A Good Day In Hell - The Official ILM Track-By-Track EAGLES Listening Thread

i don't have time to talk now, but i just wanted to mention that this song was written by Paul Kraft and here is the track-listing to Paul's 1986 album Warnings!:

A1 Linda Lovelace (Come Sit On My Face)
A2 I've Got You On My Conscience (But At Least You're Off My Back)
A3 She's My Bedroom Woman (I'm Her Livin' Room Man)
A4 Two Wild And Crazy Guys
Vocals – Lewis Anderson
A5 V.D. Ain't Nothin' To Clap About
B1 It's Me Again, Margaret
Producer – Ray Baker
B2 Positively Bob Dylan Revisited
B3 Dropkick Me, Jesus
B4 My Eight-Legged Friends
B5 You've Already Got A Pussy (Why Try To Make One Out Of Me)

What a strange track. A hokey tune about train travel that must already have been antiquated in 1974. Do I like it? Yes, I think I do. The train-mimicking harmonies are really nice - the oooo...oo-oo-oo-oo at 1:44 is hilarious - and the second voice that appears in the left channel is a pleasing curio.

The coda is terrific though it doesn't much fit on the end of such a ditty, even if the banjo provides unity. The guitars sound fantastic again. They've had that nailed down from the very start, beautiful playing and recording.

another unnecessarily long coda, making this almost-novelty song outstay its welcome as an album track

This thread has alot of posts

A hokey tune about train travel that must already have been antiquated in 1974.

Eagles must've been the steampunks of their day.

Yeah, Frey doesn't really have enough (or any) ideas to sustain a long coda slide solo. Otherwise, this would be a reasonably charming song.

"another unnecessarily long coda"

In this case, no way. I love the squishy guitar and banjo breakdown on this one.

this song is pretty lame

I like that it starts out like 'Eastbound and Down' but it kinda goes downhill for me from there

I do like the train wooohoooos

idk man this one's a winner to me

this one is ok

i'm a sucker for that kinda fast banjo thing

i dunno, not memorable though

"This thread has alot of posts"

get back to work, hippie.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Y7eaN__xLRk/RqOaeFsNN4I/AAAAAAAACLo/mS93qDBkGcY/s400/don3.jpg

"Get back to work, hippie!"

"Midnight Flyer" was a pleasant surprise on The Very Best of. Don't think it outlasts it's welcome. Looking back now, kind of surprised it's almost 4 minutes. Very breezy. Are we sure that's Frey on slide? IIRC, Felder's slide ability was a big part of him getting hired--Henley called him "the reincarnation of Duane Allman" or some such coke-ism.

From Crowe's liners:

MIDNIGHT FLYER
DON: I was happy to do something in that vein, because I was a big bluegrass fan. The Dillards, in particular, had an enormous impact on me. Along with Doug Dillard and Herb Pedersen, Bernie Leadon was one of the top banjo players in the country, so I was proud to do a bluegrass tune — thought it lent a certain amount of authenticity and credibility to our band. It showed versatility.

Even now the Eagles are thought of as a country-rock band. The music industry and the media saddled us with that label at the very beginning, and, no matter how diverse our musical palate, it has been impossible to shake that stereotype. At the end of the day, we’re an American band. We’re a musical mutt with influences from every genre of American popular music. It’s all in there, and it’s fairly obvious.

Henley called him "the reincarnation of Duane Allman" or some such coke-ism.

^Felder must have been some sort of child genius as it looks like he was born in 1971.

xp song lengths have been creeping up these last few, it augurs ill imo

felder, leadon, and meisner are definitely all really good players

The 'train passing' harmony at 2:23 must've been really hard to execute

Meisner m.v.p. in putting some propulsion into these songs.

"My Man"

http://www.bernieleadononline.com/images/BLeadonBanjoColor.jpg

http://youtu.be/bbpw6LG5a8I

Shoeshineidaho 4 months ago
I've known this song, (how to play it) since the album came out, Long time ago huh? I've have no problems playin' this on stage or in front of anyone, until my father passed away @ 86yrs. a couple of months ago. I'm 60, and when I play this song now-- -it has to be in my room- - -and private.  I can get through it- - but not in front of any one else. He had dementia, didn't know any of us for quite a while.If I COULD write, like this, this one's for you dad. But alone, in my room :-)!

slockisadyoutube :(

I **cing love this tune. excellent Gram pastiche

Wow I like this one. I'd heard of it, knew it was Leadon's tribute/eulogy for Gram Parsons, his bandmate in the second Burrito Bros album, but never heard it.

Bernie Leadon becoming my favorite Eagle, though I realize that's faint praise. Just learned he was in Hearts & Flowers too - never knew that, have only heard their first album which predated his being in the band. Also of course was all over the great first Dillard & Clark album.

Another nice one. Has there ever been a figure in Rock (aside from a mega-star like Elvis) who quickly inspired so many posthumous tributes in song? Parsons has got "My Man", "From Boulder To Birmingham", "Crazy Eyes", I think Hillman had one on a SHF Band album too.

I keep hearing this thread title said by Mark E Smith in "New Face in Hell" by the Fall

Topless enthusiAST

Another nice one. Has there ever been a figure in Rock (aside from a mega-star like Elvis) who quickly inspired so many posthumous tributes in song? Parsons has got "My Man", "From Boulder To Birmingham", "Crazy Eyes", I think Hillman had one on a SHF Band album too.

― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, September 14, 2013 1:43 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Poco's "Crazy Eyes", though about Parsons, was not posthumous. (it almost was - the album was released just four days before he died)

mentioned upthread that I got all the Eagles records in a box set in 05. the entire bloody eagles corpus has been rolling around in my various devices since then.

I think, despite agreeing with many herein re: the shittiness of Meisner's songs on the previous two, that "my man" is the worst song of the initial run of LPs. Bernie seems to be a unaffected, normal dude, a fine player, but he is the worst, which is to say, least distinctive singer out of the seven.

The only competition for shittiest tune is another one of his, on the next record, which Henley in particular disliked not only cuz it sounded like "cocktail music" but that it was co-written by Leadon's girlfriend at the time, the spawn of a man viscerally despised by the counter-culture.

I also don't get the love here for Hoskyn's HC book. On the recommendation of this thread and its antecedent, I read it, and it seems wholly unnecessary and repetitive of his 1997 Waiting for the Sun, which encompasses LA music of the the 40s to the late 90s.

I bought Marc Eliot's To the Limit when it came out in 99. Now that has some funny shit! He does, however, pussy out on the Henley "hello pimp? the underage hooker is broken: I want another sent to my pad NOW" incident and declines to describe it at all.

"My Man" kinda unremarkable, but faintly touching.

Funniest part is what Gram thought about the Eagles: "a plastic dry fuck."

^ My appreciation of GP just grew immensely

kinda unremarkable, faintly touching

Agree with this. It doesn't quite just sit there, like their earlier boring filler; this is good filler, a bit of movement, honest vocal, a pleasant way of passing time.

I dig the easy vibe here way more than the familiar greatest hits stuff. In my mind there's a fantasy alternate greatest hits which is also all easy vibes - this'd be on there.

"On The Border"

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/vYh8Vry9pkE/hqdefault.jpg

http://youtu.be/wRmzajCyToo

This track was inspired by the infamous Watergate scandal and fears at the time of the government overstepping its bounds and infringing on people's privacy. Barely audible at the end of the song, Frey can be heard whispering "Say Goodnight, Dick," a line made famous by Dan Rowan of Rowan and Martin but in this case referring to Richard Nixon's resignation. Nixon would indeed resign five months after the release of the album.

Lead vocals by Don Henley, T.N.T.S. by "Coach", claps by The Clapetts, lead guitar (uncredited) by Glenn Frey

TS: "On The Border" vs. "You Haven't Done Nothin'"

I actually dig this, though, way more than I thought I would. Easily the funkiest thing they ever did, and not unconvincingly so.

"my man" is pretty slight. nice sentiment i guess.

"on the border" is the first thing i've heard so far that sounds like later period eagles.

doesn't really go anywhere though. these guys are just so ploddy they can't help it.

i really dig the sound of the claps. sounds really processes almost post-punk snare type sound.

the lyrics remind me of henley solo stuff that kinda political jive he thinks he's good at.

the last minute or so with the call and response "on the border" and the triplets on the cowbell really pick things up.

good call on "Border" being the first track that conceivably Walsh could've played on. yet there's still a bit of CSNY in the chorus harmonies and the Band in the swapping vocals in the bridge.

this is okay, if a bit plodding and it pales (blanches) compared to the other "phonetapping" Nixon songs of '74, like "Fingerprint File" and Stevie's "Haven't Done Nothing." (and pinging Nixon in summer '74 is shooting fish in a barrel).

ums otm, i love that last minute and half - can't believe the eagles got funky multiple times. the harmonies remind me of grand funk more than csny!

i long thought this actually was from the Joe Walsh era - the intro, especially, sounds like him

Now there's a thread: Out of the Car, Longhair - Songs where another vocalist plays the part of a cop

'On the Border' also sonically mimics the paranoid funk that the Stones were putting out with 'Fingerprint File'. Funk definitely threw a monkey wrench to the rock bands of the day. Even hard rock stalwarts like Deep Purple were entranced with the funk pushing up the bass and getting that real wet drum sound with percussion overdubs at that time. Go check out some of the tunes on the second album by Mk.III Deep Purple with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes to see what I mean.

"Out of the Car, Longhair - Songs where another vocalist plays the part of a cop"

there's got to be a bunch of 'em. "Save the Life of My Child" off Bookends randomly comes to min. "Summertime Blues' probl. the spritual godfather of such songs, though I bet there's some in early country and jazz.

min = mind

Funk definitely threw a monkey wrench to the rock bands of the day.

Hell, even the Who got funky:
http://youtu.be/p91GXWXyngo

rockers getting funky part of the foundation of hip hop. just ask Mountain.

Totally. It's kind of amazing to think that Jefferson Starship were once sufficiently funky as to be sampled by Public Enemy.

Eh, it's kind of retrofitted funk. Almost anything is funky if you loop it. Like the Jungle Brothers sampling Iggy clearing his throat or whatever.

^ funk authority