WASTED TIME<\/p>\n
So you live from day to day You’re gonna die.\u00c2\u00a0 And you never used to think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 But, suddenly, your Oh, you didn’t used to feel like this.\u00c2\u00a0 You used to feel like you controlled TAKE IT EASY<\/p>\n Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona That’s why we knew the Eagles were different.\u00c2\u00a0 This one verse.<\/p>\n This is the kind of verse Clive Davis hates.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t play well in Europe, Actually, we weren’t sure either.\u00c2\u00a0 But we could picture it.\u00c2\u00a0 Somewhere in the And she wasn’t in a T-Bird, not something exquisite and exotic, but a FLATBED Now you’ve got to know, "Take It Easy" was a summer song.\u00c2\u00a0 Emanating from the Still, how good could an act with the name "Eagles" BE?\u00c2\u00a0 After all, this DESPERADO<\/p>\n I was in a hotel lobby in Vancouver, way past midnight, back in May 1993, and There were fewer than half a dozen people there.\u00c2\u00a0 Joe had had way too much to Suddenly, it was church quiet.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite the alcohol floating through his It was strange.\u00c2\u00a0 Because not only did Joe not write this song, he wasn’t even Then again, they didn’t really become the Eagles until he joined.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, they Actually, their career had not been a constant ascent.\u00c2\u00a0 After "Take It Easy" But the Eagles never cut anything like "Take It Easy" again.\u00c2\u00a0 They were doing Desperado, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no younger I always saw it as a western.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the cowboy out on the range.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t Then I realized.\u00c2\u00a0 That the baby boomers, who were taught life was one of Oh, it’s not only those who divorce their spouses in search of an elusive Oh, you know them.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re over forty, they’ve never been married.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re HOLE IN THE WORLD<\/p>\n There’s a hole in the world tonight If Jay-Z had rapped in the break, if they’d sampled an old disco hit, "Hole But Top Forty radio has got no room for the Eagles.<\/p>\n Top Forty is about evanescence.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like the gas in your car.\u00c2\u00a0 It A pro watching the Eagles special on Wednesday night could see\/hear where’d The Eagles who were who we wanted to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Not rock stars.\u00c2\u00a0 Rock stars are Yup, that was a common expression back in the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 That someone was But it wasn’t only about the excess.\u00c2\u00a0 The band spoke about their feelings Back in the day, everybody would have known the Eagles were going to be on TV But it used to be different.<\/p>\n Last time I checked, U2’s Lemon tour debut, a one hour special broadcast on I found out about the special via e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 A diehard fan e-mailed me.\u00c2\u00a0 I set But at the appointed hour I found myself at her house.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I walked in, When it turned out she wasn’t, we switched the channel.\u00c2\u00a0 We fired up the And then, during one of the commercial breaks, the phone rang.\u00c2\u00a0 It was her <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASTED TIME So you live from day to dayAnd you dream about tomorrow You’re gonna die.\u00c2\u00a0 And you never used to think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 But, suddenly, your father passed away.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe suddenly.\u00c2\u00a0 And you can see the deterioration in your mother.\u00c2\u00a0 And it starts to dawn on you, you’re not going to be here forever. 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And you dream about tomorrow<\/em><\/p>\n
father passed away.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe suddenly.\u00c2\u00a0 And you can see the deterioration in
your mother.\u00c2\u00a0 And it starts to dawn on you, you’re not going to be here forever.
\u00c2\u00a0And it’s scary.<\/p>\n
the world, that you ruled, that life was full of opportunities.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, you’ve
been battered, you’ve lost, instead of searching for new things you’re
desperately trying to hold on to what you’ve got.\u00c2\u00a0 You suddenly feel like there’s more sand in the bottom of the hourglass than the top.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t know whether to
grab hold, and try to make every minute count, or get under the covers and
close your eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not like there are a lot of answers.\u00c2\u00a0 Your kids are
suddenly who you used to be, they don’t want to be home, never mind spend any
time with you.\u00c2\u00a0 And your friends…some haven’t woken up yet, they still believe
in the life of accumulation and achievement.\u00c2\u00a0 And others…they’ve drifted
off, you’ve lost their phone numbers, for all you know they could be dead.\u00c2\u00a0 All
you’re left with, all you can believe in, is your family and the music.<\/p>\n
Such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a look at me
Come on baby, don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me<\/em><\/p>\n
the rest of the world.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean WHERE THE FUCK is Winslow, Arizona?<\/p>\n
southwest.\u00c2\u00a0 Hot and dusty.\u00c2\u00a0 Open country.\u00c2\u00a0 Where you had to live by your
wits.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a girl, who wasn’t interested in appearances, who wasn’t doing
Pilates, who was just being herself, her long hair flying in the breeze, just
going about her business.<\/p>\n
Ford.\u00c2\u00a0 A truck.\u00c2\u00a0 Something utilitarian.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS was someone you could love.\u00c2\u00a0
And she was meeting you halfway, this wasn’t a big city bar, where you had to
get up your nerve, employ your best line, she wasn’t keeping her distance, she
was curious, she wanted to know YOU!<\/p>\n
AM radios still populating our cars in June of ’72.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d cruise down the
highway with the window down, and when that acoustic guitar strum blew out of
the speakers you felt fully alive, you believed in the POSSIBILITIES!<\/p>\n
broke on AM, not FM.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you took the plunge and purchased the album you
realized this band delivered on the promise that Poco had shown but never
fulfilled.\u00c2\u00a0 The music was endearing, catchy, yet deep.\u00c2\u00a0 It resonated.<\/p>\n
Joe Walsh strode in with Seymour Duncan and sat down at the piano just the
other side of the plush chair I was sitting in.\u00c2\u00a0 And he started to tickle the
keys.<\/p>\n
drink.\u00c2\u00a0 He was being that kind of obnoxious that made you wonder whether you
shouldn’t give him a pass, even though he was a rock star.\u00c2\u00a0 But then, the
noodling stopped.\u00c2\u00a0 And with a flourish, Joe started playing the chords to this
song.<\/p>\n
system, Joe seemed completely sober.\u00c2\u00a0 And he delivered the best version of
"Desperado" I’ve ever heard.<\/p>\n
in the band when they recorded it.<\/p>\n
had monster hits, but they didn’t quite have the credibility. "Hotel
California" delivered the credibility.<\/p>\n
came…nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 The "Desperado" album would be considered a stiff today.\u00c2\u00a0 No,
the Eagles weren’t always icons.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, they were struggling.\u00c2\u00a0 They were
the band that major labels drop today.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they would be warned first.\u00c2\u00a0 Make
your music MORE COMMERCIAL!\u00c2\u00a0 Deliver HITS!\u00c2\u00a0 Give us more like "Take It Easy".<\/p>\n
nothing wrong, it’s just that the system hadn’t caught up with them yet.\u00c2\u00a0 And
now, years later, when almost everybody in control of that system that didn’t
embrace the band has been squeezed out of the business or retired,
"Desperado" has become an American standard, right there along with "Home On The Range".<\/p>\n
Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home
And freedom, oh freedom, well, that’s just some people talkin’
Your prison is walking through this world all alone<\/em><\/p>\n
truly catch it as metaphor until she started talking about her ex.\u00c2\u00a0 How this was
his theme song.<\/p>\n
endless opportunity, had been so busy trying to get the BEST that in some cases
they’d ended up with nothing.<\/p>\n
better.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s those who never took the plunge.\u00c2\u00a0 Who were so busy waiting for
perfection to come down the pike that they ended up emptyhanded.<\/p>\n
still waiting for their lives to start, even though they’re getting closer and
closer to being over.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got all the accoutrements, the Rolex, the
plasma, the Porsche.\u00c2\u00a0 They just haven’t got somebody.<\/p>\n
There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow
There’s a hole in the world tonight
Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow<\/em><\/p>\n
In The World" would have been a number one record.<\/p>\n
gets you somewhere, but in the process you use it up, you’re left with nothing.
\u00c2\u00a0And that’s one of the great things about the bands of yore, they and their
music stuck with us.<\/p>\n
they’d overdubbed in the studio.\u00c2\u00a0 For a band of supposed outlaws, it was hard
to square the sport jackets they wore.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, I can’t think of a band of
this stature with less charisma.\u00c2\u00a0 No, all that was in evidence was the songs,
and the community.<\/p>\n
uneducated pricks whose image is massaged by handlers.\u00c2\u00a0 They do hard drugs,
they live a life of flashbulbs and club openings.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t even go to our high
school.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Eagles…they were us.\u00c2\u00a0 Just more talented.\u00c2\u00a0 And without
Daddy’s money, without connections, but through sheer effort and ability, they
made it.\u00c2\u00a0 They got to sleep with multiple women, they got to live life in the
fast lane.\u00c2\u00a0 But they didn’t put us down for not being able to participate,
rather, they told us about it.\u00c2\u00a0 And we embraced their words.<\/p>\n
living life in the fast lane.\u00c2\u00a0 It meant they were doing too many drugs, burning
the candle at both ends.\u00c2\u00a0 They felt spiritually connected to the Eagles,
however far from their world they really lived.<\/p>\n
too.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than portraying themselves as endless winners, like the so-called
icons on MTV, some of their greatest songs were about loss.<\/p>\n
Wednesday night.\u00c2\u00a0 God, a band coming to your town was the biggest event on
the agenda, KLOS gave out stickers at the gigs with the bands’ names, you still
see them on cars now and again.\u00c2\u00a0 But today music is just another diversion.\u00c2\u00a0
Just something in the mix, not the main ingredient.<\/p>\n
Fox hyping their tour, was the lowest rated show in the history of network
television.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, a decade later, the Eagles were just shy of winning their
time slot.\u00c2\u00a0 As the show ran, the audience increased by FIFTY PERCENT!<\/p>\n
my VCR right away, I didn’t want to forget.<\/p>\n
the television was on and I asked ARE YOU WATCHING THE EAGLES?<\/p>\n
stereo, to hear the soundtrack just like we used to listen to the simulcast on FM
back in the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 And, at first we were talking, but as the show
progressed, the silent periods were longer and longer.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t like seeing Prince
in HD at Dolby Labs, still, we just couldn’t turn it off.<\/p>\n
sister.\u00c2\u00a0 She only had one question…ARE YOU WATCHING THIS? <\/p>\n