easily my favorite track of his thus far. In the Eliot book, there's a passage about how in the 70s Linda Ronstadt & Glenn used to go on drives together listening to mix tapes Glenn made of oldies, and that's where Linda would find vintage songs to cover. It's then pointed out that Frey couldn't latch onto the material the same way. Well here he does, and all the better for it.

BTW, for my birthday today, I picked Building The Perfect Beast from the $5 bin at Fr(e)y's.

Speaking of Glenn'n'Linda, i didn't know he was the one who inducted her into the RHOF: http://youtu.be/RkBZDI1LgXs

ha -- I just read that anecdote. Linda musing aloud about how once they were poor and now they talk about ski trips in Aspen.

Now she's poor again.

"Long Way Home"

http://www.elektra.com/sites/g/files/g2000000486/f/styles/large/public/avatars/a92/fa3/a92fa3618854504f8be429ba9a78857b.jpg?itok=MNulUD7n

http://youtu.be/XcYw7QgT__A

He and Lindsey must have had some intense afro-ed glare-offs.

LP cover photo tie-in lyric: "the toaster don't work...this house don't work no more"

"Long Way Home": Reminds me some of Randy Newman, particularly in the verse about stuff not working. Once again we get a harbinger for future successes, as this looks forward to tracks like "Not Enough Love In The World" and "The Heart of The Matter". Nice (non-Don, I presume) brushed drums. Fine harmonies.

Believe it is the legendary, late Jeff Porcaro.

"That Girl"

http://s38.photobucket.com/user/williehoo/media/Glenn%20Frey/GlennFrey24.jpg.html

http://youtu.be/KTu0AE5jkxo

http://glennfreyonline.com/images/GFreySSShirtless.jpg

not a Sexy Girl -- you know, THAT girl.

Oh lord that picture.

Bob Seger gets a songwriting credit on this one

Whoever's playing the drums has a much lighter, more effective touch than Don's thud.

Glenn thinks he's being sweet here but there's still a layer of contempt brewing just underneath. that girl

The guitars (assuming they're his) are played and mixed nicely.

yeah, some of Glenn's phrasing is rank--the whiny "that girl"s, as Lee said, and you don't believe him when he says "IN LUHHVE!"---but this is still competent, even pleasant light rock and as such a triumph by Glenn's typical standards. The ponderousness of "The One You Love" is here too: wouldn't hurt to lop 45 seconds off and maybe nudge the tempo up a notch.

I'd long thought "The One You Love" was some generic late-'70s yacht-rocker, had no idea that was Glenn Frey.

I like the production on both of these, actually. The One You Love could have been pleasant AC background music if not for the better-do-what-i-say-or-else lyric

they just wished Timothy B. Schmit a happy birthday on the radio after playing a Meisner-era Eagles song, I'm offended

well, yeah

"That Girl": This is nice. I can't comment much on the lyrics cause I was doing other stuff while listening, and zoned out on them. The opening bit about driving is more evocative than usual. Seems like he's trying to do "I Can't Tell You Why" again tho.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/190/1189085544_1.jpg

"Dirty Laundry"

http://img001.lazygirls.info/people/nicole_kidman/nicole_kidman_to_die_for_meTThik.sized.jpg

http://youtu.be/h0xr31XbSOU

Quick fact: when first single "Johnny Can't Read" flopped, the company got nervous until this thing sailed into the top three.

Are we getting Donstered for Halloween?

XP Nevermind! We skipped a song again tho.

I'll get to it Sunday; flipping from album to album has gotten confusing, I noticed.

"Dirty Laundry": Obviously this has been played to death on radio, but with good reason! A+ Groove, enough ideas to sustain the running time (imagine if there'd been a club mix!), two cool guitar solos (Walsh and/or Steve Lukather, iirc). The downside: This is the grand reappearance of Cranky Don, and if you're one for subtext, the 'inspiration' behind this one is truly gagworthy. But this time the hectoring smugness has some economy, and...that groove, man. It's kind of crazy that there wasn't a proper music video done for this.

Related:

80s Toronto News Guys (Clemenza might know 'em) have fun w/"Dirty Laundry": http://youtu.be/YHimia_Fxzs
The Donster serenades his close personal friends Bill & Hillary in 1993: http://youtu.be/7NmYpJ2R9Ps

Always dug "Dirty Laundry." I had no idea Henley had been in the Eagles until years after first hearing this; it sounds positively anti-Eagles.

at least he sounds rarin' to go and hip to MTV-esque New wave a la Rod Stewart's "Young Turks."

Whereas Glenn was still stuck on "Hot Legs"

GLENN: You would be too!
DON: Well, yeah.

when I reviewed the 2003 Eagles show and they took their solo turns (Schmitt wasn't allowed "Boys Night Out" though) "Dirty Laundry" was pretty ferocious, thanks to loud drumming not by Henley and Walsh's solo. Frey choosing the dinkiest keyboard preset almost ruined it though.

No Glenn for this post-Monstered day?

was at the picture show

"All Those Lies"

http://www.moosedenied.com/images/2008-11/gf.jpg

http://youtu.be/gxCwfEyqivM

Third single and Frey's only solo composition.

Man, Glenn days are tumbleweed time in Freytown.

"All Those Lies": Ah, nice groove, Glenn at home with a sleazy (read: honest) lyric. The shift to chorus doesn't quite fit in for me. A little bridge would have been nice. Did Hawkins & Hood play on the whole album? Explains all the soulboy posturing and why the rhythms are more pleasing than general Eaglefare.

My favorite Glenn song so far.

been off line for most of the weekend but will catch up tomorrow: these are both good songs!

"Talking to the Moon"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3kcWvkN2hLM/Uf5qIpJj8iI/AAAAAAAAAKk/DSCuNoQ5AOY/s1600/moon+boy.jpeg

http://youtu.be/O2gfBzlBkM8

"Talking To The Moon": Once again very-Newman-esque. Quite pleasant. Seems like it would lend itself well to a Country cover by George Strait or somebody. This also feels like the first Don track so far that could have been an Eagles song, and a good one at that.

Garth Hudson on synth. Oh Garth what have ye wrought