Why all The Eagles hate??

**Jerjo** · 12-11-2013

When I was in college it was a given that in a guy's room you were all but guaranteed to find either Dark Side of the Moon or Zep IV. In the girls rooms it was always James Taylor's Greatest Hits or that damn Eagle's blue hits album. According to my then girlfriend/now wife, every guy going through her albums would play either one of two songs, The Eagles "Already Gone" or Bread's "Mother Freedom". But you couldn't escape that Eagles blue album. It was everywhere. Vinyl, 8 track, cassette. And the radio played those hits and Hotel California to freaking death.

I have the two disc Eagles hits compilation and that gets played maybe once a year with me skipping songs like crazy. But as songwriters they had the knack: timeless melodies, eternal hooks, polished music. I don't hate them but they're a long way down my priority list.

Now, the solo music of Joe Walsh, that's an entirely different matter.

**Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof** · 12-11-2013

"But you do realize that some of the Eagles music was written by Jackson Browne? Right?"

Right. Not my favorite stuff that they did.

**Banquo** · 12-11-2013

Outtake from Desperado photos...

Dead dudes include Jackson Browne and J.D. Souther...

**Klonk** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by SteveSly

I also think that the last song on the album, Don Henley’s mini-opus “The Last Resort” is one of the greatest songs ever written.

I absolutely love this tune. Good call!

I like this band for the most part and I've always been a big Joe Walsh fan. Lots of nice tunes. Not to mention the perfect music to play when a lady friend was around

**Yves** · 12-11-2013

In the immortal words of Mojo Nixon: Don Henley Must Die!

**Calabasas_Trafalgar** · 12-11-2013

You got enough now, Rog? I mean what's there not to dislike?

I just remember driving on the Sunset strip in the mid-70s. Prog was dying, and these clowns had a billboard on Sunset.

**Rickenbacker** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Calabasas_Trafalgar

You got enough now, Rog? I mean what's there not to dislike?

I just remember driving on the Sunset strip in the mid-70s. Prog was dying, and these clowns had a billboard on Sunset.

: I'm seeing the opinions, alright. BUT- 2 things:

I can't honestly say I've given their discography a fair listen. Just the (overplayed) hits are the songs I really know. And-
I'll take Eagles blandness over recent blandness like Maroon 5 or Snow Patrol.

**Paulrus** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Yves

In the immortal words of Mojo Nixon: Don Henley Must Die!

That video is full of all kinds of win.

**Bucka001** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Bucka001

There is an old episode of Rod Serling's 'Night Gallery' called 'Hell's Bells.' A long-haired rocker gets into an auto accident and dies. He goes to hell, but it's not fire and brimstone. It's a room where a couple dressed in Hawaiin shirts show the dead rocker slides (5,000 of 'em) from their recent boring vacation. And there's an old simpleton straight out of Hee Haw (but with no wit or intelligence whatsoever) wearing overalls and spouting non-sequiturs and boring factoids about the most irrelevant things imaginable. And though there's a jukebox, there is no music from his band or any other edgy rockers... it's all squaresville tunes that make Lawrence Welk sound like Cannibal Corpse.

If I was coming home from a long trip with other people in a van or something, and they decided to play a few Eagles discs (or even one) during the ride and there was nothing I could do about it, I'd feel like the rocker in the Night Gallery episode. Such is the reprehensible blandness of The Eagles (even if they weren't overplayed).

Having said that, all the mentions of Joe Walsh on this thread reminded me to mention that I like him (and his work with the James Gang) a lot. In fact, even though I don't like The Eagles (oops, sorry... Eagles) at all, I'm glad that JW at least became a millionaire due to his involvement with them (and Life in the Fast Lane does have an okay guitar riff... not sure who wrote it, but it sure at least sounds like a Walsh riff).

**Sean** · 12-11-2013

Walsh gave them some balls, all while they basically took his away!

**simon moon** · 12-11-2013

Never liked them even when I used to listen to mainstream rock.

But for a while, they were kind of innocuous. If an Eagles song came on the radio, I would probably not rush to change the station. Then, after being overplayed to the extreme, they would make me cringe.

Now, everything I ever hear from them, old and new, sounds trite and annoying.

But then, that could go for almost all mainstream rock for me. I just have no interest in it, except for a few songs and bands, but only in a nostalgic sense.

**Yves** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Paulrus

That video is full of all kinds of win.

Mojo Nixon used to put on a hysterical live show. I got a chance to see him open for Dread Zeppelin back in the early 90s and it was probably the funniest show I ever attended!

**SteveSly** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Yves

Mojo Nixon used to put on a hysterical live show. I got a chance to see him open for Dread Zeppelin back in the early 90s and it was probably the funniest show I ever attended!

I had a girlfriend who was really into him back in the day and we went to see him in a club. I agree he was great live, and used a lot of props and stuff in his act. Don Henley was always a good sport about the "Don Henley Must Die" song and evern performed it with Nixon on several occasions.

Steve Sly

**SteveSly** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Jimmy Giant

I love the early Eagles stuff.
...and a fan of Don Felder. I like Walsh's addition to the mix (and the old James Gang material)
It's Henley and Frey who are the greedy assholes that they are that I will never pay to see them live.

Have any of you read Felder's book that came out a few years ago? It is certainly his side of the story, but I found it to be a great read, not only about The Eagles, but the Southen Cal music scened in general.

Steve Sly

**2ndsout** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by jupiter0rjapan

Their debut and "The Long Run" are ones I find to be interesting, and sometimes brilliant. The other albums not as much give or take a few tracks. Overall I can't help but to be annoyed by them. Don is overbearingly trying to be "Mr. Jaded Cool" to the point of comedy. My problems with Glenn can be summed up by one song: "James Dean". He is capable of writing decent pop songs, but more often than not he goes for the cheese.

I just find them to be very overrated, and it is kind of frustrating because they had moments that are stunning like their live cover of "Seven Bridges Road" and the epic "Journey of the Sorcerer". I just feel those moments are overshadowed by the cheese and middle of the road pandering. So hate is a strong word. My hate is more for the fact that I can't go to any store with the radio on without hearing one of their overplayed to death hits. People say turn off the radio, but the radio is not always your choice (like at work or while shopping). Trust me, my ipod is free of most FM crap, and if radio is being played, Public Radio is the choice.

Because This was...such a great song (cue sarcasm)

Don't get me wrong, Miami Vice was a decent show for it's time, but I just don't think that the inclusion of Glenn Frey for the soundtrack was a good choice....

**notallwhowander** · 12-11-2013

Originally Posted by Yves

Mojo Nixon used to put on a hysterical live show. I got a chance to see him open for Dread Zeppelin back in the early 90s and it was probably the funniest show I ever attended!

That sounds awesome!

**Calabasas_Trafalgar** · 12-12-2013

Originally Posted by Rickenbacker

: I'm seeing the opinions, alright. BUT- 2 things:

I can't honestly say I've given their discography a fair listen. Just the (overplayed) hits are the songs I really know. And-
I'll take Eagles blandness over recent blandness like Maroon 5 or Snow Patrol.

Now you're just comparing dogshit and catshit.

**Trane** · 12-12-2013

Originally Posted by Dave (in MA)

I don't hate the Eagles, but I've noticed that although what I think is Joe Walsh's best album (You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind) has a bunch of Eagles on it, nothing he's done since joining the Eagles has interested me in the slightest.

It is his best (partly because it is a live album), but I only remember Felder from the Eagles on that album

**JIF** · 12-12-2013

Hearing my drunk dad play this over the phone made me an Eagles fan.
Hearing this song on the radio made me tolerate Don Henley. Can you all guess the guest vocalist on this song?

**zravkapt** · 12-12-2013

Axl Rose, right? Haven't heard that song in ages.

**Jubal** · 12-12-2013

Is you think something is overplayed, it says more about your listening habits than it does about the quality of the songs that are overplayed.
Try some variety. There are other styles of music on the radio. There are also online alternatives, as well as mp3 players.

**zravkapt** · 12-12-2013

Originally Posted by Jubal

Is you think something is overplayed, it says more about your listening habits than it does about the quality of the songs that are overplayed.

You seem to miss the point some are making: radio stations play at work, in shopping centres, in friend's cars, etc., etc. Just because you personally refuse to listen to the radio (as I do) has nothing to do with hearing the radio.

**Gruno** · 12-12-2013

Don Henley drummed for Guns 'N Roses at an awards show (1988?) I believe Steven Adler was too stoned or drunk to perform.

**3LockBox** · 12-12-2013

hatred of the Eagles was a phenomina I never heard of until the internet. Yeah, they were overplayed, but then again, so is everyone else that was popular in the '70s. Hell, even Yes' hits from that time period is overplayed. I loved the Eagles when I was younger, but rarely play their albums any more.