![]() ![]() Gritty guitar work features throughout this song which comes the closest to capturing the feel of the Western theme the Desperado album was exploring. The strength of the song was demonstrated by it often being their encore when they toured in the Meisner era.īitter Creek written by Bernie Leadon is a low key acoustic guitar piece of dusty Americana. Written (mainly) and sung by Randy Meisner, it is a group performance featuring astonishing high notes from Meisner. Take It To The Limit is as good as it gets in terms of great song writing backed with a superb lead vocal and great harmonies. ![]() A look through the song writing and lead singing credits shows that they all make an important contribution to the sound, especially in the many varied ways they meld their voices. As a result the early records in particular have an eclectic and sometimes eccentric take on the country rock and roll sound. And they are happy to use other writers JD Souther, Jackson Browne and Jack Tempchin all feature as regular writers for and with Eagles. Finally they can write, again every member of Eagles can and does make a song writing contribution. And they can sing, all of them, and here is a key feature of all Eagles line-ups, they can all sing lead and they have many different perspectives on singing harmony lines. The first furry denim four are of course players, they are multi instrumentalists that have earned their dues playing live. Through this scene all the key players emerge, with Bernie Leadon being in both the Burritos and Dillard and Clark, Randy Meisner in Poco and Henley and Frey starting with Shiloh on their way to being in the touring band of that other scion of the west coast country sound, Linda Ronstadt. The Byrds become the Flying Burrito Brothers and Gene Clark sets off with the often forgotten but quite brilliant Dillard and Clark. But it is Gram and his Nudie suits, his Southern roots and his song writing talent that kick off the whole thing. In some ways we could push back even further and suggest the seeds were sown with Buck and Don Rich’s 51 Telecaster creating the Bakersfield sound. When he brought Gram Parsons into the Byrds he thought he was getting a jazz pianist, instead he got Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and the whole west coast country rock scene. It can be argued that the whole thing is Roger McGuinn’s fault. Sadly though, if we follow The Dude’s advice and try to ignore Eagles we are missing out on some quite brilliant country rock and roll with a whole lot of other great popular music thrown in. So do we, as The Dude exclaimed, “Hate the Eagles man”? I think what we have come to hate is the FM radio fodder created by Henley/Frey that became synonymous with what is known as the Eagles sound: Lyin’ Eyes/Take It Easy/The Best of My Love/One Of These Nights/New Kid in Town and of course the much maligned, overplayed and over analysed Hotel California (you can hear that opening guitar riff already can’t you…). ![]() All of which then reminded me of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous with Billy Crudup’s Russell Hammond forever destroying any chance of looking objectively at Glenn Frey again. Eagles feature as a recurring motif in true Coen Brothers style with Hotel California playing when the sleazy Jesus is bowling and of course Peaceful Easy Feeling playing as an ironic soundtrack to The Dude’s condition in the back of the taxi. What prompted this Toppermost was a recent chance viewing of The Big Lebowski for the first time in a few years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |