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

Frey's the better musician but the more generic songwriter. Henley undercuts the often surprising arrangements with TED Talk crankiness. What a pair.

You've got the brawn, I've got the brains, let's make lots of ...

0-0 on both counts

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ozeagle/media/Solo%20Years/RockHard.jpg.html

"Wait, you saying I'm the smart one?"

Boo. Picture Glenn lifting weights.

already posted upthread

i'd rather not xp

"I Can't Stand Still": You look at the gatefold photo from The Long Run, and Glenn Frey looks like the only guy in the band ready for the '80s. But here we are in 1982: Glenn's still after-partying like it's 1979 and the Donster's got the big drums, synth-Farfisa, glossy guitars, keys to the Car(s). The comparison to "The One You Love" is apt. It's like one of those "How I Think I Look.../How I Really Look" memes: Glenn plays phony sensitive sincerity, while Don is clearly arrogant, tossing off some of his whiniest singing to date--it's much more honest to the scenario. And lyrically he's looking forward to "The Boys of Summer".

Also:

I know you love me
You know I love you too
You know I always will
No matter what you do

Only Don Henley could start off his solo career with a couplet like that.

we know you love him

He loved me until I stood up during a ballad.

uggggggggggggh god I totally forgot about The One You Love
i hate that I even kind of know it! in my mind I'm in a glass elevator in a shopping mall full of potted palm trees & haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalp

i like the sax melody but like all good things glenn frey just ruins it all by showing up

Can't Stand Still

kind of a good bookend to The One You Love for the same plodding drum beat
both songs seem like they could stand to go just a shade faster but annoyingly, stubbornly stick with the plod. So Henley. So Frey.

Henley at least has some good phrasing, there's a bit of a hook

but what the fuck is with the keyboard bullshit

the thing I hate about don henley is that I find the quality of his voice v appealing

it's maddening
because I hate him so much

VegemiteGrrl, why don't you come to your senses?

>:(

(Yrs truly,)

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/63/30/d0/6330d0f3a43c0501b4521a34d0ba5c16.jpg

It's unreal how many extreme closeups Old Guy Don gets during his interview segments in the doc. You could "Hi Bob!" them and be legless by the time Hell Freezes Over.

"Party Town"

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/54NWWRGLPA4/hqdefault.jpg

http://youtu.be/54NWWRGLPA4

jesus fuck that is limp

well, at least we got this one out of the way quickly. Just as shitty as I remembered when we unearthed it last year. Drummer manages to be duller than Henley; last minute devolves into half-assed busking. "Party" backing vocals sound like they were recorded at 3PM in a song publisher's office.

this, from the old thread, is totally otm:

listening to "Partytown" and I feel like I'm in a Chevy Chase movie

― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, October 20, 2013 8:59 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is like the real 80s, the 80s that no one ever revives, this kinda lame rock n' roll pastiche done with bad sounding drums and instruments and synths and shit.

― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, October 20, 2013 8:59 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No Fun Aloud

otm

"Party Town": There was a feature story in Mojo some years back about the band Squeeze, a full-on overview of their career. In a sidebar, we got a detailed account of their last tour in the U.S. before breaking up in '82. At one point a contemporary interview was recounted about how offended Difford & Tillbrook were by a song then in microwave rotation on American radio, a song with what they felt carried a ridiculous, irresponsible, and stupidly juvenile message.

That song was "Party Town".

I'm no Difford and Tillbrook, but...well, Bob Seger could do this stuff better in his sleep. Oddly enough though, if you upped the twang quotient 50%, this would have been at home on early '90s Country radio. Perhaps every decade gets the "Chug All Night" it deserves? (in the '90s, it was "Get Over It")

Mmmm, Georgia Satellites on the related video list.

"You Better Hang Up"

http://www.wikimusicguide.com/images/thumb/f/f3/Donhenley.jpg/230px-Donhenley.jpg

http://youtu.be/gf1H7uHdGe4

"If Don answers/You better hang up."

sounds half-written, esp. the barely-there refrain. nice of Don to give an Adultery 101 guide, though. inspirational verse: "You're from New York City/ where they don't say no prayers"

Kootch's lead line sounds feral. Kootch is consistently impressive on this album.

"You Better Hang Up": Great Riff! This feels very...sunny? Could use a third verse, because--Henley being true to his roots--even at just over three minutes, this still has a pointless coda. I see this being in something above a Chevy Chase movie.

Related:

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/06/ff/75/06ff75a3a8d7f235b5fcc9757143e847.jpg

Checking the amg, I see this was a Kootch solo comp.

Jack Tempchin's "I Volunteer" unavailable! So we plunge into:

"I've Been Born Again"

http://bonnieblue828.tripod.com/images/J118_Year1980.jpg

http://youtu.be/crzqD0RIfNY

Key lyric: "I'm not a Casanova/My playa days are ovah"

wait, what? He covered that? The original by Johnnie Taylor is one of my favorite soul tracks from the '70s: http://youtu.be/oEWNIMW-se8. I can't listen to Glenn slaughter it.

go for it

It's his manifesto, col.

I must be a masochist. I very nearly get my palm sliced open after doing an afternoon of yardwork, and now I head to grooveshark to find the missing Glenn tune.

"I Volunteer": Another slow jam. Nice-sounding rhythm guitars and organ. Tries to be too cute by half lyrically. A bit doo-wop. Wouldn't sound out of place sung by Mike Love or Al Jardine on a late '70s Beach Boys album that Brian didn't have a say in.

"I've Been Born Again": Johnny Taylor did this originally? I can hear him doing it. Glenn's giving it the old college try, and you can tell he genuinely loves this music, but he can't quite meet the demands of the lyric, vocal-wise. Sounds like they mastered this clip off a cassette found under the passenger seat of a 280Z in a Van Nuys-area junkyard just prior to the upload.

the album's middle stretch is covers or song donations

Listening to the col's JT clip--now this is the shit.

...and a minute shorter!

I dont understand this gluttony for punishment

You should see our "Pushing Ahead of The Don" Blog...

I dont understand this gluttony for punishment

― Οὖτις,

yes you do

"Nobody's Business"

http://s31.photobucket.com/user/Lulabelle_/media/Continued/DonHenleyStare.jpg.html

http://youtu.be/S-GRclYgudM

http://www.natevandenbos.com/images/DonHenley.jpg

co-written with J.D. Souther and Bob Seger.

oy, did we skip a Don? "Long Way Home" is before this one, no?

anyhow "Nobody's Business" is fine. Russ Kunkel on drums and the droning organ lets the song actually build, the solo's great (a bit "Telstar"). Lyric is a mush of cliches and dull observations, but you can drown it out easy enough. Wonder what Seger contributed.

my sequence has it after it. I'll get it posted on Wednesday.

so I'm reading To the Limit, Marc Spitz's decent 1998 biography. A few things emerged:

(1) Frey snorted so much coke that he required an operation to restore the lining of his nose
(2) Henley and Kootch did loads of drugs well into the late eighties
(3) Henley sat on his porch for hours with his legal pad, sober, for hours, thinking of lyrics. I can't imagine where the effort went.

Wait till I post the "Johnny Can't Read" comments.

Henley internal monologue excerpt, from the porch: "you got a WAY about you..nah...what was her name, anyhow? Judi? Where did I meet her? She was dating that guy from San Diego?....should I get another fireplace? I mean, then we can open up that whole section of the basement?...christ, I'd like a drink...Jodi. Jodi? Julie?..."got a WAY about the WAY you move"...oh, fuck this, when's Kooch coming?"

Apologies: Marc Eliot wrote the book.

"Nobody"s Business": Wow, this sounds so much like Seger--add some sax and this would easily slot in on any of his 'elder statesman' albums (which start with...Against The Wind, maybe?). Not prime Seger, but worthy. You have to hand it to Henley: Three tracks in on the debut, and (A) He's not repeating earlier work & (B) Aside from some of the subject matter, I can't see any of these as Eagles songs.

I read the expanded version of the Eliot book about seven years ago, when I has buying loads of 70s SoCal stuff cheaply on vinyl. Punches are pulled, but it's a pretty compelling page turner.

You have to hand it to Henley: Three tracks in on the debut, and (A) He's not repeating earlier work & (B) Aside from some of the subject matter, I can't see any of these as Eagles songs.

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