Product Description

The Eagles' least commercially successful record still retains qualities that make it one of their best. Building on the harmony-heavy folk-rock sound of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and the edgier country-rock of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Eagles brought to the recipe a penchant for radio-friendly hooks and a lush production, bolstered by superb musicianship. These qualities can be heard here on some of the band's most memorable early hits. Their classic reading of Jackson Browne and Glen Frey's "Take It Easy", for example--with its picking, crying guitars, breezy tempo, and gorgeous, high-flown harmonies--is a case study in California country-rock with a pop twist.
Don Henley's slinky, eerie"Witchy Woman" is another highlight, as is the languid, lovely "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" (both tracks appeared on THEIR GREATEST HITS 1971-1975, along with "Take It Easy"). But there are other gems tucked away here too, like the Bernie Leadon/Gene Clark-penned "Train Leaves Here This Morning". EAGLES is a varied, smartly composed and totally pleasurable debut; it defined the sound of one of the 1970s' most popular bands.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15355 in Music
• Released on: 1987-02-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Steeped in the country-rock sound of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers (guitarist/banjo player Bernie Leadon had been a member of the latter) and the burgeoning So-Cal singer-songwriter movement (Jackson Browne contributes to a pair of songs on the album), the Eagles 1972 debut is full of breezy hit singles ("Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling") and stinging rock ("Witchy Woman", "Take the Devil"). Thanks to Leadon's presence, there's a bluegrass feel to songs like "Nightingale" and "Early Bird". Mostly, though, the album offers a sampling of the L.A. scene's laid-back early-70s optimism, with just a hint of the darkness to come. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

First eagle
The first Eagles album is also one of their best. The two major hits, 'Take It Easy' and 'Peaceful Easy Feeling' are the bait, but are not especially typical of the album as a whole. They are the easy listening pop items, mild songs couched in lush, attractive harmonies and textures. Almost everything else on the album is more interesting and offers more to bite on. 'Witchy Woman', with its gritty, native American flavour offers more colour. 'Train Leaves Here This Morning' is the other big highlight. Bernie Leadon brought this song with him from Dillard and Clark's fine debut album The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark...Plus. Its gentle pace belies a mischievous, intriguing, drug-connotated lyric.

Glen Frey's poignant 'Most Of Us Are Sad' is a slightly lesser highlight, but the staple of this album is the rock material. 'Chug All Night', and 'Tryin'' are, in particular, tracks with an edge that quickly disappeared from The Eagles' work. Perhaps the one spoiler is 'Earlybird', mainly because of the irritating chirping that defaces it. 'The Eagles' is nevertheless a fine album.

High flying debut
At first glance there are only three tracks worthy of note on this debut album from the Eagles; 'Take it easy', 'Witchy Woman' and 'Peaceful easy feeling'. Let's face it, has anyone heard any of the other tracks on the radio ? True, those three aforementioned tracks are excellent examples of the country flavoured West Coast sound that the Eagles so readily grabbed and made their very own with exquisite harmonies rounded off by some very distinctive guitar work - the instrumental break in 'Peaceful easy feeling' being a good case in point.

However, on closer inspection there are a couple of other gems to be found on here. 'Most of us are sad' a beautiful ballad written by Glenn Frey is sung to great effect by the often forgotten Randy Meisner. The song is unusually in 3/4 time but it works so well and there is a sumptuous instrumental break and some fine harmonising by the band. The other great song is the Bernie Leadon co-written 'Train leaves here this morning' which again features lush harmonies and a great instrumental break.

What's left ? Well a couple of substandard songs 'Nightingale' and Early Bird' the latter which features an irritating twittering whistle sound and is not one of Bernie Leadons high points. Plus Randy Meisners brooding 'Take the Devil' and positively rocking 'Tryin' and Glenn Freys OK rocker 'Chug all night'.

All in all a very uneven debut with half the album being in the superb bracket and the other half ranging from OK to not-so-OK. I'd recommend the soft-cover cd edition of this release which folds out to a mini album sleeve (although annoyingly the band photo from the original back cover is missing replaced by a dark shot taken in a cave by firelight). The sound quality on this release is superb.

The running time is a minor gripe and at just over 37 minutes could easily have included the B-side to 'Take it easy' - a Frey composition called 'Get you in the mood'.

Nothing can compare to the output of the original lineup!
If you're not a yet HUGE Eagles fan, but perhaps own one of their collections and are considering expanding upon this by purchasing one of their original studio albums, then the first thing that sprang to mind was probably Hotel California. Well, each to his or her own of course, but I for one think that, good though their last 3 (and most popular) albums were, it's the first 3 that are the real gems. The first 3 albums contained the original lineup of band members, which were Bernie Leadon and Randy meisner, in addition to Don Henley, Glen Frey, and Don Felder who joined them during the making of On The Border. In my view, although the lyrics in the early music aren't as good and intricate as some of the content found later, penned mainly by Henley, the band was just perfectly balanced, and if anything, I'd have to say that I'd rate the Leadon and Meisner songs above the Henley and Frey songs (it's a close call though). The band were simply much more melodic back then, and every song was just perfectly arranged and executed. I've been listening to their music since I was about 7 years old, and it's the early music which I love best. It may not be the most popular, but if only people would delve a litle deeper I'm sure they would have the same opinion as me.