Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

The Eagles - The Long Run (1979)


NUMBER ONE ALBUMS WEEK (MAY 5-11, 2014)

This doesn't hold up well as an album, but the singles sure are good.

Press of the time:
  • Robert Christgau (C+): "I actually enjoy maybe half of these songs until I come into contact with the conceited, sentimental woman-haters who are doing the singing."
  • Billboard: "a perfectly balanced set of midtempo ballads and raw, urgent rockers."
  • CashBox: "yet another scathingly brilliant rock album"
  • Rolling Stone: "chilling and altogether brilliant"
  • Stereo Review: "the most pointless vinyl extrusion of 1979"
  • High Fidelity: "does get less boring with repeated listenings"

Album chart peaks:
  • US Billboard Top 200: #1 (9 consecutive weeks, Nov 3 - Dec 29, 1979)
  • CashBox: #1 (14 consecutive weeks)
  • Rolling Stone: #1

Tracks: Each of the album's three singles has it's merits:
  • Heartache Tonight (peaked on the pop chart at #1) - you can really hear the influence of co-writer Bob Seger, but its the simple thumping bass drum part that hooks me.
  • The Long Run (#8) - most like the trademark SoCal country-rock sound of classic Eagles.
  • I Can't Tell You Why (#8) - pure soft rock goodness with gorgeous falsetto vocals from Timothy B. Schmit
Of the rest, only the Joe Walsh tune, In The City, stands out (in a slightly different version it appeared on The Warriors movie soundtrack), but it doesn't even sound like an Eagles tune. A restrained David Sanborn tries to resuscitate the bland soft rocker The Sad Cafe, but can't quite do it. Skip the other filler, particularly the painful Teenage Jail and the novelty tune, The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks.


Personal Memory Associated with this CD: At about the 4:05 mark of the song Heartache Tonight, you hear the spoken words, "Break my heart." One day in 8th grade, that part of the song was an earworm that I went around saying aloud as I roamed the halls between classes. Needless to say, I got a lot of strange looks that day. I'm lucky I didn't end up getting thrown head first into a lunch room trash can.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Long Road Out of Eden (2007)

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1 comment:

  1. HERCMay 7, 2014 at 11:30 AM

    Three years ago almost to the day, you reviewed your first Eagles CD which somewhat ironically is the last and some would say least Eagles album.

    Coming after Hotel California, The Long Run couldn't possibly be a great album, could it? The group was splintered, drunk on their success (and other substances) and the end was near. The album was over budget and missed its original scheduled release date, when it was intended to be a double album, as Frey and Henley futzed about. Still, as you noted, three great singles emerged.

    It's somewhat obvious I liked this album more than you did with only the album side closers "King Of Hollywood" and "The Sad Cafe" getting the skip treatment when they come on. I merged "Teenage Jail" and "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" as one track when I ripped it. And "Those Shoes" is as fat and funky as the Eagles have ever been - the groove is sampled on the Beastie Boys song "High Plains Drifter" on their masterpiece Paul's Boutique album. According to Who Sampled, both "In The City" and "I Can't Tell You Why" have also been sampled by other artists.

    If anyone is interested here's "In The City" from The Warriors.

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