Welcome to the acoustic Hotel California
A quiet beautiful version I’d never heard before. In this rendering you can pay more attention to their musicianship, particularly the guitar solos (5:34-on), and hear the Spanish influence more clearly:
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I have this version on DVD from that concert. I like it, but I still think the electric version is a bit better. In either case, the high point of the song is Walsh and Felder playing off each other and then together.
I’ve never been a big fan of Boomer music, but this is one song that I do like. A nice rhythm, and interesting lyrics.
Among Boomer artists John Denver and his country style songs were more to my taste. I was raised on Sinatra, Como, Nat King Cole, Sara Vaughn, Doris Day, and the songs of that era. Ah, those were days. 🙂
J.J.:
You call it Boomer music, and technically it is. But I think of it as late Boomer music. It was after my time, I can assure you. The last Boomers were born in 1964 and they would have been 13 when that song came out. The earliest ones would have been 33, born in 1944. I’m one of the earlier Boomers, although not among the earliest. I think of 50s and 60s music as Boomer music (although I don’t usually think in those terms anyway). “Hotel California” was released in 1977. It is indeed a great song.
JJ, as a Boomer I really like those artists as well as Big Band era. In fact I think hearing those while growing up helped me move towards jazz. If only some ofy tastes had rubbed off on my millenial daughters. ….sigh
Speaking for the Boomer Leadership and the rest of my colleagues on the Boomer Board of Elders (Born between August 15 and December 31, 1945 ) we officially recognize Hotel California — esp this acoustic version — as Boomer Anthem. I’m been making a collection of these official anthems at my place and I shall add this well-curated example to the collection.
vanderleun:
Ah, but we don’t trust anyone over 30, do we? So why should we trust you?
Our ourselves, for that matter?
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“In either case, the high point of the song is Walsh and Felder playing off each other and then together.”
This! And the 1:20 intro was also mighty fine.
I saw this at a friend’s house about 20 years ago and while it was familiar I had to ask who it was. I am a boomer but have always favored Sinatra, Steve and Edie, Matt Munro, and Nat King Cole. And, of course Ed Ames. The first popular song I remember is The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane. I think I still have every vinyl album Ed recorded solo.
Wow… two decades of just the best music ever… relegated to the dustbin of history as “Boomer Music”.
“All we are is dust in the wind…”
This is one of the classic rock songs that I’ve heard thousands of times but I still get a little excited when it comes on.
Couple of others are ‘More Than A Feeling’ by Boston and ‘Sultans Of Swing’ by Dire Straits and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ by The Who. There are others also but I think it is a testament to a great song that you never get tired of it.
It helps to have iconic lyrics like ‘you can check out but you can never leave’ or ‘meet the new boss same as the old boss’ which give the songs an eternal relevance.
Never a big Fleetwood Mac fan (born in 1946) but in particular liked Christine’s contributions, especially Over My Head.
Parker,
Not the popular opinion but I like Christine McVie’s songs better than Stevie Nicks. Plus McVie was more on the same wavelength with Buckingham musically which led them to collaborate better.
‘Everywhere’ is a good example. Love that song.
This was at the same time as Punk was coming into fashion. The Eagles and others of their ilk were seen as so rich and cocaine-ridden as to be completely out of touch with anyone young or remotely rebellious. The Rolling Stones still had another few decent songs (“Shattered”) but were largely a spent force and the “stadium bands” like Led Zeppelin had also made their fortunes and mostly said all they had to say. I liked the songs “Victim of Love” and “Life in the Fast Lane” from this same Eagles album but as noticed before I’m out of step with the culture favored on this site. I found the Sex Pistols genuinely exciting, and somewhere in 77 or 78 attended great concerts by Patti Smith and Iggy Pop. (This was the tour when Iggy was still young with short hair and featured David Bowie in his band on keyboards.) Talking Heads, Bowie, Roxy Music — there was a lot of good music in the 1970s which has held up very well.
As for such as Perry Como, what comes to mind is the SNL skit in which Como was doing songs lying horizontally on the stage while some mock K-Tel announcer pitched this as “the most relaxing music ever made.” Sorry. I actually like some Frank Sinatra backed by Nelson Riddle and the jazzier songs by Nat King Cole.
But in 1977 my friends and I were all going down to see what was happening at the Revenge Club, to check out Portland’s versions of the Ramones. (Which no, wasn’t anything any good, but I’m glad I witnessed that scene myself.)
Disco and Donna Summer was next. When the Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1979 World Series they endlessly pushed the song “We Are Family,” disco that was already old. Such was the prevailing culture of the time.
There are some massively popular songs, like Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” that are excellent songs, but after a while I can’t stand to hear them anymore.
Hotel California is one I’ve never gotten sick of hearing.
Amusingly, Phil Collins once gave an interview on live radio and apologized to listeners for the radio stations playing his hits incessantly.
_____
I love the old Eagles, like Take It Easy, a Jackson Brown song; and the entire Desperados album. For some strange reason, the song Lyin Eyes typifies the California experience for me. I remember hearing it when it was new on a great sound system and watching the sunset through someone’s picture window in Solana Beach overlooking the ocean.
Fleetwood Mac is one of those bands with a very long and varied history and great old albums like Bare Trees and Mystery To Me.
TommyJay,
The last couple minutes of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ never get old. The first 5 minutes or so I agree don’t hold up.
The Eagles are actually boomers, unlike most of those who made what people think of first as boomer music—Beatles, Dylan, et al. So HC is boomer music. A great song and performance in any case. Partial to the electric version myself as a high point of electric guitar. But of course the 12-string is essential too.
Thank you so much for posting this – such a treat, and ‘musicianship’ is the very least that’s on display here.
Never liked that song, which puts me at odds w/ a lot of people. My penance has been to hear it over and over and over…and now here I am.
Estoy Listo:
Luckily it’s not on autoplay.
I’ve always loved this song for the guitar riffs. This was beautiful and a joy to watch. And somehow with this shutdown, the lyrics seem even more eerie.
Re Fleetwood Mac, the best Mac stuff (to me anyway) by far are the early pre-Stevie Nicks recordings when they had Peter Green on guitar. Green founded the band with John McVie and Mick Fleetwood and is an exceptionally talented musician. Had personal issues not derailed his career he would be more widely recognized as a peer of the likes of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.
That’s my man Jumpin’ Joe Walsh on 2nd guitar, though he is much more impressive with his Les Paul plugged in. The guy on the right end playing 1st guitar though, Wow! Anybody know his name?
Doug,
John Guilfoyle above identifies him as Don Felder. I know the name but not the face.
I always enjoyed seeing the videos of the Eagles with Joe Walsh. The very first rock concert I attended as a high school student was the James Gang. Imagine my disappointment when Joe Walsh wasn’t there. He had just left the band.
Never much cared for that tune, then or now, or took much of an interest in that band.
David Bowie, Chicago, Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, Weather Report, Jethro Tull, Yes, the Doobie Brothers, Led Zeppelin. Pretty rich vein that era.
Although a Boomer, I never felt that I fit in with my cohorts musical tastes. I paid little or no attention to popular music in the 50’s, didn’t like what Elvis Presley tunes I did hear, started listening to pop music in the middle 60’s and was drawn to rhythm and blues, soul, almost all of the Motown sound, Marvin and Tammy, early Supremes, and continued listening to the local “black” radio. Modern music is not for me. I am a frustrated opera singer these days.
Well Joe Walsh also managed to pull together “Life’s Been Good” so to me “Hotel California” doesn’t seem to have been a “one off,” just a mite of talent there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXWvKDSwvls
Just to mash things up a bit, Jethro Tull put out a similar song a couple years earlier called “We used to know”
Oddly similar feel. The Eagles and Tull toured together 2 years prior. But, Felder wasn’t on the Eagles yet. Just a little rock trivia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAnh1waFPeY
During the 70s we lived just off the Peak to Peak Highway in Colorado. A few miles to the north was the Caribou Ranch, a spectacular piece of Front Range acreage (about 4000 acres) that was owned by William Guercio, a music producer. He turned the ranch into a recording site for many of the big artists of the time. Whenever I drove by the ranch I thought what a shame it was that such a property wasn’t being used as a working ranch. It seemed a shame to not use the property the way nature intended. That’s just the way I’m wired.
For about 13 years it was a huge success as a recording venue. Those who know and like the music of that era might be surprised by the number of musicians that recorded their hits there. The studio complex was shut down and never used again after a 1985 fire destroyed the control room and caused about US$3 million in damage. After that most of the ranch was sold to Boulder County and/or converted to open space. A small, part was set aside for a residential development.
Read all about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribou_Ranch
JJ, we have something very much in common. My family owned a house in Ward for many years.
Interesting comments. It all goes to show that musical tastes don’t follow politics. Or even age with perfect predicibility.
Re, American Songbook jazz/pop recordings from the late 50s and early 60s. It’s perfectly reasonable that mid and late boomers should be able to enjoy Fitzgerald and Sinatra , as that was probably what the family radio or stereo was playing when they were 5 to 10 years old.
In going through my parents possessions, what recording artists did I find? Vic Damone, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Dean Martin, and the like. No doubt many families had much the same catalog, with some classical, country, and bossa nova type stuff thrown in
Thus, 30 years later, we found ourselves buying CDs of that era’s ” best of” collections to background our own patio parties and barbeques.
Those of that age would also remember, if just barely, Ricky Nelson, Presely, and the various pre 1964 American pop stars played relentlessly on the top 40 AM stations. So that music might evoke some hazy nostalgia.
Re. Anthem music. Unlike most here, I would reckon, rock anthem music leaves me pretty cold, even if some of it, repeat, some of it, once resonated. So yeah, pop flavored anthems [depending on how you define “anthem”] recorded by Buffalo Springfield, or Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponies, or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young , might still retain some emotive power as well as musical value. And really. Who’s got a bone to pick with ‘Harvest for the World”, or “Woodstock”? You heard it in grade school or junior high, and it sticks with you.
But along with those benign examples there are the righteously onanistic celebrations of self and cohort that just look more ridiculous, or even contemptible, as time rolls on.
Displays of unjustified self-regard are embarrassing to witness, even when set to music.
Re. Older “boomers”. I was not around to hear, much less of an age to register the music that was produced in the early boomer period. But from my dredging YouTube by the decade, it appears to me that that period between 1945 and 1955 was one truly abysmal time for American popular music, with a few notable areas of exception. Doggies in the window, oh my mama or papa or whatever, Mario Lanza, Eddie Fisher, … puke.
No wonder older boomers became so twisted; listening to that stuff in the cradle. LOL
And since I should probably announce some recognized flaws in my own taste I will admit to hating tenors , and folk music and its performers, with a violence that surprises even me.. I know it’s unreasoable. But if I had a hammer …
Richard J. Taylor:
The nascent Eagles were an opening band for the Tull tour of 1972. The tune “We Used to Know” written by Ian Anderson back for the “Stand Up” album (1969) was a standard during that tour.
“Hotel California” uses exactly the same chord changes/progression, but they moved it into a completely different rhythm when they filed off the serial numbers and created a completely different tune.
Here’s a great summary of the similarities and differences:
https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/did-eagles-get-hotel-california-idea-jethro-tull
Here’s what Ian had to say about it:
“Though Anderson has commented on the similarities between the songs over the years, he says he’s always meant his comments as a joke. He dismisses the idea that anyone in the Eagles plagiarized “We Used to Know.”
“It’s not plagiarism. It’s just the same chord sequence,” he says. “It’s in a different time signature, different key, different context. And its a very, very fine song that they wrote, so I can’t feel anything other than happiness for their sake, and I feel flattered had they come across that chord sequence. It’s difficult to find a chord sequence that hasn’t been used and hasn’t been the focus of lots of pieces of music. Harmonic progression—it’s almost a mathematical certainty that you’re gonna crop up with the same thing sooner or later if you’re strumming a few chords on a guitar.”
The test for Boomerhood (Boomerness? Boomerism? Boomerkeit?) should be whether you’re on Kevin Kline or Jeff Goldblum’s side in this dialog from “The Big Chill”:
Goldblum: You know, there’s been some good music written since 1968.
Kline: Not in this house, there hasn’t!
Gerard Vanderleun — I believe I qualify for membership on the Boomer Board of Elders, as I was born nine months and three days after my father was demobilized — December 29, 1946. (He didn’t have enough points to come home right after V-E Day, and thank God for Harry Truman, he wasn’t sent to the Pacific.)
DNW,
I have also used the term “onanism” to refer to a lot of rock performances. Like you, I also find anthem rock lacking, and, like you I loathe folk music.
I saw Donald Fagen recently touring as “Steely Dan.” Fagen and his deceased partner, Walter Becker always had a reputation for hiring top notch studio musicians and Fagen’s backing band here was no exception. It was some of the best musicianship I have heard out of a live rock band. The musicians were incredible, but they either didn’t understand, or didn’t care to fake the difficulty of performance stuff; bending at the waist, closing eyes tightly, grimacing… It was interesting to watch the audience. Folks who knew music were blown away. Not only were the musicians great, they were so great they didn’t even have to struggle to be great. But a lot of the crowd seemed a bit bored. Without the visual cues that the musicians were struggling they didn’t recognize the brilliance.
Physics guy, we’re both C.U. grads and I assume you’re also a Colorado native. We have probably trod much of the same ground in Colorado at one time or another.
In 1946 Gerry Cunningham set up Gerry Mountaineering in Ward. My best high school friend and climbing partner were among his first customers. Gerry was one of the few places in the U.S. where you could buy pitons, carabiners, and nylon climbing ropes at that time. I knew Ward before Ward and Gerry became well known. 🙂
Great song, really nice version – but comments even better! Wife already in bed so I’m a gonna finish doing her HDD to SSD (hard drive to flash drive, 1 TeraByte! just over $125!) cloning with Macrium.
Rufus, Steely Dan remains one of my fav bands – especially Pretzel Logic. Born in ’56, I’m a clear middle boomer, early retirement (with a 14 y.o. son, get money for him, too.) They had a long rep as a great studio band, NOT touring – with perfectionism and great musicians. Studies show that classical musicians which are hidden are judged differently than those who are watched, with the ones watched being judged better when they give a better performance.
Part of live is the musician’s relationship with the music; torture, agony, joy, exuberance.
I liked punk, too – and often saw the Ramones in CA/ Silicon Valley and other punk/ new wave bands. Energy! Drinking! Falling asleep after a few (too many?) beers on the table during the headliners’ – more than a couple of times.
Caribou Ranch? Reminds me of the Elton John album I hated/ was quite disappointed with. Barely remember Pinky & I’ve Seen the Saucers, so I’m listening to them on YouTube as I type. Still mediocre. (Bagel Radio has lots of new alternative music, much of it mediocre. The gems are brighter then.) Genuinely did not like “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”, and still don’t.
I’m with Jeff Goldblum about good late 60s music – the 60s sort of ended with Jim Morrison’s death (OD drug? alcohol almost suicide heart attack). Love that ’72 LA Woman (plus Riders on the Storm!); was listening to it today while making Chicken Korma & Tikka Masala. (-Madman Across The Water)
I like Jethro Tull, who still tours and wasn’t long ago in Bratislava; but I don’t go to concerts nowadays. Locomotive Breath! Bouree! Best rock flautist, by far. Rhamphal and Bolling have a great pop–jazz flute – piano album. But Blackwyn, the Eagles started out as a back up band to Linda Ronstadt.
One of their early songs was Take It Easy, with the line: “Well I’m a standin’ on the corner in Winslow, Arizona”. (Someone Saved My Life Tonight) I remember driving thru Winslow around midnight on my way back for Christmas in So. Cal, from Annapolis. 3 of us; 36+ hours of constant driving. We got one ticket. In Winslow. (With much less traffic thanks to Wuhan virus, the Cannonball rally just had a new 26 hr record set! Illegal, unsafe, but fun.)
My favorite version the Fleetwood Mac band was the middle, with Bob Welsh, and their best song: Hypnotized. (Listening now! Came up from 50+ Elton John songs; I’m skipping many). (… and if any man’s hand, ever made that land, then I think it would have showed.)
Lots of folk love Joe Walsh, but I’m not one of them. Art Deco doesn’t mention him, and all those mentioned are fondly remembered, including jazzy pop Weather Report. So I jump to Birdland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqashW66D7o
Not as intense as those last great minutes of Stairway to Heaven, but cool. Very different from Eagles’ Desperado. (Queen of Hearts is better than Queen of Diamonds).
Mikloss (Miklos is common in Slovakia), thanks for reminding me of great late 70s early 80s punk / new wave songs – usually in my mind a lot.
Now I’m often listening to “alternative” (there’s a new station The End, 97.2 in Bratislava!), which today played one of my newish alt-pop favorites, with great whistling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iArXv64tCJA
Young Folks.
Great song, amateurish (VERY) video, yet fitting the song:
“We don’t care about the young folks, talkin’ about the young style…”
Also fits the teens of “this” generation.
Thanks, neo!
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@ MiklosRosza. First observational lines right on target. Rock had become stale and self conscious and self referential. Aging rebels were celebrating an increasingly institutionalized and sclerotic rebellion. It seems rock had only two ways to go: into self parody and ritualistic repetition, or the baroque. Thus as did many, I got a kick out of the MTV assisted New Wave and found some of it refreshing. But any appreciation for the deeper foundations or precursors which you respected in Punk, or in most especially the gender benders, eluded me completely.
@ Rufus, Yes. The posing, posturing, ritualized rebellion of drugged up, and by that point obviously moronic and mentally unbalanced nihilists, comes to seem completely pointless.
Re musicianship and “story”
There are those who can endlessly mine the oeuvre of a favorite band and delve into the details of their work with an appreciation born, I think, of affection, and an emotional resonance or felt simpatico that goes beyond tbe music per se. This seems to me to be especially the case with Steely Dan, and the earlier Grateful Dead. Perhaps as per this thread, The Eagles, too.
I’m either too shallow or too disengaged for that. Other than early Fleetwood Mac, or Steve Miller, or Led Zepplin albums, I cannot think of many mid era rock releases offhand that had more than a couple three tracks worth repeated listening and “exploration” for me. Others would surely include the Beach Boys, The Byrds, CSN&Y, and mention various others producing “groundbreaking” albums. I would have to agree, I guess. But by then we are off into the weeds. And how many good cuts did you really get from the average Steppenwolf, or Deep Purple, or Clapton album.
Fast forward to The Clash. Did anyone really like more than about 4 of their tunes? Maybe The Pretenders had half a dozen. Billy Idol 4 or 5?
I think that that’s another reason why at 21 or so we all start migrating into classical, jazz, and even country. With some branching off into fusion or …. Steely Dan.
In fact, I think that what made the Beatles, like them or not, such a unique band, was the consistent high standard, innovation and variety of their hit making output, which has never been really equaled by any similar group so far as I’m aware. The key is that you didn’t/don’t have to be a Beatles fan or loyalist to see it.
That was really nice, Thank you for posting it.
First time ever posting on a blog. I loved this rendition and just wanted to say thanks.
For the Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac fans.