Published on Dec 15, 1997
After an exhausing weekend in which I spent part of the time
seeing how much beer I could quaff and the other part doing the
flight-of-the-bumblebee Christmas shopping, I wanted something easy
to review. You know — not a lot of searching through the Pierce
Archives (All I want for Christmas is a DVD, a DVD… oh, never
mind), not a lot of analyzation needed. And, seeing that we haven’t
touched the Eagles for some time, it seemed right that we take a
look at their self-titled debut today. (Of course, the last thing I
needed to see was a song titled “Chug All Night”…)
An amalgam of former members of Poco, the Flying Burrito
Brothers and Linda Ronstadt’s backing band, The Eagles were the
epitomy of the laid-back California country-rock from the get-go.
All members were capable lead singers, and sometimes it seemed like
you needed a scorecard to figure out who was singing where.
Originally a quartet, the lineup of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy
Meisner and Bernie Leadon quickly put their stamp on the music
industry with
Eagles — and over 25 years later, it still ain’t bad.
The album benefits from an early partnership with Jackson
Browne, who co-wrote the band’s first hit, “Take It Easy.” Even
today, it remains a pleasant jangly pop song that catches you with
its melody and guitar work. The introduction of banjo at the final
chorus might have thrown the 1972 listener for a loop at the time,
but today it sounds just as natural as the band meant it to be. But
Browne does not really influence the band that much on this effort
that I can hear; the sounds I hear on Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes “and
anything off this album are two unique animals.
Eagles is now known for three songs — the aforementioned
“Take It Easy,” “Witchy Woman” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” — not
bad for your first effort. “Witchy Woman” has a special edge carved
into the song, though I’m not sure if it’s the guitar work or
Henley’s vocal that makes it sound that much more evil. (Why is it
that Henley always got these types of songs? Two words: “Hotel
California.”) “Peaceful Easy Feeling” definitely shows off the
laid-back California style — the band doesn’t kill themselves
doing this one, and both the band and the listener find themselves
relaxing in the moment.
The first half of
Eagles is the most solid portion of the album – worth giving
a spin are “Nightingale” and “Chug All Night” (though I don’t
recommend acting out the title — oh, Christ, my head). It does
seem that there are times the band has difficulty keeping the
quality level above average. “Train Leaves Here This Morning” is an
example — they try, but the song just fails to take off. “Take The
Devil” and “Earlybird” are steps in the right direction, but they
too don’t shine like they could have.
And it’s not that I think the singles are the only worthwhile
moments on this album; far from it. I do think that songs like
“Tryin'” and “Nightingale” are worth your time to check out and be
awed at. I would tend to write off the few sub-par songs as
“first-time” jitters. This was, after all, a merging of a few
different schools of country-rock, and it would take some time
before it really jelled. (Some may argue it wouldn’t come together
until Joe Walsh came in and gave the band a swift kick in the
ass.)
Eagles is a pleasant enough listen — not to mention a short
one, at just around 35 minutes — and is worth investigating to
hear how their sound originally came to be. While country music
fans may find this to be too close to rock and rock fans may be
turned off by the use of banjo and slide guitar, the Eagles blazed
the middle of the road rather well on their first attempt.