Christmas of my sophomore year, I stayed up late trying to tape the Eagles’ cover of “Please Come Home For Christmas” off MIX 96.5. They said they were going to play it. But it never came on. It was for a mix tape I was making. For a girl that I liked. Because the Eagles were my favorite band.
The girl said she liked my tape. She did not “like” me. But I think she liked me more than she would have if she had heard that Eagles cover.
The Eagles entire discography is now on Emusic. The announcement includes an essay justifying the Eagles as a “a very good, sometimes great band” perhaps unfairly maligned by east-coast tastemakers and haters:
Writing in Long Island’s Newsday, Robert Christgau presented an essay in June 1972 acknowledging his mixed feelings about the Eagles. On the one hand, he respected their "basic commitment to rock ‘n’ roll." Christgau then went on to inform the reader: "Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them." The Eagles induce in Christgau "an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult to pinpoint."
The Eagles entry by Mark Coleman in the Rolling Stone Album Guide notes that "the hippie cowboy pose that so angered East Coast rock critics attracted legions of suburban record buyers." While their 1975 album (and studio predecessor to Hotel California) One of These Nights spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, Coleman represents the East Coast critical sensibility in his declaration that "the sugar-coated vitriol" of hits from the album, Lyin’ Eyes and Take It to the Limit," "still leaves a sour aftertaste."
In short, the Eagles came to represent the synthetic over authentic, the triumph of the booming Sunbelt suburbs and Southern California-style sprawl over the grim, economically depressed East Coast cities.
As one who grew up in suburb a generation later and who owned every Eagles CD and knew every pretentious lyric, I can tell you that the East Coast was right about the Eagles. They truly are horrible. And not because of who they influenced or what they represent. Their music is just bad. Most of it is anyway.
But you knew the Eagles were bad. Next week, I can tell you why. And I’ll tell what few songs are any good at all.
