What does it sound like?:
To this seventeen year old at the time, 1975 was the year music grew up. Bob Marley Live, Blood On The Tracks, The Last Record Album, Another Green World, Young Americans, The Original Soundtrack, Katy Lied, Mothership Connection and There’s No Place Like America Today were all mature, detailed, complex works on heavy rotation in my house. The simple chords of Glam Rock lingered but lost its glitter for Down By Jetty and Rock ‘N’ Roll. Sadly, to my shame, there was no room for female voices, not even Joni nor Emmylou. One Of These Nights did not feature on my turntable either. It’s not that it wasn’t grown up music. Grown ups clearly loved it but my teenage self saw it as dull cotton wool for the ears. It wasn’t just middle-of-the-road, it was buried in the soft centre, sub CSN/Y slop. I didn’t think much of CSN/Y. The charms of Laurel Canyon passed me by in 1975. One Of These Nights is the fourth album by Eagles, each increasingly popular, as they progressed from Linda Ronstadt’s backing band to megastars. It was their first number one and sold 4 million copies in The States alone. I could still hear them when the radio was turned off.
It turned out I wasn’t the only one. Everybody seemed to hate Eagles and it got worse when the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) invented a new category, platinum, to describe the unprecedented popularity of the Greatest Hits as it shifted over 45 million units worldwide. Such enormous success brought groupies, cocaine, heavy drinking, constant travelling and a divorce from reality. They always intended to to be huge but the inflation of Glenn Frey’s and Don Henley’s egos, in particular, led to clashes with everyone who came into their orbit. Fellow band members suffered, as did journalists, who often portrayed them as hideous human beings. Walter Becker’s sideswipe against them on The Royal Scam made me feel vindicated.
Then, in the bleak eighties, deep in a hole, I heard a plaintive voice emerge from the gloom. Quiet, at first, all alone at the end of the evening, bolstered by compassionate strings and nurturing backing vocals, the rhythm a delicate waltz, it grew in strength, a voice long-suffering but still managing to convey hope. The song yearns for something better. Vulnerable and exhausted, it somehow finds an inner resilience to keep going, to gird the loins and try and try again. Take It To The Limit is a truly remarkable song. By the time Randy Meisner hit a cathartic high note for a long ten seconds, I was ready to face anything. The band’s belief in it wasn’t immediate. It was the third and last single from the album but its impact was so powerful it became their first number one, despite everyone already owning the album. It has sustained me over decades, a song I turn to at moments of indecision or crisis. Live, it was the best received of all their songs, the audience regularly losing its collective mind. Meisner was only an occasional writer and a reluctant lead vocalist who hated the spotlight so much he came to blows with Frey over the continual demands to perform it and quit the band.
I told myself that Take It To The Limit is an exception, an aberration in the Eagles catalogue but, over time, I’ve found myself listening more to their work. Now I’m older and wiser, and, maybe a little sentimental, I struggle to identify what I found so objectionable. Frey’s and Henley’s crimes against humanity pale into insignificance compared to those committed by Carevaggio, Marlowe, Bernini, Wagner, Spector, or Jackson (some unproven), and I still enjoy their work. The casual misogyny and drug references in the lyrics were tame for the seventies. They were always careful to credit their co-writers. Bitter legal disputes centred on business other than song royalties. I guess it was the loveliness I resented.
Listening to Rob Jacob’s new remix in 2026, it is, indeed full of lovely whistleable tunes, sweet angelic harmonies, well constructed songs and accomplished ensemble performances, blending Folk, Rock, Country and Pop. The title track is an ear-friendly toe-tapper that would pair well with Haitian Divorce on a seventies nostalgia night, the Eagles song the creepier of the two. Too Many Hands, awestruck by a woman’s beauty, begins with lively acoustic guitars and ends with abrasive electric soloing, as if marking a transition from Folk to Rock. Hollywood Waltz weeps with pedal steel for a woman mistreated by men. There is a near seven minute psychedelic banjo country instrumental that scores credibility points for becoming the theme for The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Lyin’ Eyes is luxury cashmere musically but, lyrically, a heartbroken tale of infidelity in a sterile marriage. It won a Grammy for best Pop vocal. Visions is all electric and is Don Felder’s only lead vocal for Eagles. Its profound revelation is that he fancies someone. After The Thrill Is Gone is maudlin muddling through in the aftermath of BB King’s famous song. The album concludes with a knees on the floor bedtime prayer, I Wish You Peace. Unlike the previous three LPs, none of its eight tracks are weak and there is no repetition. One Of These Nights is a very pleasant listen with unexpected emotional depth and enough edgy guitar to define Country-Rock. Just like the previous expanded release of Hotel California, there are no studio extras or outtakes.
The concert at Anaheim Stadium, California on 28th September 1975 was their last with Bernie Leadon, who provided their Country Folk heart. In a passing of the chalice, his replacement, Joe Walsh, appears for the encore. It is perfectly recorded and mastered and the playing and singing is flawless. They cherry pick from their first four albums without always going for obvious choices. The crowd are in rapture, bordering on ecstatic for Take It To The Limit and Witchy Woman. In a thumb of the nose to Glynn Johns, their first producer, who told them they weren’t a Rock band, they cover Chuck Berry’s Carol in the style of The Rolling Stones and inadvertently prove his point. Nevertheless, this concert features plenty of Rawk guitar soloing and dueling in the last half a dozen tracks to demonstrate their intent before Walsh plugs into his amp. It is a remarkable historical document that any music-lover could enjoy.
The Blu-ray includes the new mix and the live show in both Dolby Atmos and hi-res stereo, but there’s no place for the original mix. The inevitable book flimsy on text but packed with photos. They are definitely better looking than CSN/Y. Spare a thought for Boyd Elder, “El Chingadero”, whose skull art adorns this album and the Greatest Hits. It is said he is the artist whose work is owned by more Americans than any other. Naturally, it is best appreciated on the 3 LP vinyl set.
There is much to admire in this edition. The album is a lot better than I remember but not as good as I hoped. The big draw is the impressively pristine live set. The price is surprisingly reasonable too. My overall rating has moved from yuk to meh.
What does it all *mean*?
Music had grown up in 1975 but I hadn’t.
Goes well with…
Thinking twice. Walter Becker rethought his attitude to Eagles. Is your mind made up or is it time for a reconsideration?
Release Date:
01/05/2026
Might suit people who like…
Polished, professional Pop music.
Carol (Anaheim Stadium, California on 28th September 1975)
Great review! My copy arrives today and I make no apologies, I love this band!
Great review as always Tigg and you managed it without putting your foot in your mouth. 🦶
Thanks 🙂
Maybe, being a year older and instilled in the Byrds and Burritos, I always had a soft spot and high hopes for the Eagles, coming on board for Desperado and On the Border. ( The debut I found just a little too eager to be who they weren’t yet ready to be.) But I was a country boy and was completely with Glyn Johns and his rejection of any rock ability in the band; Out of Control, anyone? The most ham fisted attempt at rocking out since Genesis’ The Knife. Once Bernie Leadon left the draw, for me, disappeared. I was, as they say, Already Gone by Hotel California, however admirable, in a Stairway to Heaven/Freebird way the song is constructed.
When I eventually saw the band, in around 2016, it was slick and sad, in a way. The Joe Walsh, Don Henley and Glenn Frey show with the rest of the band reduced to cameos.
I feel this is a purist view, Desperado to Leadon’s exit being the definitive Eagles and there is much to commend it.
I enjoy The Knife but never thought of it as “rocking out” before.
I enjoyed reading that review, Tiggs – but your final sentence seems at odds with what came before. Did you remember at the end that you didn’t like The Eagles? 🙂
Old habits die hard. There is a definite upgrade in my appreciation. Meh is probably not far enough. OK is the next step. How about “more than OK”? I think that is more accurate
Nah, meh was correct.
A great and magnanimous review which did have me exploring my prejudices, but I come down with Lodestone W, too; the Dude prevails. The Eagles still sound like safe cocaine-country MOR dreck to me. I can see why it’s a billion-seller and appeals to the many millions it does, but it leaves me cold. Great if you like it, but to me, file under “nothing to see, please move on”. There are many unappreciated artists far worthier of finally coming around to. But what do i know?
I am looking forward to this arriving today. I was a fan from the first album and got to see them at Wembley in June 1975 when I thought they were fantastic. The set list on this live album is very similar to the show I saw, even down to Joe Walsh joining them on stage – it was fairly obvious he was going to become part of the band and that they were heading off into a different musical direction, and you can hear that in the studio album anyway I always felt.
Thanks for another great review Tiggs, as always. However I am a bit puzzled by the the last few conclusions – having been effusive about the songs you descibe the album as ‘meh’..? You also say it it is best appreciated on vinyl – is this a sonic conclusion having compred the two formats? I have the vinyl arriving courtesy of Amazon’s price cock up!
I was talking about the cover art rather than the sound.
(see reply to fitterstoke concerning “meh”)
Ah, yes! Sorry Tiggs – of course it was in the context of the artwork!
Great review although I think, based on reading Don Felder’s book, there was a lot of bitterness from him and Randy Meisner regarding song credits. Henley and Frey seemed careful to credit themselves as co writers of songs they didn’t have much, if anything, to do with writing. “Change a word and take a third” was the phrase Felder and Meisner used.
Ah. I did a search and couldn’t find anything that went to court over credits.
To be fair, Meisner did struggle to finish his songs. He needed more than one word change. Not sure about Felder.
I don’t think they ever went to court and obviously what I read was from Don Felder’s point of view. I don’t think he wrote a lot but was the main writer for the song Hotel California.
When they got the huge offer to reform for a tour Henley and Frey decided that instead of being equal shares as before they would each get twice as much as the others (80 million each for them and 40 million each for the rest, which is a bit mind boggling especially considering how long ago it was). He was given 24 hours, I think, to agree or be sacked but turned out their contractual agreement meant they couldn’t do it so he got a very large but undisclosed payoff.
One of their best, if not the best – still love this album!
A benchmark review, as always. I’ll happily admit to liking the Eagles in small doses, but they really should call it a day. Desperado was the one for me, but I had a sneaking admiration for Hotel California too.
Desperado was the one for me too. It was the only one I bothered buying.
Bloody Amazon…! Just seen it is now not arriving today….expected 11th July!
I always liked Eagles (it really needs the definite article). I didn’t have any hangups about California, smooth, excess blah blah blah. Great singin’, great playin’. I notice haters of bands often light upon bands they don’t like anyway and seize upon an aspect of behaviour which I would guess the vast majority of bands in the 70s engaged in. It doesn’t surprise me at all that two of their albums are in the top six albums of all time.
That said, I don’t like everything. Their songwriting can sage, and I don’t think I have ever heard their final album. But those harmonies and Don Felder’s always superb guitar playing I find irresistible. “One of these nights” is a brilliant song and when that first very high note screams in on the guitar solo I reach for the air plectrum.
Superb review as ever Tig and it made me listen to the album again, and as ever I really like a lot of it and I’m not bothered about some of it. Mind you I won’t be buying it – I have the vinyl and last remaster and that’s enough.
Their last album, Long Road Out of Eden, is good and I often play it. At two CDs there is definitely some filler, but the best tracks match anything in their canon. When I saw them on the History tour (the last with Glenn Frey I think) they ignored it completely.
And while this is not technically an Eagles song, it is of course peerless, and in this live version about as glorious as it gets.
Probably falls under the Hate Don Henley umbrella if that’s how you roll. I think it’s brilliant. Mike Campbell tells a good story about how he wrote the music and recorded it with DH.
Steve Knightley has form with this song, a cover featuring on a solo album and, live, frequently, with Show of Hands. Often with a tactical substitution of “Bellowhead sticker” for “Deadhead”. But this version is better still:
Well it’s taken me 50 years to realise that The Eagles are simply Eagles!
Terrific review. I was absolutely a country rock kid in the mid 70s – Emmylou, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Linda Ronstadt, Poco, the Burritos. The Eagles fitted right into that – my first Eagles album was On the Border which i thought was great. I liked One Of These Nights and Hotel California as well, and the Greatest Hits, but not enough for me to really love them. I bailed after that – I don’t think I’ve heard any of their albums after Hotel California. I feel no need to change that, but I will definitely listen to One of These Nights again now, and see how it holds up.
And you’re right, 1975 was a truly great year. I’m the same age as you and as well as most of the records you mention I was listening to and loving Physical Graffiti, There’s One in Every Crowd, Hokey Pokey, Venus and Mars, Tonight’s the Night, Stills, the Basement Tapes, Rising for the Moon, Born to Run, John Fogerty, Still Crazy After All These Years, the Hissing of Summer Lawns, and Pour Down Like Silver. Maybe it’s just because those years at 17 and 18 are so formative, but I still maintain that most of those are amongst the artists’ very best albums. And they’re all ones that sustained me through Uni and which I still love.