On the Border (1974)
Opening on what would become another hit, “Already Gone” is pretty much “Take it Easy Part II” really. It's quite similar in construction, and yes, again, it's a song in which the woman is to blame. Sigh. Another Tempchin song, it has some fine biting guitar in it and I guess it's got to be seen as a “so long getting out of this relationship” song, another of which features later. There's definitely a sense of triumph and emancipation about it. Not surprisingly, it's Frey who takes the vocal again, as he and Tempchin, as already mentioned, were friends and it's a song the writer sent to him in the hope he might popularise it with his band, as he did. I do like the line “So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key.” There's a certain sense of taking control of your life here, so I guess you can't be too critical.
The next track sounds like a complaint a man would make, maybe, but it's a bit odd. “You Never Cry Like a Lover” features some beautiful piano from Frey, but the vocal is taken by Henley, and it's a really nice ballad, even given the somewhat perhaps insulting theme. The melody sounds slightly familiar, but as so often is the case, I can't remember where I heard it, or even if I did. “Midnight Flyer” kicks out the bluegrass jams, and it's the first song on the album not written or at least co-written by an Eagle. It takes the old country idea of the railroad and pumps along on Bernie Leadon's sprightly banjo as Randy Meisner gets his first shot at vocals this time around. One of the standouts next in the Bernie Leadon show, where he writes, sings, plays lead guitar and pedal steel on “My Man”, a tribute to the late Gram Parsons, with whom he used to play. It's another ballad, but tinged with real bittersweetness as Leadon remembers his fallen comrade. Again great harmony vocals make the song. It's touching when he sings “We who must remain go on living just the same” and you can really feel the hurt in his voice.
The title track brings in handclaps that would later surface on one of their last hits, with what sounds like Jew's harp and has a very doo-wop style chorus, some very nasty guitar; the basic melody would be robbed decades later for Henley's solo album
Inside Job. There's quite a bit of funk about the guitar too mixed in with a sense of the blues. Good song and a very good title track. Rocking out then like good things with “James Dean”, one of the songs originally written for the project which ended up becoming the
Desperado album, with input from Jackson Browne again. It's a good song, but a little one-dimensional, though the vocal harmonies rescue it from being too run of the mill. They then (probably) infuriate Waits by tackling his “Ol' 55”, and to be fair they do an okay job, but also to be fair, they don't change it much so what was the point really? It's a great song, and it fits in with the general “You screwed up my life and now I'm leaving you” mini-theme that runs through the album, and I guess they wanted to pay homage to the great man, but still, do something with the song if you're going to cover it. Once again though, the amazing vocal harmonies save it.
Meisner is back with his other song (written by him too; seems any solo-penned song gets sung by the writer. Must be an agreement they came to) “Is it True?” which is really not too bad, and features some of the slide guitar that would later become famous on “Life in the Fast Lane”, then some powerful and dirty gee-tar (it's got to be written that way: this is not guitar, it's gee-tar! Boy) opens “Good Day in Hell”, which once again casts the woman in the worst light possible. With both Frey and Henley on vocals though it works really effectively and you catch yourself singing along when they sing “Oh well, it's been a good day in Hell.” Indeed. And we end on another classic, the beautiful ballad “Best of My Love”, which sees Henley back on vox to complete the album. Sadly, once again, it's the woman's fault: “I know you were trying to give me the best of your love”, and later he sings “Every night and day you get the best of my love.” So he can give her the best of his love, but not vice versa? Man, when you start thinking, really thinking about this lyrics you can get really annoyed. Ah in fairness the guy does take some of the blame - "Look at the way that we live/ Wastin' our time on cheap talk and wine/Left us so little to give." Still, beautiful pedal steel from Bernie and a gorgeous acoustic guitar kind of make you forget about all that.
And of course, there's always the sublime vocal harmonies. Never forget the sublime vocal harmonies. Hold on to the sublime vocal....
TRACK LISTING
Already Gone
You Never Cry Like a Lover
Midnight Flyer
My Man
On the Border
James Dean
Ol' 55
Is it True?
Good Day in Hell
Best of My Love
This album sees the Eagles building on their already pretty amazing success. While
Desperado was not the hit they might have hoped after the debut did so well, this album took them into the top twenty and gave them a number one hit single. You can see how their songwriting craft was developing, as well as their sound, and soon they would no longer need covers or songs written by other songwriters. Did they but know it, immortal fame and complete commercial success was only two albums away. Of course, after that, it was all downhill.
Rating: 8.2/10