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Post by Kapitan on Aug 18, 2022 17:32:56 GMT
Here is one I'm not especially knowledgeable about, which might make it interesting to some extent. I suspect others here know more about it than I do. It's one of the better-publicized, longer-running intra-band breakups and feuds in rock and roll history.
The Eagles Fly Their Separate Ways: Don Henley v. Glenn Frey v. Joe Walsh v., et al. After completing their 1979 album The Long Run, the Eagles acrimoniously broke up in 1980. The band members went on with their careers, both as solo artists and contributors to other musicians' projects. For Joe Walsh, it was the continuation of a solo career that both predated and went on during his tenure with the group. For frontmen Glenn Frey and Don Henley, it was the beginning of their solo careers. Don Felder also launched a solo career, though not until 1983 and to less acclaim (despite a handful of prominent guest stars); as did Timothy B. Schmidt, though his solo debut was even later (1984) and his career focused more on session work for other artists. (I am not including members who left before the breakup, e.g. Randy Meisner or Bernie Leadon.)
I would argue the "big three" for consideration here are Henley, Frey, and Walsh: the most prominent personalities and the first to release solo albums after the breakup.
May 1981 - Joe Walsh released There Goes the Neighborhood... (Asylum Records). The album reached #20 on the Billboard charts and its one single reached the Top 50, with "A Life of Illusion" peaking at #34. 4.5 stars at AllMusic.com.
May 1982 - Glenn Frey released No Fun Aloud (Asylum Records). The album went gold, reached #32 on the Billboard charts, and spawned three Top 50 hits: "The One You Love" (#15); "I Found Somebody" (#31); and "All Those Lies" (#41). 3.0 stars at AllMusic.com.
August 1982 - Don Henley released I Can't Stand Still (Asylum Records). The album went gold, reached #24 on the Billboard charts, and spawned three Top 50 hits: "Dirty Laundry" (#3); "Johnny Can't Read" (#42); and "I Can't Stand Still" (#48). 3 stars at AllMusic.com.
Anybody have strong thoughts on this? Were they better apart than they'd come to be together? Who came out looking the best? Was it one of the bigger names, or maybe a dark horse like Schmidt, who seems to have kept better relationships with everyone and just kept on working? Commercially, it seems they all performed relatively well, all landing between #20-34 on the album charts and having Top 50 singles.
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Post by kds on Aug 18, 2022 18:05:39 GMT
I don't really have any strong opinions as I'm probably more of a casual Eagles fan.
I have best of collections for Walsh and Henley, so for those 1981-82 albums, I'm really only familiar with A Life of Illusion and Dirty Laundry.
I will say that had the Eagles stayed together, we may have never heard Don's Boys of Summer as it exists, which I think is an all time great summer pop / rock song (yes, I know it's about summer being over, but it sounds like a summer song).
It's also worth noting that the Eagles have essentially back been together since 1994, and we have just one album to show for it, so I guess it's possible that much of the solo material could've still come out.
And....I've just talked myself into a circle.
EDIT
Also, it's possible had the Eagles stayed together, the term "Parrothead" might not exist. Timothy B. Schmidt was briefly in Jimmy Buffett's band in the mid 80s, and compared Buffett's cult like following to "Dead Heads," adding "They're not Dead Heads, they're Parrotheads." So...there's that.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 18, 2022 18:33:14 GMT
I am actually planning to listen to those three albums I mentioned above. (Granted, plans don't always occur...) I've never been that big a fan of any of the ex-Eagles, but by the same token, I don't necessarily dislike them strongly either. I figure it might be fun giving these a spin--and if I hate them, I'll just skip through quickly.
(Hopefully Joe Walsh's album is better than the crap he was doing with Ringo around that same time.)
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Post by kds on Aug 18, 2022 18:53:39 GMT
For S&Gs, I'm listening to the Don Henley album now. It's not bad, but it's pretty disjointed. But, in my limited knowledge of Don Henley's solo career, the only thing really distinctive about his solo music is his singing voice. Stylistically, it's pretty much all over the map.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 18, 2022 19:54:22 GMT
I started with the Walsh album, as I thought I'd go chronologically. I'm only about halfway through (pesky work call took an hour ... I hate when work interrupts my music listening), but I don't like it. Then again, I've never liked Joe Walsh, so that's not surprising.
EDIT - I've added the AllMusic.com ratings to those three solo albums referenced above. I'm astounded that they gave Walsh's 4.5 (out of 5) stars! I was not impressed. Then again, I just started Frey's and, two minutes into the first song, I'm having to pinch myself to stay awake. I can't believe this song was a modest hit.
SECOND EDIT - Wow, that Frey album is not good. In fact, for someone coming off of nearly a decade of serious stardom with the Eagles, it's pretty shockingly mediocre-to-bad, not in terms of incompetence, but total anonymity. It could be any milquetoast soft-rocker of the early '80s. Some of it is pretty funny, which would be better if it were meant to be. Yikes.
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Post by kds on Aug 19, 2022 12:18:26 GMT
I'm listening to There Goes the Neighborhood now. I like some Joe Walsh material, but this is pretty listless IMO. The opener, Things, reminds me a bit of later era Petty, in that it's not bad, but overstays its welcome at nearly six minutes.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 19, 2022 17:08:40 GMT
I've begun the Henley album, thankfully the last of this bunch. Amusingly, the first track is the title track, "I Can't Stand Still," but it's a plodding dirge of a song. I can't help but think after listening to 2 & 1/11th of these 3 albums that while the Eagles reportedly were snorting mountains of coke in the late '70s (and so I'd have guessed into the early '80s), it doesn't seem to show up in their boring, slow, tedious music.
Barring a major improvement as this one goes on, I'm going to say that my opinion is everybody came out the loser in this grudge match.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 19, 2022 17:59:33 GMT
In the end, the Henley album was the best of the three albums mentioned above, in my opinion (though it started and ended badly, in my opinion). The Walsh album was just mediocre Walsh, and the Frey album made me cringe. (I cannot say it was cringe, as that expression simply doesn't make sense, and it is beyond me ability to adopt it. Sorry.)
I'm pleased to put this one behind me. Perhaps I ought not have thought of it in the first place, but I was trying to think of another good example for this thread, as I do like the concept.
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Post by kds on Aug 19, 2022 18:27:25 GMT
I didn't listen to the Frey album, but I've never really been a fan of anything I've heard from his solo career.
I wonder if the split spared fans from some very mediocre Eagles albums.
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Post by kds on Aug 26, 2022 16:32:21 GMT
It's been a week, perhaps time for a new one.
The Man in Black Leaves Purple for Rainbow
In 1974, Deep Purple founder Ritchie Blackmore was not happy with his band. Newcomers David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes had taken the band into a more soulful direction on the band's ninth album Stormbringer.
Ritchie wanted Purple to do a cover of an obscure Quartermass song called Black Sheep of the Family, but Purple turned it down. (Side note - I'm really not sure how somebody who welds enough influence as Ritchie lost control of his band, but that's another subject). So, Ritchie took the song and recorded it with label mate and opening act Elf backing him. He intended to release it as a solo single, but had good chemistry with Elf, in particular Elf's singer Ronnie James Dio.
Ritchie decided to leave Purple and form a new band with the musicians from Elf - Rainbow. Deep Purple brought in young American guitarist Tommy Bolin.
On August 4, 1975, the album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was released. Produced by former Purple producer Martin Birch, the album hit #30 in the states.
On November 7, 1975, Purple released Come Taste the Band. Oddly enough, it's more of a straight forward rock album than Stormbringer (maybe trying to keep pace with Ritchie?). The album hit #43 in the US.
The head to head competition pretty much ends there. Purple packed in it after a disastrous tour which was plagued with rampant drug use and the mysterious death of a roadie. David Coverdale tells the story that when he told Jon Lord was he quitting the band, Lord said "there's no band to quit." Coverdale and Hughes each went solo, the former eventually forming Whitesnake (later joined by Lord and Ian Paice). Tommy Bolin died in late 1976.
Rainbow would release six more studio albums, each with a different lineup of musicians with Ritchie as the lone constant. They achieved more commercial success with a more AOR direction after parting ways with Dio after 1978 (who might appear in another House Divided story).
Rainbow's first run ultimately ended in 1983 when Blackmore joined a reformed Mark II Purple lineup.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 26, 2022 16:41:16 GMT
I'm looking forward to this, because despite never having gotten into Deep Purple, I have listened to a little bit of the Coverdale era stuff (not this one), and I really like early Whitesnake more than my other favorite music might suggest.
But I don't think I've ever listened to any Rainbow, ever.
Mix in that '70s rock landscape, the classic bands shifting lineups, the decadence, the tragedies, etc, and it's an interesting "battle."
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Post by kds on Aug 26, 2022 16:42:33 GMT
I'm looking forward to this, because despite never having gotten into Deep Purple, I have listened to a little bit of the Coverdale era stuff (not this one), and I really like early Whitesnake more than my other favorite music might suggest.
But I don't think I've ever listened to any Rainbow, ever.
Mix in that '70s rock landscape, the classic bands shifting lineups, the decadence, the tragedies, etc, and it's an interesting "battle."
I'm willing to bet you've probably heard some of the Rainbow hits like Since You've Been Gone, Stone Cold, or Street of Dreams.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 26, 2022 18:34:36 GMT
I think Rainbow owes Jimi Hendrix a songwriters credit on "Catch the Rainbow." Sounds awfully influenced by his "Little Wing!"
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Post by kds on Aug 26, 2022 18:56:42 GMT
I think Rainbow owes Jimi Hendrix a songwriters credit on "Catch the Rainbow." Sounds awfully influenced by his "Little Wing!" It's similar, and I know both Ritchie and Ronnie were big Jimi fans. But, I think it's one of those many, many cases in rock where the melodies are similar, but different enough. What's that old line? "There are only so many notes."
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 26, 2022 19:04:21 GMT
Yeah I was thinking the chord progression of the verse and the general style of the guitar playing are similar. It's not a literal theft, though. However, I wonder if Jimi were alive, whether he'd eventually have sued. Or whether his estate ever did. Considering the song wasn't a single and the album didn't even go gold, probably wouldn't have been worth the effort.
I finished the Rainbow album and wasn't too impressed. Not bad, but not special. Just began Purple.
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