on the subject of covers, the banshees were a great cover band: beatles.. perry como... but no joe walsh, eagles or doobie bros. why does she hate our freedoms?
Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan ... all had OK songs early before they became reliable dreck. Hell even Jefferson Airplane did (not Starship of course). I guess the hipsters are right, it really does all fall apart when bands are discovered. Except for the Beatles.
The Airplane were popular pretty much right out of the gate, and I'm not sure their quality went down hill immediately. Surrealistic Pillow was their second album, and on the one hand yeah, you can argue that they peaked right then. On the other hand, they continued to push the envelope even after they gained a mass audience. Heck, one of their last albums--Volunteers--was also one of their best. They're not really my cup of tea--too many of their songs are kind of proto-prog and wandering, and there's a sterile, heartless quality to even some of the stuff I like--but they really don't belong on that list. Now, Jefferson STARSHIP--yeah, they had a good tune here and there, but they were just lame.
Hotel California IS good. And the solo (original version I think was Don Felder, not Walsh) at the end is very good, especially compared to the majority of rock solos out there. Quit hating on the Eagles for not being proper country musicians I suppose everyone has props for White Rabbit and Sombody To Love, but in addition, I thought Runaway and Count On Me were great late Jefferson whatever tunes. Hearts (Balin solo) was also good writing.
He wrote Hearts as well (his version recalls a good bossa more than pop/rock), and I like JS's Count on Me waaaay better. I should probably have said that I do give some credit to the interpretors.
Mississippi approves drug testing for welfare recipients, because it is not like this has been tried elsewhere... http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/17/3411581/mississippi-drug-test-welfare/
My kid, completely unprompted by this discussion - "What's with The Eagles? I hear they were huge in the Seventies, as big as Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac is good. The Eagles suck. I hear Hotel California all the time. That song sucks."
That sounds like fun too. I've only ever been to one place and it wasn't in KC, some roadside shack 20 miles west of town. Pretty good. But then again, I'm partial to my ribs.
I don't much listen to the opinions of the young or the old All I can say is, he's right about Fleetwood Mac. We can't be corksniffers about genres of music that were designed specifically to appeal to pretty much everyone who isn't going out of his or her way to be a corksniffer. I mean, I don't understand Justin Bieber's popularity, but I quit bashing the music once a group of Swedes with stupid crazy chops started covering his stuff. It wasn't the music that blew- it was the lyrics and the medium. And his fans. The Eagles don't have many fans here on BigSoccer, but hey, somebody bought those records.
Mississippi can't afford to test anyone for real, but if they wanna go broke, maybe Blues will become meaningful again.
Your kid is smart. "Hotel California" is running neck-and-neck with "Stairway to Heaven" for the top spot in "Which Song Will Make Me Change the Station More Quickly?" The difference is that Led Zeppelin did lots of very good music, while The Eagles' work sucked a pretty great sucking across the board.