tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post3626918249286502103..comments2023-06-27T01:34:35.359-07:00Comments on Ted Burke LIKE IT OR NOT: The Eagles take over the City DumpTED BURKEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16610296721891201100noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-992022343474154572014-03-01T07:00:58.912-08:002014-03-01T07:00:58.912-08:00No argument here about your ideas about what disti...No argument here about your ideas about what distinguishes the bands from one another. A particular grouse I have against the band , <br />besides the fact that they elevated dime novel existentialism and made that generic bleakness the source of fantastically profitable music, is Don Henley's voice, half bluesy croak ala his old boss Bob Seger, half cultivated whine. It's a voice that is nothing less than the voice of a bus passenger who conducts a monologue on the history of their doctor visits on a long ride to work. Henley manages to sound both overwhelmed by the horrors he has been through and smug for having journeyed through them: "I am humbled and despairing at the tragedies I have seen, so don't you try to out do in the dues paying department, smart ass." He makes you want to smack him and tell him to go spend his money somewhere else.TED BURKEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16610296721891201100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-5946583587201997432013-08-21T10:39:37.139-07:002013-08-21T10:39:37.139-07:00I always felt there was a major difference between...I always felt there was a major difference between the likes of the Byrds or the Buffalo Springfield and the Eagles, who came along later to consolidate the innovations of earlier L.A. band into immaculately-groomed commercial product. There was a certain innocence, a lack of formula to what the Byrds and the Springfield did, whereas the Eagles radiated a smug, self-satisfied arrogance from their first album onwards-- something many rock bands are guilty of, of course. The Eagles fused this overweening ego with a palpable glow of MELLOWNESS, a Peaceful Easy Feeling Tequila Sunrise banality that made them far more obnoxious than your run of the mill pompous rockers. The fact that co-leaders Henley and Frey were so technically good at what they did only made their work more intolerable. They must be the most unlikeable duo in popular music; as they have advertised for years, they can't even stand each other. Maybe they can't stand themselves, which, as Liberace's brother once said, doesn't stop them from flagellating themselves all the way to the bank.Spearchucker Jonesnoreply@blogger.com