how do we feel about the Eagles' Long Run????

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greetings to you all…I'm new to ILM, but me likey a whole lot…

if there's already been a thread on this subject, forgive me…

I recently became acquainted with this very strange rekkid. there're the hits, of course, but man, the deep cuts rilly bespeak cocaine dementia—is "Teenage Jail" a nod to Sabbath? how threatened do they sound by dance music on the truly weird throwaway "Disco Strangler"? how enormously hypocritical are they for castigating movie execs for preying on starlets, particularly as Henley would get in trouble for something quite similar shortly thereafter? and "the Greeks…" fairly shrieks "first draft."

whutchoo think?

― veronica moser, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I don't like the Eagles but they do a good job portraying (often unwittingly) the creepiness of the 70s.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

the coke-addledness of the title song gives off a stephen king kind of whiff of an america about to give birth to the oppressive beast that is don henley's solo career. the next big song i've heard glenn frey sing, "smuggler's blues," sounds liberating by comparison

― frank darabont, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I recently got their first 5 albums up to Hotel, but passed on this one due to a really bad review on AMG. Still, if it's interesting I'll check it out.

― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

"Teenage Jail" is more Cooper than Sab, it sounds like something from 'Goes to Hell'. Except for Glen Frey's all-time great keybd solo - a nod to Daryl Hooper of the Seeds?

― paula schultz, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)

Holy Cow do I hate the Eagles!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Welcome to ILM, Veronica!

I got sick of the 3 big hits decades ago and never much liked 'em in the first place. I wouldn't mind hearing "Those Shoes" and "Teenage Jail" again, but I'm not going out of my way to do so. And aside from bits of "Disco Strangler" in an ancient SCTV sketch years ago, that's all i've really ever heard.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

"Disco Strangler" is my new favorite cover request to yell at bands. Especially alt-country bands.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

This was either the first or second album that I ever bought (can't remember if I got it before or after Billy Joel's Glass Houses). Back when I only had two albums I thought it was *great*. Played it all the time. Presumably there are other eleven-year-olds who'd feel the same way.

― dlp9001, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

Hearing "Heartache Tonight" brings back memories of the big kids playing the jukebox at Pizza Towne.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

I should have mentioned the name of the tune about movie execs— it's "King of Hollywood."

another thing is that there's no "country" stuff on the record. and even tho I cannot fathom how, after two years and mucho $$$$ spent, unapologetic careerists like H&F would let notions of quality control go up their noses, those tunes are leagues better and more interesting then the gawdawful songs that Meisner and Leadon contributed.

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

I'm by no means a big Eagles fan, but I love this album. It's ham-fisted sub-Steely Dan, which is about a million times better than their usual schtick. It's all about Joe Walsh, who's the only interesting human being ever connected with the Eagles. They dropped the ridiculous cowboy affectations, and even when they try to be sentimental on this album it comes across wired and bitter. It's a cold, cold record, Aural Excitement in negative, cranked out by vengeful ghosts. Did I mention Joe Walsh?

― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

I listened to a very large amount of FM rock radio in the mid-to-late 70s and as a consequence cannot now tolerate more than fifteen seconds of any given song by the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull, and numerous other bands of the era. I'm sure they all must have some sort of worth, individual virtues and so forth, but unfortunately it is lost to me forever.

― box of socks, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

i only know the singles and the live versions on Eagles Live

but i was interested to spot the vinyl version of this LP sitting in the breakbeats rack at my local Music & Video Exchange store recently. presumably at least one track has been sampled in more recent times. anyone know which and by whom?

― zebedee (zebedee), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

There are some winners: "Those Shoes" is a solid rocker and "The Disco Strangler" has it's moments. However, listening to it now, I can only yawn. The 3 singles just sound boring and dated to me and "Greeks" and "King Of Hollywood" sound like obvious throwaways. Lyrically, the record is tight and the guitar licks are largely solid but that doesn't make up for what sounds a bit too much like a band putting out an album to fulfill a recording deal.

FYI- I took recording courses with the engineer of this album and he mentioned that it was almost impossible to complete, mostly due to a group of overblown ego's loathing one another.

― ZionTrain, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

I wish there was a dance that went along with "Disco Strangler", preferably involving some sort of mimed, strangling move.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 18:06 (twenty years ago)

Somebody's had to have sampled "Those Shoes" by now.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

I always associate The Long Run with Tusk - years wasted in the studio, millions of dollars blown in drugs alone, and the results were...confusing, to say the least. Yet Tusk still garners respect because Fleetwood Mac went way out on several limbs and took some real chances. In comparison, my 12-year-old self couldn't figure out how the Eagles could spend years on a record and come out of it with... "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks."

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

(I mean, you can see the appeal of punk in comparison - the Ramones released 3 or 4 albums in the time it took the Eagles to follow up Hotel California)

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

"Somebody's had to have sampled "Those Shoes" by now."

The Beastie Boys (really the Dust Bros.) did it on Paul's Boutique. "High Plains Driffter"

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

"I always associate The Long Run with Tusk - years wasted in the studio, millions of dollars blown in drugs alone, and the results were...confusing, to say the least. Yet Tusk still garners respect because Fleetwood Mac went way out on several limbs and took some real chances."

Oh yeah. "The Long Run" and "Tusk" were more or less released at the same time. TLR outsold Tusk, but no one remembers it anymore, while Tusk's reputation has only grown over the years. It's the sound of a studio band using million-dollar production to sound like the punk bands they never were -- and succeeding too.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

Revive.

This is still the only Eagles album worth a damn. And it's horribly compelling.

― Mystic Handyman (noodle vague), Saturday, 1 April 2006 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

o.k. then! "King of Hollywood" is haunting…me love the harmonized triple geet-ahz!

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Saturday, 1 April 2006 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

It's the dark heart of the album, yeah, as bloated and self-deluding as the character it's supposed to be about. That's a big part of the appeal: seedy, nasty glamour is still glamour, after all. I don't think they're even slightly unaware that they're part of the world they're describing. It sounds Hollywood.

― Mystic Handyman (noodle vague), Saturday, 1 April 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

haha, dlp could totally be me on this thread... except I got the Cars first album instead of Glass Houses and my life changed forever... I don't think I ever had this record but I see it for a dollar all the time.

― sleeve, away, Saturday, 1 April 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

Get it! Can't lose for a dollar!

― Mystic Handyman (noodle vague), Saturday, 1 April 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

that's very OTM…those guys were every bit as predatory and selfish as the producer types they describe…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Saturday, 1 April 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

Still love the shit out of this album, but hardly think the rest of their output is not worth a damn anymore.

Still, this is head and shoulders above. "King of Hollywood" is a slow-burning stunner.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 28 June 2008 12:20 (seventeen years ago)

The Eagles' best work was the early stuff. "Desperado" was a strike of genius. By "The Long Run", it was way too much Don Henley and way too little Glenn Frey.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 28 June 2008 23:28 (seventeen years ago)

Aspiehongro, why don't you come to your senses

― velko, Sunday, 29 June 2008 01:29 (seventeen years ago)

The Dude: Jesus, man, can you change the station?
Cab Driver: Fuck you man! You don't like my fucking music, get your own fucking cab!
The Dude: I've had a --
Cab Driver: I pull over and kick your ass out, man!
The Dude: -- had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 29 June 2008 01:35 (seventeen years ago)

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