Eagles - Hell Freezes Over (1994)

Contains four new studio tracks and eleven tracks recorded live in April 1994 for an MTV special. The four new tracks either sound like Don Henley solo tunes or Eagles tracks you've heard before even though you haven't. The live tunes are just what fans want: "play the hits, guys, and play them like they sound on the albums - don't mess with my familiar arrangements." Henley is such a smug chore I want to hate this, but I dig it - mainly due to Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt's contributions. Bottom line: if you like Eagles, you'll like this collection. But you knew that.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #1

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "you've heard this before"
• Rolling Stone (★★★½): "far better than anyone but their accountants had a right to expect."
• CashBox: "the group is acknowledging more openly their country sound"
• Billboard: "the project works fine"
• Robert Christgau: dud

Tracks: I like 3 of the 4 new ones, the exception being the too-country-for-Mark's-sensibilities cut, The Girl From Yesterday. The best of the four is Love Will Keep Us Alive, which topped the Adult Contemporary chart for 3 weeks.

Highlights of the live tracks are Wasted Time, I Can't Tell You Why, In The City, and Life In The Fast Lane. While New York Minute is one of Henley's better solo tunes, if a solo tune had to be chosen for the show, I would have opted for Life's Been Good or All She Wants To Do Is Dance or, hell, even Dirty Laundry. I would have preferred more rockers to all these ballads and mid-tempo tunes, but there's nothing really objectionable here. Track 6, the live version of Hotel California, still gets regular play on the local classic radio station.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: On the evening of the last day of school before Christmas break in December 1999, I attended a faculty party at the home of my school's assistant principal. He was an eccentric, single dude rumored to be a former CIA agent, but I digress. Most of the group in attendance was in their 20's and 30's and were quickly intoxicated (like most Xmas office parties, I'd imagine). Amid the frivolity, the assistant principal/special agent in charge asked me if I'd join him for some Cuban cigars and I jumped at the chance. I'd never smoked a celebrated Cuban cigar before and by the end of that evening, that fact hadn't changed. Turns out the cigar was a Havana Sunrise, which, at the time, were produced in Little Havana, Miami. Cubans? Close, but no cigar (apologies, that all-too-easy cliché was uncalled for). I've since had a good number of Cuban cigars and, while they are very good, I honestly can't tell much difference between them and premium cigars from Honduras or the Dominican Republic, I'm no aficionado but again I digress.

So what's all this got to do with The Eagles? At some point during said party, I noticed someone had turned on the TV and stuck in an Eagles Hell Freezes Over DVD. An odd choice for a Christmas party, but better than, say Chicago 25 or some such.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Long Road Out of Eden (2007)
The Long Run (1979)
Hotel California (1976)