The Eagles--Glen Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, and Don Henley--are the tightest and most accomplished rock band to emerge since Neil Young's Crazy Horse. The usual compilation of credits--Poco and the Burritos and the Stone Canyon Band, Bob Seger and Linda Ronstadt--does not mean the usual compilation of disgruntled sidemen doing battle with their own well-deserved anonymity. The difference is partly chemistry--the Eagles are an organic group, not a mixture of musicians--but mostly raw talent. These guys can execute. Not only do they all sing and compose, which is nothing new--they're good at it.
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Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them. "Hate" is the kind of up-tight word that automatically excludes one from polite posthippie circles, a good reason to use it, but it is also meant to convey an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult to pinpoint. Do I hate music that has been giving me pleasure all weekend, made by four human beings I've never met? Yeah, I think so. Listening to the Eagles has left me feeling alienated from things I used to love. As the culmination of rock's country strain, the group is also the culmination of the counterculture reaction that strain epitomizes.
Reviews
ChrisB said on April 30, 2008:
Chris @ 22: Here's Robert Christgau on the Eagles (from his 1973 book Any Old Way You Choose It):
The Eagles--Glen Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, and Don Henley--are the tightest and most accomplished rock band to emerge since Neil Young's Crazy Horse. The usual compilation of credits--Poco and the Burritos and the Stone Canyon Band, Bob Seger and Linda Ronstadt--does not mean the usual compilation of disgruntled sidemen doing battle with their own well-deserved anonymity. The difference is partly chemistry--the Eagles are an organic group, not a mixture of musicians--but mostly raw talent. These guys can execute. Not only do they all sing and compose, which is nothing new--they're good at it.
...
Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them. "Hate" is the kind of up-tight word that automatically excludes one from polite posthippie circles, a good reason to use it, but it is also meant to convey an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult to pinpoint. Do I hate music that has been giving me pleasure all weekend, made by four human beings I've never met? Yeah, I think so. Listening to the Eagles has left me feeling alienated from things I used to love. As the culmination of rock's country strain, the group is also the culmination of the counterculture reaction that strain epitomizes.