Once upon a time, I thought that the Eagles were relatively cool (of course, this is coming from someone who also once thought that Chicago [the band], Kool and the Gang, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive were pretty cool, too...hey, stop that snickering, we all get to be young and foolish at one point in our lives!)
Some of their cuts..."Already Gone", "Hotel California", "Take it Easy", "Tequila Sunrise", their stately version of Tom Waits' "Ol' 55", the oft-covered "Desperado"...still resonate with pure pop wonderfulness (others...oh let's say, "Lyin' Eyes" and "Witchy Woman"...haven't aged quite as well but they still have their moments.)
The Eagles aren't that cool these days, of course...they've turned into a big nostalgia-hawking enterprise designed to vacuum up as much baby boomer money as they possibly can (but again, as I said with Cowboy Hootie a few posts back, people gotta eat...and staff their mansions and buy fuel for their private jets and whatnot...so I'm not gonna bag on them too much for grubbing up the dough.)
Since they buried their disagreements and got back together, the boys in the band have been going to the bank on overpriced concerts (I saw them live back when they were much younger and they were a boring, "we're-just-gonna-stand-here-and-strum" live act even then, I'm doubting they've gotten much more animated with age and I'm just not in that "it's-wonderful-just-to-be-in-the-same-arena-with-them" camp for any performer...if you're charging $100-150 [or more] a ticket, my friends, you'd better be putting on a show...but hey, that's just me :-) and repackaging of their old stuff.
Their first two greatest hits discs were already among the best selling records ever but since then they've added a bloated 4-disc box set (Selected Works 1972-1999), a pretty tight 2-disc collection (The Very Best of the Eagles...which, in the name of full disclosure, I bought and enjoy) and now this "limited edition" repackaging of the band's 6 studio albums plus their first live album.
9 discs with a list price of $130 (including a disc featuring just the holiday single "Please Come Home for Christmas" and "Funky New Year", the latter being anything but "funky" but we'll let that go by presuming it was supposed to be tongue in cheek) doesn't sound like much of deal to me...any halfway decent shopper could probably buy these discs individually for little more than half that price...but if it keeps the faithful happy (and allows the fellas to make their mortgage payments) it's cool with me.
3 comments:
PREACH ON BROTHER!!!!!!
*chuckles*
A couple of summers ago, I was lazing on Malibu beach under a palm tree when the deejay on the radio announced the new Eagles single was coming up. I perked up my ears; although, like you, I wasn't a huge fan, I was really in the mood for something like Tequila Sunrise, or Take It Easy, or something laid-back and California-ey.
Instead, we got the plodding lugubrious amelodic "political" "Hole In The World" (I think that was the title).
I and the friends I was with were instantly bummed. 9 years without a single, 23 years, if you discount the singles from Hell freezes Over, and this is what we get? No desperados, no taking it to the limit, no new kids in town, no witchy women or living in the fast lane.
Never heard that song on the radio again.
What's wrong with Kool and the Gang?
Next, you're going to tell me Lionel Ritchie isn't a hep cat anymore.
Oh...what a feeling...dancing on the ceiling.
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