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The album that forever changed my understanding of music.See Themis-Athena's pages for:
The album that forever changed my understanding of music.She'd taped a cool new song off the radio, a friend told me a little less than 25 years ago; she'd play it for me when I'd come to her place after school.
The song was "Hotel California," and my perception of music changed then and there, once and for all. I didn't even really understand the lyrics – I had barely begun to learn English, and apart from everything else I sure as hell didn't know what "colitas" meant. But understanding all the song's words wasn't necessary. From the first chords played by Felder and Walsh, this song was different from anything I had ever heard before. The layers of electric guitar riffs alternating with and ornamenting Don Henley's vocals, soaring in the chorus and culminating in a moving and evocative duet, touched a spot deep inside me that required no further explanation. Nor, really, did the other songs on this album which I instantaneously knew I had to have. I got the message conveyed in the raw edges of "Life in the Fast Lane," Joe Walsh's riffs throughout the song, the two guitar solos and Don Henley's sneering vocals, as well as I could hear the sense of loss in "Wasted Time," "The Last Resort" and "New Kid in Town."
This is not to say, of course, that the lyrics didn't matter to me once I was able to fully understand them. Rather, that understanding deepened my appreciation for the album; and yet another level of insight was added when I came to California for the first time in 1991. By that time I was an ardent fan, and although the Eagles didn't even exist as a band back then, their music has become an inseparable part of my memory of those months – particularly the album which bears the state's name and is so often called the quintessential California rock album (not only of the 1970s) that this description in itself is bordering on cliché now, true as it may once have been.
Since the release of their 1976 studio album, the Eagles have published several other versions of "Hotel California," and I love them all. (I even – sometimes – like the ska version Don Henley and his incredible tour band performed during their 2000-2001 "Inside Job" tour.) But ultimately, it all comes back down for me to the duet of those two electric guitars which forever redefined the way I listen to music.
The album that proved they'll be there forever.I became an Eagles fan when I was barely a teenager; and re-replaying their studio albums countless times on my cheap little turntable, how would I have wished to be able to see them in concert. But I was living in Germany and they were far away in California; and their tours didn't always include Europe, let alone my little corner of it. What was worse, my mother, horrified by TV pictures of fans being trampled to death at rock concerts, had imposed a strict ban on any such undertaking. When the ban was finally lifted, the Eagles had split. I was dead certain I'd missed the chance to see them live forever.
Then came 1994, the year that Hell Froze Over. To say that I was thrilled is an understatement. I snatched up their new live album the instant I had heard about it. (Oh my God! A new album, and live, too!) Ok, so it only had four new tracks recorded in the studio. But that was understandable; they were going on tour and put more emphasis on rehearsal than on the recording of new songs. And what killers those new songs were – right up there with the best of their work. In addition, the album had almost all my favorite Eagles tunes ... or almost all those of my favorites that I knew they'd done live before, anyway. "Hotel California" in particular blew me away. This had always been the quintessential Eagles song to me; the song that got me hooked on their music in the first place and that best expressed all that they stood for. And now I was to have yet another version of that song, as great as the one on the "Eagles Live" album and as the original studio version; acoustic this time, with a beautiful new intro. But not only "Hotel California" – every song sounded as great on this album as any of their studio releases and the 1980 "Live" compilation ... or greater, if that was possible, not only because of the crystal clear quality of the recording but also because greater maturity, if anything, had even added to their live performance. No need to prove anything any longer; they had created something that people would always love, and they knew it. (Glenn Frey later wrote, in the booklet accompanying the Eagles' 2000 "Selected Works" collection, that they extended the "Hell Freezes Over" tour to a full two years not only because they had so much fun playing together but also because they themselves realized that they sounded better than they ever had in the 1970s.) Especially Don Henley's rendition of "The Last Resort" stands out in my mind to this day: it was as emotional as he'll ever get – and this was not the twenty-something who had written the song years ago; this was the guy who, in the years since then, had founded the Walden Woods Project and set out on a little crusade of his own to save the land once walked by Henry David Thoreau. If you can't hear it in his voice, watch the video and you'll understand.
It took me some time to be able to acknowledge the humor in Henley's opening remark that they had "never split; [we] just took a fourteen year vacation..." (What exactly is that supposed to mean, buddy, I thought – I have been grieving for fourteen years, for crying out loud!) But eventually I decided that if they can make light of it, who am I to complain. The main thing was that they were back together ... finally. I had to wait another two years to be able to realize my dream of seeing them live, but the memory of that rather chilly summer night will be impressed in my memory forever. Listening to "Hell Freezes Over" always brings back that particular evening in Berlin, although I have since seen both the Eagles and Don Henley solo in concert a number of times (it of course also helps tremendously to have moved to a place better situated geographically to make that possible).
"Got back together with my friends the Eagles," Don Henley joked during his performance of "Funky New Year" at the Millennium Concert ... "did a few shows, broke up, got back together, broke up, got back together, broke up, got back together..." And Glenn Frey wrote, in the booklet accompanying the "Selected Works" compilation which contains the Millennium Concert CD, that while at the end of the "Hell Freezes Over" tour they thought that "[t]he Eagles saga would now have a happy ending" and "the final chapter written, [we] could all move on," he wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen next: "The stars could be doing a number again right now and, as always, I'd be the last one to know. ... We had the last part of a millennium to get our act down, and a whole new thousand years just opened up. You never know how things can go ... I'll just keep my eyes on the stars ..."
Well, Glenn, I guess Hell did Freeze Over for good, and the stars did do another number. You guys are touring yet again as I write this (summer 2003); not quite in the formation that once got me hooked on your music, but you're still there. And while "Hell Freezes Over" will always have a special place in my heart, I'm already looking forward to the new album you are promising to release soon, and I'm sure I'll also see you live again some day. With this band, I will never rule out anything – ever again.
Going the distance.Even before they published their first album, the Eagles declared that they wanted to be more than a one-hit wonder; they wanted to create something lasting. They certainly have – although you don't even need this particular compilation as evidence of that fact. Maybe even more probative in that respect is their surprise reunion after their bitter 1980 break up and subsequent "14-year vacation," fittingly entitled "Hell Freezes Over." So why bother with this one?
First, because of the Millennium Concert CD; not only because you don't get that particular CD without the boxed set anyway. (OK, I admit I went to the show, loved it, and would have bought the boxed set for that reason alone. But even if you didn't see the show, it's still worth the expense.) The disc opens, as the Eagles' shows have for years, with "Hotel California" – their signature song which personally, I can't get enough variations of; so I am very happy with yet another live version, particularly as (in hindsight) this is probably the last recording with the participation of Don Felder. In addition, this CD contains the first live version of "Take It to the Limit" since the departure of Randy Meisner (with Frey, who declared during the show that the song "is now in G," taking over lead vocals), and several tracks the Eagles have never officially recorded live; although Glenn Frey may have been a bit tongue-in-cheek when he said during the concert that they didn't even remember ever performing those songs live before: "Victim of Love," "Please Come Home For Christmas," "Funky New Year," "Those Shoes" (one of my all-time favorites) and Tom Waits' "Ol' 55." (According to Frey, Tom Waits wasn't very happy with their cover at first "... but then he got the check. And since then, Tom and I, we're really close.") The Millennium Concert CD is also an adequate reflection of the Eagles' tour program ever since "Hell Freezes Over:" Like it or not, they have been performing the individual band members' greatest solo releases in concert alongside the band's songs for years now (and conversely, all of them are doing Eagles tracks in their solo live appearances), so it's only fair that at least some of those tunes should be included in the band's live CDs. (Coincidentally, you can't criticize them for that and then point to "Hell Freezes Over" in the same paragraph – HFO, after all, contains Henley's "New York Minute." I agree that at least one of Frey's songs ("Smuggler's Blues" is a good example) should have been included, too; but short of that, I'm happy to at least have Eagles versions of two of Henley's solo releases and of Walsh's "Funk #49" ... to me, Walsh's guitar work in "Dirty Laundry" alone is worth the bargain, not to mention Frey's and Schmit's harmony vocals in Walsh's solo track.
Second, as several others have pointed out already, the sound quality on this boxed set is unquestionably superior to the 1980s' CD releases of the band's individual albums – if you compare those to the vinyl versions of the same albums, there is no mistaking that those CDs were sloppily produced and a lot was lost. Not so here; credit, among others, Elliot Scheiner's sound engineering with that. Eagles fans have been waiting for years for the release of true "original recording remastered" CD versions of the band's studio albums. Barring the repurchase of each and every individual album as an eventually-released originally remastered CD, this is a pretty darn good substitute with regard to most of their songs. I also like the arrangement by themes, which shows the band's continuity ... and proves that they are much more than "the people who helped invent country rock." (Witness, for example, "Desperado" on the same disc as "Sad Café," and "Get Over It" on the same disc as "One Of These Nights;" with a rather quirky intro from way back when ... when Felder had just joined the band and they were still getting along great or at least, sounded like they were – and closing on an equally quirky "Random Victims Part 3," almost 10 minutes' worth of the band's goofing off in the studio, secretly [?] recorded on Bill Szymczyk's infamous separate two-track machine.)
Would I have wished for the inclusion of more, or of different songs? Yes, but not many. "My Man," Bernie Leadon's tribute to Gram Parsons, and "Bitter Creek" (likewise by Leadon) are examples. But this compilation is entitled "Selected Works," not "Complete Retrospective" or, on the other hand, "Greatest Hits And A Little More." All in all, it's a very rounded and well-produced selection of the Eagles' work over the course of almost three decades – with a nice 40-page booklet which contains articles by Glenn Frey, David Wild ("Rolling Stone") and the Eagles' long-time producer Bill Szymczyk, and some great photos of the band, not all of which were previously published; some by legendary photographer Henry Diltz, whose work is also featured on the band's studio albums and who is probably best known for his contributions to the Crosby, Stills and Nash biography and his "Under the Covers" portrait CD-Rom of some of rock's greatest stars.
During the production of their last studio album, the Eagles sometimes jokingly called that album "the long one," because it took them all of three years to finish. But not only since then, they have shown that they really are in there for The Long Run; and this compilation is a fitting tribute to their career.
For further information consult:
Themis-Athena's Don Henley page
Themis-Athena's Glenn Frey page
Themis-Athena's Joe Walsh page
Themis-Athena's Timothy B. Schmit page
Themis-Athena's select annotated discography of Eagles member solo albums
Themis-Athena's select annotated Eagles discography
Copyright 2001-2003: Themis-Athena, all rights reserved.