Oh, man. I feel so ignorant because I like them.
The Stones’ country offerings are an odd mix: fantastic instrumentation playing behind distractingly mocking vocals.
He probably hates The Beatles too.
Weirdly, I’ve had a year of adoring Linda Ronstadt, who’s closely associated with the Eagles. The Eagles were like a lot of bands formed out of great LA session musicians: great musicians, terrific salesmanship, but weirdly soulless and unimaginative. Ronstadt could sing anything and make it her own. The eagles could play their own music as well as it could be played, and for 3:40 it was fine. But it was what it was, and not what I’d want to live by. Unlike, say, the Beatles, they never produced songs that fascinated.
ETA: and if I were ever in Winslow Az, I’d surely look for that girl in the flatbed Ford.
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I don’t need every band to have something Very Important To Say.
Sometimes I just like the sound of it.
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I am tone deaf and the idea of singing in public inspires dread. If a million dollars or someone’s life was on the line and I had to sing karaoke to resolve either, my choice would be that song and I would sing it loud and proud. Poorly, I’ll admit but I’d at least belt it out.
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Ditto, and I probably would not know if they did. I like Linda Ronstadt too…a lot.
Yeah, I get it completely, and I guess I’m just surprised that I never like them. They’re fine musicians, Their songs are well crafted and catchy, and they inhabit a genre that I often like. I’m not at all surprised that you enjoy them enough to have gone to see them live. I’m just trying to figure out what happened to me. Liking the eagles would for me be like being a dodgers fan.
I didn’t like them enough to keep buying their albums after Desperado. I didn’t hate them enough to change stations when I heard them on the radio back when FM radio was a main gateway. I really didn’t start hating them until after Hotel California and I found out what egomaniacal dicks Glenn Frey and Don Henley were. I always liked Randy Meisner (good bass player and the best singer in the band of good singers), and those two, Frey and Henley, basically killed him by being such dicks.
One lie my dad consistently told us was that he’d gone on a date with Linda Ronstadt. Another was that his Astros cap used to belong to Jose Cruz.
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Maybe because Mick is pretty much a lousy singer?
I like the Eagles just fine, and yes, Henley and Frey were Hall of Fame dickheads. For all of their arrogance, their best songs were written by someone else; Take it Easy (Jackson Browne), Peaceful Easy Feeling (Jack Tempchin), Hotel California (Don Felder), and perhaps my all time favorite of theirs Take it to the Limit (Randy Meisner)…they claimed to be solely responsible for any song or success the band ever had though.
This was what sold me on the Sphere acoustics. In every pause between phrases, there was not one hint of echo. Just crystal clear.
I’m assuming Gill sang it?
Yep. He did that and Peaceful Easy Feeling.
How I taught my youngest about music:
Song comes on, I’d ask him ‘who is this?’
(Usually The Beatles, Stones, or Zeppelin).
I’d use context clues.
For the Stones the clue was always ‘is the singer good or terrible?’
(Great front man, terrible singer)
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Mick is a better front man than everyone else. He’s a better frontman than Pavarotti was a singer. And I would not call him a terrible vocalist. Singing live night after night is hardest on the vocalist. I saw Led Zeppelin live in the 70s and Robert Plant was so worn out he had to adjust his vocals because he couldn’t hit the high notes.
I don’t think Wild Hoses or Dead Flowers would be as well received if sung with a London accent.
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Country Honk is one of my favorites, and of course led to Honky Tonk Women. Saw an interview with Richards where he explained how the former became the latter because as he put it “a damn good country song is quite often a damn good rock n roll song.”
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