Marking The End Of An Era

For all the time they were together in the Seventies, the Eagles personified the peaceful easy feeling of the Southern California music scene, yet they were some of the hardest-working people in the entire music business. They kept getting more and more successful as time went on, then they struck hard with their 1976 masterpiece HOTEL CALIFORNIA. But coming up with an album that could stand comparison with that landmark concept album proved to be not merely difficult but, in the end, was a real back breaker. They lost their original bassist Randy Meisner immediately after the end of the HOTEL CALIFORNIA tour and replaced him with Timothy Schmit. Then it took them close to three years to come up with THE LONG RUN.



It is clear listening to THE LONG RUN that the Eagles were a band in stark turmoil. The egos that tended to plague every successful rock band seemed to be even more prominent in this group, largely because of the songwriting dominance of Glenn Frey and Don Henley, and the need of Henley to distance himself from Frey. In the past, that kind of turmoil led to some brilliant songs; indeed DESPERADO and HOTEL CALIFORNIA were great full albums, not just a collection of hits surrounded by fillers. It still does on THE LONG RUN, but with a few glaring exceptions.



No one can fault the huge radio hits "Heartache Tonight", Schmit's "I Can't Tell You Why" or the ingenious title cut; they are incontestibly classic and have withstood a quarter century of scrutiny. Joe Walsh's "In The City", originally featured on the soundtrack of director Walter Hill's 1979 gangland drama THE WARRIORS, also excudes excellence. But on others, the copious amounts of drugs that Henley and Frey reportedly indulged in gave rise to some real clinkers--"The Disco Strangler" (an attack on the disco movement that is of very questionable taste, and dubious to begin with anyway), the weird "Teenage Jail", and the even stranger "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks." Henley and Frey will be remembered for a lot of songs, but one doubts those three will be among them.



On the plus side, "King Of Hollywood", with its seedy story of a Hollywood producer who manipulates would-be starlets, pre-figures the excesses that would come to dominate the entertainment industry in the 1980s. And the concluding song, "The Sad Cafe", featuring a closing alto sax break by David Sanborn, chronicles the demise of the L.A. music scene, and in particular the Troubadour, the world-famous nightclub that the song is believed to be based upon.



THE LONG RUN is, of course, not the Eagles' finest hour, but then again few bands ever had as many as the Eagles did. But I can't think of any rock album, apart from maybe the Beatles' LET IT BE, that sounded more like a requiem than anything else. It marked the end of the Eagles' dominance of the music scene as a band, and their status would not be revived for another fifteen years until 1994, when Hell finally froze over.

Quaalude rock from the cocaine kings

The late seventies Eagles were a been there, seen that, done that type of band. A southern California band that was disillusioned with the SoCal and Hollywood lifestyle. If the band were doing tons of coke all the time, it doesn't show in this album (or they were recording on mornings after) because the playing on this album is lethargic. The songs could have been very strong, but the band sounds bored with them. Every song sounds like it should be speeded up a beat or two and everyone sounds like they are playing behind that beat. The songs drag on too long and the band takes itself too seriously to be enjoyed. Even their one attempt at humor (Greeks Don't Want No Freaks) falls flat, but it is only song on the album where the band doesn't sound like they were playing while laying on the couch. Even Joe Walsh couldn't save this one and the band's break-up was probably the best move to make. Still, the talent within the band is/was indisputable and there are several listenable tracks here, especially I Can't Tell You Why which showed the shape of things to come for Don Henley who seemed to care a lot more when it was his name alone on the album cover. In the City was a remake of a song Joe Walsh did for a movie (the Warriors, I think, but I could be mistaken) and it pales next to Joe's solo version. Heartache Tonight, while a big hit, seemed like an attempt to return to the Eagles early sound, but ended up an overplayed AM radio anthem. Teenage Jail was the albums "hard rock" song and just sounds very slow and tired, a minute and a half into it, you just wish it would end. The Eagles put out some great music in their lifespan, but this, their last full studio album, wasn't it. For some great Eagles music get the earlier albums like Across the Border, where they actually sound like they are interested in what they are doing.

We waited three years.....for this?

Wow. A perfect mix of the great, the meh, and the truly awful here, folks. No wonder there was this huge three year gap in between this and "Hotel California", while every album before that one had only a year's distance apart. Here's the rundown:



1. The Long Run - A decent and enjoyable late Eagles song.

2. I Can't Tell You Why - Tim Schmit's single mark on this album, and this mark looks quite good.

3. In the City - An awesome song by Joe Walsh, though a solo version of this was released on the soundtrack for "The Warriors". Questionable?

4. The Disco Strangler - I like what HItchy said here. "Perhaps the Worst song ever made?? Must surely be in the top ten." My opinion lies there.

5. King of Hollywood - Some like this track. It's slow, dreadful, and much more in there. Awful.

6. Heartache Tonight - Good, but thanks to it's popularity in the charts back in the day, I've heard it too much.

7. Those Shoes - A pretty cool tune, though those "WHOIAO" effects in the backround towards the end are creepy, in my opinion.

8. Teenage Jail - Like "King of Hollywood", this is slow, dreadful, and awful.

9. The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks - Oh, dear lord. Just look at this track's name. Ugh. Need I say more?

10. The Sad Café - Thank goodness. The last thing this disappointing album needed was a crappy ending. One of my favorite Eagles tracks.



Bottom Line: Unless you're a diehard Eagles fan, forget about this. Grab "Eagles: The Very Best Of"; it has all the good tracks here, and much, much more.