From the Rocky Mountain News:
After nearly 30 years, California’s classic rock group the Eagles soon may release their first album of all-new music.
Founding member Don Henley said during a private concert that the band was nearing completion of an album of all-new material, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday.
“It’s coming out in 60 to 90 days, if we don’t kill each other first,” Henley, 59, told the crowd Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The Long Run in 1979 was the Eagles’ last album featuring all-new studio material […]
I realize it has become fashionable to sneer at “classic rock” bands, but I, for one, am thrilled by this news—as well as by the news that Billy Joel will be releasing his first single in 14 years. Also from the Rocky Mountain News:
“All My Life,” which will be available on People magazine’s Web site Feb 7 and can be downloaded from iTunes starting Feb 20, is a song he wrote as an anniversary present for his wife, Katie Lee Joel.
To this day, I consider Billy Joel’s 1977 The Stranger one of the greatest albums ever made, and though I didn’t much like it at the time of its release, River of Dreams (1992?), which I’ve been revisiting quite a bit lately, actually holds up quite well, and in fact has gotten much better with age.
So as far as birthday presents go, these, for me, are two very nice ones—even were the artists to claim, subsequently, that their new material was never really intended solely for me. Because I know better. And so do you.
The power of the armadillo, she knows no bounds…
Yeah, once I was working at the University Bookstore at the University of Iowa, and a freshman asked me for a copy of The Strangler, by Cambus. I couldn’t sleep that night, because I kept waking up laughing.
The same thing happened last night over your remark that you wouldn’t fuck Amanda with her cock. You bastard.
Jeff,
I’ve disagreed with a fair amount of stuff you’ve written over the years, but this has to be one of the most disgusting and ill-conceived posts you’ve ever written.
The Eagles and Billy Joel? Really?
All you need is a Harry Chapin comeback and your craptastic trio is complete!
(I kid because I love; but if we’re ever at the same party, I’m DJ’ing.)
Is Joe Walsh on board?
‘Cause those guys were nothin’ without the Joester.
“Cat’s In the Cradle” makes me weep.
Anyway, let me put this in context with some of the other stuff I’ve been listening to lately:
BW Stevenson
Dave Loggins
Sammy Johns
Kenny Rogers and the First Edition
Johnny Cash
Marshall Tucker Band
Poco
Climax Blues Band
Sean Mullins
Allison Krauss
Jackson Browne
I don’t know why, but I’ve been finding myself increasingly attracted to 70s southern rock or country-pop or the California hybrid, as well as contemporary artists like Mullins who were so clearly influenced by singer-songwriters like Kristofferson or Gordon Lightfoot.
Doesn’t mean I don’t still listen to the Church or Foo Fighters or Led Zeppelin remasters or old U2—just that I have eclectic tastes.
But yeah, Billy Joel is a favorite of mine, as are the Eagles. “In the City” is one of the best movie anthems of all time, and “Sad Cafe” one of the best ballads.
FREEBIRD!!
Imagine if you will a person who went into a coma in ‘78 waking up and not believing that it is really 2007.
“Oh yeah? Well who’s on tour?”
“Ah, well…The Eagles. Aerosmith. The Stones, of course…”
“See! I TOLD you it was still 1978.”
BW Stevenson–I had some of his stuff on 45s when I was in Junior High.
Jackson Browne–okay, everything up to and including The Pretender, I suppose.
Allison Krauss–just great. Last Love Letter is one of my favorite recordings of all time. Because I’m a sap.
Just judging by some of the stuff that you like, I think you may enjoy some of the Sweetheart of the Rodeo era Byrds and Ozark Mtn Daredevils and Flying Burritos.
Aw, heck, Jeff. Just go buy a Raspberries Greatest Hits album. You know you want to.
A band I use to work with did a cover of “Feel a Whole Lot Better.”
“Jackie Blue”? Good song, but nothing that would make me want to go out and buy an album.
I am, however, thinking about picking up some Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
The Jackson Browne I listen to is the older stuff—though I do like the stuff he did that appears on the Fast Times at Ridgmont High soundtrack.
I’ve always loved The Eagles. Don Felder is easily one of the most under-rated guitarists of all time. All time. Will he be on the new album? They had kicked him out of the band on their last tour when I saw them live about four years ago. The stand-in merely played his exact same licks, though.
Jeff,
Pick up a copy of “Sea Change” by Beck. An updated version of the California Hybrid.
Good call. I liked the early Beck but haven’t heard much of it recently. I don’t listen much to the radio except when I’m driving, so if I don’t have it on CD or it ain’t in my wife’s iPod, then I don’t listen to it.
You like the Flying Burrito Brothers?
Funny, I was listening to them when I read this post. Try The Jayhawks for great country/pop harmony, you’d think Graham Parsons was singing lead. For a strange mix of punk and country try Whiskeytown or Ryan Adams.
While I really like The Stranger, Glass Houses was where Billy got me. Forget the hits and give me All for Leyna, Close to the Borderline and even C’etait Toi. And yeah, Through The Long Night. Can’t leave Sometimes a Fantasy out either. Billy is a top shelf songwriter, no doubt about it. Hell of a showman to boot.
Hmmm…prolly ought to dig the damned thing up and spin it.
I’ll keep an open mind on a new Eagles disk, hoping Henley’s politics aren’t up front. But Billy’s stuff doesn’t do much for me when he’s happily married.
The New Riders of the Purple Sage are back on tour. Albeit without John Dawson or basically any of the original members beyond David Nelson and Buddy Cage who isn’t really a original member but who was with them for many years. In any case the eponymous debut album and The Adventures of Panama Red are nice examples of some California style electric country rock. Also, while I’m thinking about it, Kingfish is a good 70’s era band in that vein.
No shit. Henley possesses one of the most soulful voices of any white singer anywhere but the dude’s a virulent leftist. I think the only thing he hates more than Republicans are…lawyers.
Jeff,
I’ve got a ton of Beck (including Sea Change and Mutations; both are much slower, more contemplative Beck but both very different)should wish to borrow said music.
I actually like a lot of the other bands you mentioned but the Eagles and Billy Joel are two acts that drive me batty. (And please, for the love of all that is holy, never play Jimmy Buffett in my presence. Man’s craptastic music can make my head spin around like Linda Blair in the Exorcist and makes me more homicidal than Hannibal Lecter.)
Southern rock I’m down with (Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Cash). Old Country, I’m down with (Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Alabama).
I’ll also second recommendations for the Jayhawks and Ryan Adams. You might also like Pete Yorn.
Just put a bunch of Flying Burrito Brothers stuff on the wishlist, along with some Beck, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Whiskeytown.
Next time I hit best buy I’ll pick up a couple.
What about The Raspberries? It’s the least you can do after preventing me from sleeping last night.
Add The Jayhawks “Hollywood Town Hall” to your wish list.
Pablo —
I am a big fan of Glass Houses, as well—“Through the Long Night” is one of the GREAT ballads from a guy who’s written scores of them, and “All for Leyna” is superb. I just think from top to bottom, The Stranger is Joel’s best.
People who don’t like Billy Joel tend to think of him from “Pressure” or “Allentown” or “Uptown Girl.”
If that’s the case, I strongly recommend picking up Songs in the Attic and giving it a fair hearing.
I’d tend to agree, until you get to “Everybody Has a Dream”, which always left me thinking “Where the hell did that come from?” All in all, a damned fine piece of work, and I’ll also add that there’s a lot to like about 52nd Street. Lots of yummy angst on that disc.
Big E,
I caught that show in CT on your tip, and while it was nice to hear some of the old stuff, it just isn’t the same without Dawson, another phenomenal songwriter with a voice as sweet as honey. The band was pretty sloppy, Nelson is baked to a crisp (he’s playing from sheet music these days), and Buddy Cage decided to do a “Fuck Joe Lieberman” rant, which really wasn’t necessary. Not a terrible show, but somewhat disappointing nonetheless. Getting old sucks, I suppose.
It did prompt me to revisit the old stuff which stands up incredibly well.
Chuck Klosterman has written very insightfully about Billy Joel, both in “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs” and “Chuck Klosterman IV”. Definitely worth a look if you’re a big Joel fan.
Online, Phil K? If so, do you have links?
NGDB, “Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy” is a the must have. Serously.
“The dog up and died.”
That is one of the saddest lines of rockn’ roll was ever penned to paper.
After 40 years, he still grieves, GRIEVES.
Must be a boomer, oh oh oh oh!
Wearing his bloomers, oh oh oh oh!
Must be a boomer! Grieve!
A (very cursory) Google search did not find the articles anywhere. I’ll let you know if a slightly less cursory search yields anything. If not, the essay on Saved By The Bell in “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs” is worth the price of admission all by itself.
Hey, that’s Bill Robinson your talking about Dan. He’s no Boomer. Actually, its a beautiful sadly song if you listen to the words of it.
But, the Eagles gets back together is puts me in the mind of Mojo Nixon.
“Don Henley must die.
Don’t let him get back together with Glen Frey.”
What ever happened to Mojo Nixon anyway?
Don’t get me wrong, I can mist myself up pretty good with just a few verses of Desperado in the shower. That is so me: out painting fences for too long now. When I’m going to learm not to call on that Queen of Diamonds, boy?
Last I head he was doing afternoons at San Diego’s KGB, and raising his two headed love child.
Witheld! I like Roxy Music’s Avalon, too!
Stupid fences!
Sea Change is my second favorite Beck album. And I’m a big Beck fan. Very melancholy.
I listened to KGB in San Diego when I was in the navy. The morning show used to play Mojo every morning like clockwork!
The Eagles. Are they in the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame yet? They should be… “The Last Resort” off of Hotel California is one of my favs.
I have never heard a band that could switch from cool, bluesy tunes to harder rock to country rock as deftly as they did… although it probably helped that most of the band members could sing lead at the drop of a hat.
Another band that I get nostalgic for is Styx… “Man in the Wilderness” is my sitting-around-feeling-sorry-for-myself song.
Late 70’s and early 80’s… where have ye gone.
JG,
Good call on Songs in the Attic. My fave album by the car-crashin’ ivory smashin’ William Joel. I can’t get into much more of his stuff after that. He should bring back the ‘fro. Hey, even KISS wear wigs these days.
Don Henley’s level of hatred towards Republicans and Don Felder is only equalled by his love of cold hard cash (or perhaps a few titanic lines of “magic dust” backstage for a little pick-me-up before a show back in the day). That self-loathing capitalist so-and-so.
Saw the “Eagles” on that Hell Freezes Over Tour back in ‘94. The quotes due to an army of back-up musicians which made it seem a little silly, but a great show. Will The Police reunion tour bring along tambourine players and a brass section?
Man, I had a rough day and I hate the fuckin’ Eagles! –The Dude
…because someone had to quote it…
dorkafork,
Which Beck Album is your favorite?
Mojo is on Sirius now, I believe.
And I thought I was the only one who remembered Poco. I feel a little less alone now.
And another thing, relevant only because it falls into the general category of entertainment, The Sarah Silverman Show premieres on Comedy Central tonight.
I have no idea what her comedy’s like, Jim, but I thought she looked pretty hot in the NYT article about her.
New Riders of the Purple Sage. ‘Nuff said.
Oops. Ruby Don’t Take Your Love is one of the great American songs. Just about everything from Johnny Cash has something great about it. Do you have any Emmylou?
Never was a big fan of The Eagles. But my wife loves them. I like early Billy Joel. Johnny Cash is very cool. But mostly like The Who, and if you click on my name you will understand why. What great fun I get to have! (sorry shameless selfpromotion, but hey, Jeff brought up 70’s classic rock).
Funny, looking over Jeff’s initial list I marveled a little on the cross-pollination. Timothy B. Schmidt was originally with Poco and joined the Eagles after Whathisname with the high falsetto left. Jackson Browne co-wrote Take It Easy. Many of the original Eagles were in Linda Ronstadt’s “Stone Ponies.” (I know she wasn’t on the list, but she hates Repulicans as much as Henley.)
It really will be the best thing for our country when our entire generation is dead…
I know only a very little about her comedy, but I thought that little bit was funny. So I’m looking forward to the show to see if it bears out.
Silverman is one of my favorite comedians, if that tells you anything about her.
Hey, she sleeps with Jimmy Kimmel, so you know she’s got a sense of humor.
I’d join in on the musical snarkery, but my playlist these days includes “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Cold As Ice.”
Though, in my defense, the track playing at this very moment is by Chris LeDoux.
Any Buffalo Springfield Jeff? And didn’t Poco evolve out of Buffalo Springfield?
Jesus I am getting old…
yeah, I can’t really talk either. I keep meaning to borrow my sister’s Alison Kraus cd’s. and I’m partial to Glass Houses and 52nd Street also.
Lou, Guero is my favorite Beck album. Just sublime. Then again, I never got around to getting Mellow Gold, since apparently Beck described it as a more of a demo tape than a real album. And I haven’t gotten his newest album, either.
Guero also has some really good country-ish songs by Beck.
Little Feat is still touring.
As for Billy Joel, in 1981 I was working for my brother putting in a sprinkler system. It was about 90 degrees out and the people next door had a pool and they were hanging out by the pool all day with the same Billy Joel album on the automatic turntable playing over and over and over and over and over for about 8 hours.
Yeah, I know he’s a good writer of pop music, but that day turned me off forever.
A few years back, Billy Joel and Elton John did a show at the Pontiac Silverdome and if there ever was a time for a MOAB or Daisy Cutter to take out 80,000 people with shit for taste.
My own guilty pleasure is Bad Company.
Beck has really good music in pretty much any genre you can think of. EXCEPT for bar-room rock and roll, and for that kind of rockin’ I nominate The Hold Steady. If you get the chance to see them live do yourself a favor and check them out. Good times.
So last season!
Feigned unironic love for the likes of Thin Lizzy is the new feigned ironic love for the likes of Thin Lizzy. (See the nearest fan of The Hold Stea–…er…)
Luckily for you, the only hipster-approved Billy Joel albums are 52nd Street<i> and <i>Glass Houses. Adoration for the The Stranger remains lame and/or punk. Either way, you are not cool. Which is cool.
That’s cool, BoZ.
Forget to mention JD Souther. Just bought a bit of his stuff (solo along with SHF), as well as NGDB, Flying Burrito Bros., Kingfish, and Whiskeytown.
There’s some other stuff I want to try (suggested above), but I have a bunch of Best Buy Reward Zone points I want to use to pick that up.
Plus, I’m going to have to pull a bunch of the kid’s DVDs out of the carousel to make room for all the new music I’ve picked up. I have stacks of CDs I need to move into the changer.
Looks like some stuff is gonna have to go.
Hey, the Moody Blues are still touring.
OK, not quite in the same rock sub-genre as all the previously mentioned bands on this comment thread… but when they pull out their classics, man, I never have a better time.
Now that I think of it, every concert I’ve been to in the past 15 years (including the Eagles and Pink Floyd) has been a “classic” band. Longevity has a quality all its own, I suppose.
Aerosmith? Billy Joel? The Who? Oh, yeah.
Starland Vocal Band? Not so much.
My hipster-approved unironic love is not feigned!
Hey, now. Streetlight Serenade (with The Entertainer) and Turnstiles (with Angry Young Man) are both <i>tres hip. And Only the Good Die Young puts just enough punk into The Stranger (as does the title track) to warm a snarling little heart.
Jeff, if you’re uninitiated, I think you’d love the New Riders of the Purple Sage. The self titled album and Panama Red are both good places to start (as Big E noted above), though the newly reissued Best Of disc is solid from top to bottom, with most of both albums on it.
What the hell happened here?
Dear God, you’ve gone and done it, I’m going to have to switch sides and start posting bullshit about the national debt.
Listen, I spent three summers of my life working nights at a convienience store at the Jersey Shore. I was just far enough away from Philly to not get any radio and was stuck with the Atantic City station. So I know, and I mean it I am not kidding this is the real deal here, that the following list of “artists” will be consigned to the center circle of Hell with the traitors and decievers and Tony Danza:
Don Henley
Glen Frey (In the City, are you high right now?)
The rest of the Eagles including Joe Fucking Walsh
Madonna
Sting
Huey Lewis and all of the fucking News
Billy Joel (scenes from the Italian anti-Christ)
Journey
The Grateful Fucking Dead
John Cougar Melencamp
The goddamn Talking Heads, and I like the Talking Heads.
The Hooters
Bon Jovi (burn you mothers)
Anyone connected at all, even on the business end, scratch that, especially on the business end of the abortion known collectively as the Jefferson Starship or Starship, or Jefferson anything, yes even the damn AIRPLANE.
PoisonWarrentWhiteLionWhiteSnakeGreatWhiteStryperDokkenDefLeppardKixCinderella
FasterPussycatEuropeMrbigBrittanyFoxHanoirocksandtheVinniefuckingVincentInvasion.
Tom Petty
John Fogarty
Frank Stallone
Whitney Houston
Corey Hart
Byran Adams
and because someone would kill me if I put George Harrison on this list, even if he deserves it, I’ll skip him and make Jeff Lynn do his time.
Linda Ronstadt
and last, but not least:
John Cafferty and his whole fucking Beaver Brown Band.
Now, someone up thread mentioned the Burrito Brothers, good. That’ll be a good palate clenser while you go and find your Buck Owens records.
Billy Joel…Jesus Christ….
I am amazed at the artists mentioned here. God, I hate almost every single one of them. What’s next – a Phil Collins retrospective? Ewww.
Cash is an icon. Don’t confuse him with Kenny Rogers, who sang Ruby, don’t take your love to town
Re Jackson Browne, I think Tonio K summed it up best:
<blockquote>and i know i’m acting immature
i’m acting like a child
i should display some self-control
instead of going wild like this
and i do wish i could accept all this
as simply “life” which includes pain
and act upon the actual fact
that nobody’s to blame
yes i wish i was as mellow
as for instance jackson browne
but “fountain of sorrow” my ass
mother fucker
i hope you wind up in the ground
i’m so full of h-a-t-r-e-d
i’m bitter and malign<b>
Wow … a TonioK reference!
I’m glad I lived to see the internets!!
Man, I feel like Doc Daneeka…
SB: because22
that’s the catch
Tonio K, “Life in the Foodchain”
Jeff – if you like the alt-country/prog bluegrass stuff, you should check out Nickel Creek. Of their three albums to date, the first and the 3rd are best-of-breed stuff, while the second isn’t as good.
Everyone should own at least one Alison Krauss album.
A great bonus for you re: NGDB – you can blast the Dirt Band’s “I Find Jesus” to secure your Xtian bona fides!1!
It’s a strange juxtaposition, a thread with Mojo and the Eagles. I wonder what Mojo Nixon would have to say about the Eagles?
Oh, he fucking hated them.
From Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Lame
I used to love Billy Joel – then I went to Basic Training at the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning in 1985…couldn’t get “Close to the Borderline…” out my head for weeks. Nothing like being driven into the Georgia clay by a hardcore Drill Sergeant with “Blackout, heat wave, 44 caliber homicide…the bums drop dead and the dogs go mad in packs on the West Side…” running through your head.
Gah. Make it stop.
Another band that I get nostalgic for is Styx…
Joel: Hell works better when it’s a lot more subtle. Here, I’ll give you an example. Crow, what do you think of Adolf Hitler?
Crow: Well, I hate him, naturally.
Joel: Right. Now, what do you think of the band Styx?
Crow: Well, they had one or two decent—OH MY GOD, YOU’RE RIGHT!
(Just kidding. I like Styx, too. But it’s terribly, terribly un-hip.)
I’m going to go listen to “Boat on the River,” followed immediately by “She’s Always A Woman.”
Just to piss people off.
All right, I’m going to fess up to liking Gordon Lightfoot. You’ve shamed me into it.
I also have the “Streets of Fire” soundtrack.
and I’d leave my wife for Maria McKee from Lone Justice. At least I would have in 1988.
I’m cool!? or rather, my dad was cool!? yay! I’ve aquired a few more Joel albums since the last time we discussed him and I’m definitly liking the earlier stuff more than the later things. what happened to the guy?
anyhoo, Jeff, you might also check out Wilco. particularly their Mermaid Avenue project with Billy Bragg. that’s some nice alt-country there. well, wait, not their last couple albums (11 plus minutes of static is tres annoying) but anything leading up to Summerteeth should be okay.
Ooh!
<updates music-download wish list>
Anytime a band or fad becomes “un-hip”… that’s usually the point I start to dig it.
Generally my mood sets my playlist. Feeling agitated and liking it? Iron Maiden or Disturbed* get a spin. Introspective? Jethro Tull*, Alan Parsons Project or Three Days Grace. Morose? Styx, Kansas, and Boston do the trick.
My Winamp playlist has everything from progressive country to classic music and everything in between.
Being a DJ way back in the day had it’s perks…
*hate these guys politics… but the music is decent.
TW: too FEW69….. tell me about it.
Christie. Brinkley.
Agree with maggie katzen on early Wilco. Billy Bragg has an amazing voice but is a devout Communist.
ha ha, yeah, but the accent makes it hard for me to understand him, so it’s okay. ;D