Hey, so I was talking about seeing the Eagles in concert. Here are some photos:
Joe Walsh
Don Henley
Timothy B. Schmit
Glenn Frey
Hotel California
These were taken on Wednesday night at the O2.
Long Road to Greenwich – part 2
Reply
Author Archives: twilightdawning
Long Road to Greenwich
When I was young my parents took me to Blackpool. A lot. We didn’t get on very well. I wish I could have done something about that but its too late now. Typical holiday involved going to Lewis’ Department store and buying an album on cassette (remember them!) to absorb by osmosis during the week, hanging about in a pool hall that played a lot of David Bowie on the juke box and avoiding my parents. I was way too young to hang around in pool halls but that was then…..
One day I was wandering around the shops near Blackpool’s south shore (heading for the pleasure beach) and I came across a shop selling music posters. I bought a poster of the Eagles that was a year or two out-of-date. When I went home to rural Yorkshire, I hung it on my bedroom wall.
A few years later I moved to Shafton (I doubt you’d find it on the map!), then to Barnsley, then to South Norwood (London), then to Croydon, then to Greenford (Middlesex) and then to Hammersmith. Wherever I went and whoever with, the first task was to take that damn Eagles poster and hang it on to the wall. The blue-tack gave up years ago, the edges frayed, eventually it had to go into a frame to preserve it but its hung on every bedroom wall I’ve ever had and it’s there today.
From right-to-left, it has Bernie Leadon in blue shirt and jeans on lead guitar, Glenn Frey on rhythm and lead vocals with long flowing hair, Don Henley on drums in a blue sports shirt, and Randy Meisner on bass.
Years later I figured it out it was taken at a festival in Holland but that’s another story.
In 1994, I was invited to write for a magazine about the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over Tour. It wasn’t a hard task.
In 1996, I interviewed Bernie Leadon for a project which has continued for 12 or 13 years.
And to bring the story up-to-date I was given a complimentary ticket for each night of the Eagles’ multi-night stand at the O2 in Greenwich, London for the opening dates of their “Long Road Out of Eden” World Tour.
Now I don’t know if anybody actually reads this thing but if you do you’ll have figured out that music is a particular passion for me and that my tastes are very broad and much of my taste in music is not at all like the Eagles.
The Eagles, though, are somehow a constant for me. It’s music that knits my adulthood to my childhood and there’s not much music I grow out of. Once I like your songs or your writing you’re stuck with me for the long haul.
So, Eagles are in Europe and so far they’ve played four of their five nights. Two of those dates had work conflicts for me but on the other two I took up my seat in the second row in front of the stage.
These days the Eagles are Glenn Frey (hair now much shorter), Don Henley (inclined now to spend half of the show stepping out from behind the drums – but at least he’s not Phil Co@*ins), Joe Walsh (on board since 1976) and Timothy B. Schmit (the new boy who joined in 1978).
The key to these shows is the new album. There are thirty songs in the show of which nine come from the new disc.
For those who are fans, here’s the setlist:
How Long (from the new album but curiously first played at the Dutch show mentioned above)
Busy Being Fabulous (also from the new record)
I Don’t Want to Hear Any More (from the new record and sung by Timothy)
Guilty of the Crime (new, and sung by Joe Walsh)
Hotel California (opened by a trumpet solo these days before the more familiar guitar work. The trumpet solo reminds me of the High Chapparal for some reason)
Peaceful Easy Feeling (from their debut album)
I Can’t Tell You Why (from 1979’s The Long Run which was not enthusiastically received at the time but more songs have gone the distance from that album than any other record according to the evidence of this tour setlist)
One of These Nights (title song from their 1975 album)
Lyin’ Eyes (the song that more than any other earned them the label of being a ‘country rock’ band)
Boys of Summer (originally a Don Henley solo recording but now a staple of the band’s live set for 15 years)
In The City (Joe Walsh recorded it for the soundtrack of “The Warriors” movie, Eagles adapted it for The Long run album. Beautiful harmonies on a fulsome rocker)
The Long Run (the band describe this as a signature tune)
Intermission
No More Walks In the Wood (close harmony number from the new album)
Waiting in the Weeds (Don Henley lyrical masterpiece from the new disc)
No More Cloudy Days (Glenn Frey song from the new album which reminds me an awful lot of the song he sings over the closing moments of the “Thelma and Louise” film)
Love Will Keep Us Alive (from Hell Freezes Over in 1994)
Take it To The Limit (originally sung by Randy Meisner and should have remained retired after he left the band)
Long Road Out of Eden (from the new record. A poetic reimagining of serving in the American Armed Forces overseas in the current era. Musically tense with a wild solo from Joe Walsh)
Somebody (Another new one. Menacing vocal from Frey and mean slide work form Walsh)
Walk Away (Joe Walsh rocker from his James Gang days)
Witchy Woman (Co-written by Bernie Leadon)
Life’s Been Good (Joe Walsh at his most manic)
Dirty Laundry (Henley targets the news media)
Funk #49 (one more early rocker from Walsh)
Heartache Tonight (no. 1 single from The Long Run album)
Life in the Fastlane (The critique of the Californian hedonistic lifestyle from Hotel California)
Encore 1
Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh on voicebox guitar)
All She Wants to Do is Dance (Weak moment of the night)
Encore 2
Take it Easy (another signature song from the first album)
Desperado (Henley and Frey inhabit the Old West)
Questionnaire
1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
2) What was your dream growing up?
3) What talent do you wish you had?
4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
5) Favorite vegetable?
6) What was the last book you read?
7) What zodiac sign are you?
8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
9) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm…careful!)
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27) What’s your favorite place to hang out?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) If you could live anywhere in the world where would you chose?
35) Do you believe in God?
Searching for a deep album?
An album I would heartily recommend to everyone is the 2007 release by Son Volt entitled “The Search”.
If you’re unfamiliar with the band, here is a little potted history.
The leader of the band is Jay Farrar. He was previously in Uncle Tupelo with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. Uncle Tupelo were the inspiration for the whole alt-country / Americana movement and its Bible “No Depression” took its title from their material. When that band went their separate ways, Farrar formed Son Volt who debuted in 1995 with arguably their finest album, “Trace”. The sophomore release “straightaways” followed in 1997 and then there was “Wide Swing Tremolo” in ’98. By this time significant tensions had arisen amongst the four members and there seemed to be no more Son Volt material on the horizon. Farrar began to record and tour as a solo act. He released “Sebastopol” and “Terroir Blues” accompanied by an e.p. called “ThirdShiftGrottSlack” and a clutch of live albums.
The band reformed in 2004 to record a track for a benefit album “Por Vida” which was to raise funds for songwriter Alejandro Escovedo who had become seriously ill. The song was completed and released but on the verge of a new Son Volt album, Farrar sacked the remaining members of the band, reclaimed the name and formed a new Son Volt.
Not the most invigorating or promising turn of events then but the new band released 2005’s “Okemah and the Melody of Riot” and then the aforementioned “The Search” in 2007.
So what about this slightly ugly story would inspire someone to buy “The Search”. Well, Farrar is the consummate singer / songwriter and Son Volt gives him an electric arena to display the full range of emotions captured in his songs. The plus factor is that “The Search” is an astonishingly deep album as my title alluded. If you stray into your local cd emporium you’ll buy a 14 track cd with that title. A glance on ebay will show that the early copies of that cd came with two alternate E.P.s of the same title. If you go to iTunes you will find a further 8 tracks are available on the “deluxe edition”. The 22 tracks of the deluxe edition can also be found on vinyl on Sonvolt.com in a set entitled “On Chant and Strum”.
Most great songwriters write prolifically for a few years and then run out of that first storm of ideas and the songs become fewer and farther between. This doesn’t seem to have happened with Farrar. Of the 28 recordings that I’ve mentioned, that are associated with “The Search” project, nothing here sounds like filler. In fact the sweetness and beauty of some of the extras – “Coltrane Free”, “Acetone Angels”, “Bicycle Hotel” – have to be heard to be believed.
Do yourself a favour, buy “The Search”.
Nu-maaaaaan!!
Great night at the Gary Numan “Replicas” concert in Oxford last night. In geographical terms, alone, the London show would have made much better sense but I’m afraid I’m spoiled these days. I’m so used to getting free tickets at the big shows given to me by artists’ agents who want me to write something for their employers fro an EPK or something similar that I’ve lost all interest in going to the larger venues unless I’m guaranteed great seats or VIP privileges. Enough of my snobbery! When I was much, much, younger Replicas was a very cool album and its science fiction themes enthralled me. It’s good to know that all these years later the lyrics haven’t aged and Numan’s more aggressive mature persona doesn’t dent that edge. It was enough to send me off on the train reading a Phillip K. Dick novel this morning.
Thoroughly enjoyed the show. Have felt for at least twenty years that the rockier version of ‘Are “Friends” Electric?’ loses the atmosphere of the original where the sheer other-worldliness of that recording was the thing which launched Numan’s commercial career. Aside from this hearing “The Machman”, “Me! I disconnect from you”, “We are so Fragile” and all the rest, one more time, was a great way to spend an evening.
Support band, Rubicks, full of frenetic energy (7th time I’ve seen them):
and Numan at 50 still as strong (makes me feel young)
Time passes quickly…. here in the mountains
Life goes by too fast. Over the last few weeks a friend of mine has died, my daughter got baptised, another friend spent way too much time crying (and I don’t know what to do about that) and they began to mess with my favourite cereal. Is nothing sacred?
Human life doesn’t seem to be. An old lady in my care is resident in a nursing home now and I went to see her today. They say that in her day she was brilliant and determined and achieved much. She even had contacts with the royal family…. but, hey, I’ll forgive her that. Now her memory has gone. Today, talking to her I could only find two people she remembered from the recent past and I was one of them and she couldn’t quite figure out my name.
The trouble is with her spectacles. Four months ago, she was transferred to her nursing home. Her glasses were broken and the frame was held together with a sticking plaster (band aid). Four months ago, they said that her glasses would be sent away and repaired. Each time I visit they can’t find her spectacles and then when they do, they still have that sticking plaster holding it together and there are the usual round of excuses and we go through the pantomime of placing the glasses on her nose. Each time they say that they will be sent away to the opticians for him to do their work … but they never are. And I know they will be missing next time… And I know that when they find them they will still have that sticking plaster holding them together. Trouble is they never find them on the floor or under her clothes or on her chair or in her bedroom….. they always find them somewhere where the nurses have put them for safety. On a shelf or behind a desk. Somewhere safe where the broken glasses won’t get broken.
To add to this conundrum, all of the nurses seem reasonably dedicated and professional. The optician tried to test her for a new prescription but she won’t co-operate.
It seems there’s no-one to blame except the passage of time that has robbed her of the capacity to arrange these things for herself and the passage of time that has laid waste to all of her close family. And the passage of time that means that there’s nothing can be done and by the time it is, she’ll probably be dead.
There’s a lot happening at the moment but I know that sticking plaster is going to haunt me for a long time to come……..
Outraged!!!!
If you’re someone who likes to sit down and eat cereal for breakfast you’re no doubt aware that the finest sweet cereal on the UK market is “Golden Nuggets”. The Golden Nuggets are painstakingly dug out of the earth by Klondike Pete and his mule assistant Pardner. Golden Nuggets were first made available in the stores in the Seventies when I was a boy but disappeared from our supermarket shelves due to the “great nugget shortage” of the 1980s. They reappeared in the late 1990s due solely to the hard work and labour of Pete and his trusty cohort. The new vein of nuggets was so successful that Pete ‘n’ Pardner were able to expand their endeavours to the internet and introduce themed games which revolved around working in the Golden Nugget Mines. Imagine the pleasures of eating “Golden Nuggets” whilst playing “Runaway Mine” on the site http://www.fantasyworldoffun.com .
However now we come to my moment of outrage. Visitors to fantasy world of fun in recent weeks have found that their site has disappeared:
They have spoilt my fun (and more importantly the fun of millions like me) and replaced it with an advert for some annoying old women who claim to hand-knit something called shreddies. I think they should grow up and pay Pete ‘n’ Pardner the respect they’re due for their hard work. Protest! Picket! Write angry letters! Write furious e-mails!! Do something!
The Long Run to Long Road
The Eagles are MY band. Like I grew up on this kind of music. So it’s nice to have them back around on their new album “Long Road Out of Eden” and preparing to do something more than just play the old songs when they tour here next month. I was offered free tickets for all their shows at the o2 arena so I’ll be taking in a few of those with a VIP pass (which is nice).
I’ve been listening to the album a lot as I’m preparing to write up a review in the next issue of Natural Progressions (subscriptions available here – drop me a line). One thing that struck me is the depth of the good writing here and not only from Don Henley which you might come to believe was the case if you follow the line of some of the reviews that are already out there. Henley’s finest moment is to be found on Waiting in the Weeds which is probably as good as this album gets but there are other highlights on offer too.
Amongst my favourites you will find the Joe Walsh song “Last Good Time in Town”. This song benefits from Joe’s worn and battered (and humorous) outlook on life and has great vocals, harmonies and guitar. Eagles at their finest. Another gem worth digging for is Larry McNally’s “I love to watch a woman dance” (a feeling I can understand!) which has a sensitive vocal from Glenn Frey. “Cause to dream sometimes, that’s the only way to go places you can’t get to any other way”. First became aware of McNally when he wrote that song “For My Wedding” which featured on Henley’s solo album.
Henley would have wanted this to be a solo album (he says). If he’d won the argument I think we’d be missing out on some great music.
Lumbar puncture
There are some things in life I never get tired of. Music is one of them. The “Spinal Tap” joke is another one of them. What is it about this film and all that has been done under that name since that I find endlessly enthralling and limitlessly funny. I was just watching the video that they made for their “Majesty of Rock” single which I think was taken from their album “Break Like the Wind” and I find it fascinating the way that they are so dead on in skewering the ridiculousness of so much rock music.
When I say that rock is ridiculous, I don’t count this as one of its bad elements. It just needs to be kept in check. Spinal Tap have managed to harpoon this tendency again and again. There was something so ironic about them performing at Live Earth which was about the only thing which made the day bearable.
Steely Determination
Friends not only die – they get you through situations like this (you know who you are!).
As well as friends I’ve had a lot of music along for the ride. Some of these bands have been with me for thirty years now so I know that music is an important part of my life.
One important thing on my player at the moment is a box set by Donald Fagen (he who is lead singer of Steely Dan). The box brings together the three solo albums Don has recorded in his career – 1982’s The Nightfly, 1993’s Kamakiriad, and 2006’s Morph the Cat. If you know these albums you’ll know just how good they are. If you don’t know them and can’t imagine liking Steely Dan or anything associated with it, why not give one of them a spin? Look at how broad my musical tastes are on my profile, you might just find something here. These albums are jazz, they are rock, they are adult and articulate, they are spiritual and sexual. They are restrained energy personified.
Now if you know the three albums and agree with everything I’m trying to say, you might still not want the box set but you’d be making a mistake. The albums are presented here in a variety of musical formats – enough to make anyone’s amp and speakers come to life if you choose the right one – across 6 discs with videos and out-takes and the whole smorgasbord. Still not tempted? There’s a seventh disc. The unimaginatively titled “Trilogy – 10 extras” is a masterwork all on its own. It has a cover of Al Green’s Rhymes, it has a jazz piece that Fagen wrote for an accomplished player, it has three live tracks and singles that didn’t make the albums. You can’t buy it on its own and it’s not to be overlooked.
The Nightfly Trilogy has something for you and music can get you through the tough days.
