Week 20: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[3-LockBox]

someone decided to make the claim that the Eagles drew heavily...aw, hell, ripped him off...and it followed from there.

since this has become a sorta country-rock thread, this won't be too much a wild tangent, but...

I never understood the Eagles haters. Sure, you don't have to like the Eagles. Sure, they kinda turned into a bunch of self-important dicks, and they proceeded to rip off fans by putting on a decade long farewell tour, and they still have a handful of songs that have been played to death as of two decades ago (and going). And yeah, I did come to the realization a few years ago that they prolly get way too much credit for the country-rock phenomina.

They were a great band at one time, though. They were decent enough writers (and were good friends with better writers), and they were decent enough musicians (and were good friends with better musicians); they made the best of their circumstances, talent and resources, using all three to good effect. They became crazy popular, super rich, and yes, self-important. A friend of mine saw them twice, at the beginning and end of their '70s run. He said they were OK in the beginning, and disinterested toward the end.

But during their heyday, they never put out a bad album IMO. Considering the clash of egos that took place in that band, its amazing that they put out six great albums in a short span (ok, Long Run had some filler). Does it matter that they cherry picked from the artists/sounds that surrounded them? Is it because they got so popular when the 'originators' didn't? If the Eagles are such obvious, overrated copycats, are other acts who infuse country and rock a bunch of hacks?

I'd rather see more artists co-opt Gram Parsons than see one more fvcking black hat act come outta C&W.

[MindGoneHaywire]

since this has become a sorta country-rock thread, this won't be too much a wild tangent, but...

I never understood the Eagles haters. Sure, you don't have to like the Eagles. Sure, they kinda turned into a bunch of self-important dicks, and they proceeded to rip off fans by putting on a decade long farewell tour, and they still have a handful of songs that have been played to death as of two decades ago (and going). And yeah, I did come to the realization a few years ago that they prolly get way too much credit for the country-rock phenomina.

They were a great band at one time, though. They were decent enough writers (and were good friends with better writers), and they were decent enough musicians (and were good friends with better musicians); they made the best of their circumstances, talent and resources, using all three to good effect. They became crazy popular, super rich, and yes, self-important. A friend of mine saw them twice, at the beginning and end of their '70s run. He said they were OK in the beginning, and disinterested toward the end.

But during their heyday, they never put out a bad album IMO. Considering the clash of egos that took place in that band, its amazing that they put out six great albums in a short span (ok, Long Run had some filler). Does it matter that they cherry picked from the artists/sounds that surrounded them? Is it because they got so popular when the 'originators' didn't? If the Eagles are such obvious, overrated copycats, are other acts who infuse country and rock a bunch of hacks?

I'd rather see more artists co-opt Gram Parsons than see one more fvcking black hat act come outta C&W.

Never liked their music. Ever. Not when I first heard their stuff on the radio, not when I listened to classic rock regularly as a kid, when I had a few records I wouldn't allow in my house these days. They never appealed to me, and I never liked Jackson Browne, Boz Scaggs, or other certain contemporaries of theirs, either. Not my cup of tea. They had an approach towards country-rock that always struck me differently than ISB, Sweetheart, the Burritos, and even Poco & stuff like Pure Prairie League or the Grateful Dead recs of the era, which are the only Dead recs I actually like. Before I ever read some anecdote about how they were arrogant or whatever, before I ever read the chuckly Tom Waits insult, before I ever heard of Gram Parsons, I heard their music & just didn't like it. At the time I was more apt to turn the dial on an Eagles song than I was on a Hall & Oates song. And hell, I probably still feel the same way. It has nothing to do with that reunion, and it was something I felt long before I realized that folks who couldn't figure out how I couldn't like their music (since everyone else does, of course) mostly didn't know who the hell Gram Parsons was.

As much as I like country-rock in the Parsons mold, it's something I only listen to so much of. And I'm more than fine with the Parsons and Parsons-related output, and the acts among the No Depression movement that sound a hell of a lot more like what Parsons was trying to do, than anything I've ever heard the Eagles do. And while there's some stuff on their periphery that I do enjoy--a stray early Linda Ronstadt toon or two, the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album, a rec or two by the Fleetwood Mac of that era, etc., I've long given up on anything they ever put out falling within the boundaries of what I happen to enjoy.

I first read about Parsons in "Up And Down With The Rolling Stones," so I knew a little something about his influence, and it's pretty easy to hear in Wild Horses, Dead Flowers, Torn & Frayed, etc. I'd heard my share of the Eagles before I even heard any of those songs, and eventually the ISB album, and Sweetheart after that. You can't compare those records to what Elvis was doing in Memphis, or anything else so far as I can hear. If anything, Elvis later put out a rec or two that had echoes of what Parsons had been doing, not the other way around.

The ISB rec was pretty darned obscure & long out of print, and Sweetheart was a consistent budget title for years & years. Then the Eagles get back together & command ridiculous prices & put out the rec & whatever they did & it sold gazillions and...that's fine. I don't hate them for that, or anything else, really. But knowing that Parsons' cues were responsible for their initial blueprint, which eventually led to what it is they became, is just something I'd rather have seen happen differently...but in the end it's not something I get too worked up about. I've just never liked anything they've ever done.

[BradH]

...and the acts among the No Depression movement...

What in the HELL is a No Depression movement?

That's not some New Age defecation thing is it?