When asked why they had ducked the Grammy Awards (perfectly understandable -no one wants to sit in a room full of stiffs watching Debby Boone and endless Star Wars production numbers), one of the Eagle’s said: "We were in the studio out in Malibu waiting for the ouncies."

God, what wit! With that one pithy rejoinder, the Eagle in question seemed to have the good taste to let us know that the Eagles are both superior to the ritual celebration of the music industry and they do large amounts of a' contemporary substance known for its ego-inflating properties. And their studio is in Malibu! What could be more hip; the right attitude, and the right place. Unfortunately, and this is a recurrent theme in the Eagles career, they were doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

In fact, they're still out in that studio, working on the eagerly awaited follow-up to Hotel California. When asked for a status report on the ETA of the new album, a spokesman for the group stated: "I’ll tell you what they told me, 'It'll be done when it's finished.' " I suppose you could say that was a marvelously Zen way of putting it, but it really adds up to more of that good old laid-back arrogance that comes from knowing your next LP will go double platinum, even if it's just a recording of the guys breaking wind in four-part harmony.

Actually, the delay on the follow-up-to-the-really-big-one" (also plaguing other FM heavyweights like Boston, Springsteen and Bob Seger) has more to do with ace producer Bill Szymczyk being tied up by his work on Joe Walsh's forthcoming solo album, But Seriously Folks. The record company has the Eagles Pi on their "indefinite future" release list, not a good sign, but their management has assured me that the group will be touring during the summer months. So much for the future.

Hotel California is a remarkable album for a number of reasons. First off, it did win a Grammy for best album of the year in the face of such formidable competition as Miss Boone's invocation of Our Father, Love and the Iocal. power company. And it does have several excellent tunes on it, not the least of which are the title track and Walsh's brilliant "Life In The Fast Lane," two atmospheric paeans to the "high-stakes" LA style. As always, the collective golden larynxes of Messrs. Frey, Henley and' Meisner are in perfect form--smooth, lush with occasional rough edges to prove they know whereof they sing and each heartfelt syllable kissed by that post adolescent tremulousness that goes right to the quick of the wide-eyed Eagle fan. Joe Walsh and Don Felder, two wily survivors of the rock wars, build stunning electric guitar montages that is a remarkable album for a number of reasons. First off, it did win a Grammy for best album of the year in the face of such formidable competition as Miss Boone's invocation of Our Father, Love and the Iocal. power company. And it does have several excellent tunes on it, not the least of which are the title track and Walsh's brilliant "Life In The Fast Lane," two atmospheric paeans to the "high-stakes" LA style. As always, the collective golden larynxes of Messrs. Frey, Henley and' Meisner are in perfect form--smooth, lush with occasional rough edges to prove they know whereof they sing and each heartfelt syllable kissed by that post adolescent tremulousness that goes right to the quick of the wide-eyed Eagle fan. Joe Walsh and Don Felder, two wily survivors of the rock wars, build stunning electric guitar montages that

Are near-faultless examples of balance and precision workmanship, if a bit antiseptic at times. By now, Tim Schmit (formerly of Poco) has replaced Randy Meisner, which means that one competent, sweet - voiced bass player has been replaced by another.

Walsh is the real story here. His inclusion into the group is important riot just because he brings a higher energy level to the group's overall tempo while adding the variety of his considerable skills on slide guitar, but mainly because Joe has always had an 0excellent sense of self - parody, amply demonstrated on tracks like "Life's Been Good" (from' the FM soundtrack album) and the titles of his solo LP’s.

This ability to laugh at himself, or to at least be objective about upper-echelon rock and roll mores, undoubtedly gave birth to "Life In The Fast Lane."' And although lines like "Lines on the mirror (there's that drug again) I lines on her face" don't exactly sparkle.with originality, lines like "he was too tired to make it / she was too tired to fight about it" do successfully invoke the terminal boredom of a Saturday night in Malibu Colony. Anyway, the indomitable "what is this bullshit" spirit of Joe Walsh obviously gave the other Eagles enough of a kick in the ass to write Hotel California, which is about as close as you're ever gonna come to a self -indictment from the Princes of the Desert.

This glimmer of self -revelation, couched in a perfectly seductive pop tune that was an instant hit, also managed to win over a good many critics, no small feat considering their long standing feud (recently reaching a culmination of sorts when the Eagles pounded Rolling Stone 15-8 in a friendly little softball game) which invariably arose not so much from a lack of musical ability but their jive, "fastest - gun - in - the - west" macho posturing. Or as the estimable Mr. Bangs put it in a penultimate retort: "These assholes couldn't lasso a sissy bar." For someone like me who'd been weaned on the temporary splendors of LA bands like the Byrds and the Buffalo Springfield, there was always a legit desire to. like the Eagles, mostly in light of the fact that their vocal and instrumental skills were absolutely undeniable.

But after the bright promise of the first album and the momentary fascination with Desperado an unfortunate pattern soon developed.

Squeaky - clean production soon eviscerated the rock & roll core of the band (Glenn Frey did come from Detroit, after all) and their prefabricated aura of self - importance and gloom in the face of certain LA decadence began to wear very thin.

So, after multilevel triumph of Hotel California, what are we left with? An album that will be "finished when it's done," that's what we're left with. Of course Walsh's solo album, in release, as of this writing, should give us some clues since it is produced by Mr., Szymczyk and will undoubtedly feature some of the other as sidemen,

In the meantime, we can only speculate. After the general tenor of some of HoteI California's better songs, we might, expect more personal material: Probably some disintegration - of - a - love,' relationship'-' that - was – only--physical stuff - they might even he able to combine two prevalent themes in a ditty entitled "Your Snowblind Lyin^' Eyes."

They could always bring back. the gunfighter mystique, in an updated format, (with an' eye to Coppola's about - to - be-released-and-hyped-to-death "Apocalypse Now", 'the Vietnam blockbuster) in a song about a duel to the death over Sunset Blvd. between

Two armored helicopters equipped with 30 cal. machine guns. Or how about "My Limo Can Beat Your Limo"? They could even linger over their stunning softball victories in an ode entitled "The Studs of Summer" The possibilities are endless. They might, heaven forbid, even put out an album that's better than Hotel California.

Return to Article Index