Great Rock Albums of 1980: The Eagles Live

Musically, 1980 had a great many musical highs but it also had a few lows as well. One of these was the disbanding of a band that entertained the world throughout the entire 1970's, The Eagles. The band unofficially disbanded in July 1980 but they still owed their record company, Elektra/Asylum a live album. This magnificent live album was the result.

It can be argued that this album was just a collection of all The Eagles' greatest hits, which just happened to be recorded live. True, the album contains many of the classics which made us love them. Greats like "Hotel California," "Take Me to the Limit," "Heartache Tonight" and "Take It Easy" are all on their and sound brilliant live. The album even includes a live playing of the Joe Walsh solo classic, "Life's Been Good" and a new song "Seven Bridges Road." On the flip side, they leave out a couple of my personal favourites like "Victim of Love" and "One of These Nights" but that's me nit picking. This album is The Eagles at their best on stage and for people like me who never got the chance to see them live, it makes a good consolation prize.

Track Listing:

1. Hotel California

2. Heartache Tonight

3. I Can't Tell You Why

4. The Long Run

5. New Kid In Town

6. Life's Been Good

7. Seven Bridges Road

8. Wasted Time

9. Take Me to the Limit

10. Doolin' Dalton Reprise II

11. Desparado

12. Saturday Night

13. All Night Long

14. Life In the Fast Lane

15. Take It Easy

The Eagles

Glen Frey- guitars, keyboards, vocals

Don Henley- drums, percussion, vocals

Joe Walsh- guitars, keyboards, vocals

Don Felder- guitars, vocals

Randy Meisner- bass, vocals (1976- recordings)

Timothy B Schmidt- bass, vocals (1980 recordings)

This live album reminds us of the legacy of great music left behind by one of the greatest rock bands of the 70s.  A full account of some of the great rock songs they gave us all recorded at what was considered their killer live shows. While the album is great, it also reminds us that it was what signaled the end for them.

Next post: The Pretenders

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Wayne's World's Top Ten Party Killing Songs

In case anyone is wondering which are the top ten party killing songs according to Wayne's World, I thought I would print the list here:

Top Ten Party-Killing Songs

01 Any Disco Tune

02 Anything by Toto

03 "From A Distance" by Bette Midler

04 "Billy Don't Be A Hero" by Paperlace

05 "Lovin' You" by Mimi Ripperton

06Le "Color My World" (nice flute solo... Not!)

07 "More Than Words" (chick song by the inappropriately named Extreme)

08 "Hotel California" (No, really, it's a great party. I'm just going for a walk)

09 "Freebird"

10 "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris

How many of these do you agree with? Let's start a discussion.

Great Rock Albums of 1979: The Eagles- The Long Run



"The Long Run" was the long awaited follow up to The Eagles' great 1976 album "Hotel California." That previous album began to take them away from their easy listening sound to more of a harder rock sound and "The Long Run" continued along in that direction. My first taste of this classic album was when I was on leave after just finishing boot camp and the song "Heartache Tonight" came on my AM car radio. I was very impressed by the harder sound of the guitars and even more impressed by the guitar solos in it. Side tracking for a moment, I will say that Joe Walsh and Don Felder never receieved the respect due them as guitarists, even after their solo tradeoff in the song "Hotel California." Anyway, tracks like the last one mentioned as well as "In The City" which Joe Walsh brought over from "The Warriors" soundtrack, "Disco Strangler" and "Teenage Jail" are just some of the harder rock songs that help make this album so great.
Saying that, "The Long Run" doesn't totally take them from their roots of the easy listening countrified sound. There are a couple of tracks that remind us where they came from. Such songs as "The Sad Cafe" and "I Can't Tell You Why" bear testimony to that fact and to me, the title track of the album serves as the bridge between the soft and the hard. Add all of these things together and you get a fantastic album that has continued to remain so over three decades.

Track Listing:

1. The Long Run

2. I Cant Tell You Why

3. In the City

4. The Disco Strangler

5. King of Hollywood

6. Heartache Tonight

7. Those Shoes

8. Teenage Jail

9. The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks

10. The Sad Cafe

The Eagles

Glen Frey- electric guitar, keyboards, synthesiser, vocals

Don Henley- drums, percussion, vocals

Don Felder- electric, accoustic and slide guitars, organ, vocals

Joe Walsh- electric and slide guitars, keyboards, vocals

Timothy B Schmit- bass, vocals ]

"The Long Run" was the first album not to feature founding member Randy Meisner on bass who was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit. I have also noticed that when I posted the tracks, I don't remember them being in that order in my cassette. I guess it's a trip back up the loft to see for myself or maybe I should just get a CD. Still, this is a brilliant album and the first new album I listened to as a marine.

This would be the last Eagles studio album before their break up in 1980. I have always put that down to so many talented musicians each wanting to go a separate way. The evidence is the solo albums each one of them recorded afterwards that I will be visiting down the line.

Next post: The Knack- Get The Knack

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London

Great Rock Albums of the 70s: The Eagles- Hotel California

The Eagles are normally thought of as an easy listening band, mainly due to their countryfied sound. Throughout the seventies, they were able to cross over to both the country and pop charts with songs like "Lying Eyes," "Tequila Sunrise" and "Take Me to the Limit." The same can be said for this album because the single "New Kid in Town" hit number 43 in the country charts and number 2 in the pop charts. Therefore, it is no surprise that they have been labelled easy listening or country rock.
So if this band is considered easy listening, why did so many hard rockers like me go out and buy this album. The answer to this is simple, The Eagles can rock and tracks like "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Victim of Love" are testimony to this. But it's not just these tracks, the title track itself was able to offer something that listeners of different musical genres could identify with. It also helped that back in the 70s, people weren't as quick to categorise music like they do now. For me, it was that unique opening guitar riffs to the just hard enough rock melody throughout the middle to the cranking guitar solos at its finale. As a impressionable teenager back then, I watched a video of Hotel California and was totally blown away at the way lead guitarists Joe Walsh and Don Felder went back and forth trading guitar solos. I wonder if the metal bands who had dual lead guitarists who traded off solos got the idea here.

Track Listing:

1. Hotel California

2. New Kid in Town

3. Life in the Fast Lane

4. Wasted Time

5. Wasted Time Reprise

6. Victim of Love

7. Pretty Maids All in a Row

8. Try and Love Again

9. The Last Resort

 

The Eagles:

Don Felder: guitar, vocals, keyboards

Glen Frey- guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano

Don Henley- drums, vocals, keyboards

Randy Meisner- bass, vocals

Joe Walsh- guitar, slide guitar, vocals, keyboards

Another thing this album has in common with heavy metal of the 80s is that it has been accused of being satanic. Someone somewhere associated some of the lyrics of "Hotel California" with death and drew the conclusion that that was what the song was about. For me, I don't waste my brain cells thinking about that. I just like listening to the great music it has to offer.

I am going on holiday for a week and when I return, the next post will be KISS- Destroyer

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to: www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle