Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
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Free Music Notes for Hell Freezes Over
Free Music Review: The Eagles' triumphant comeback
Hit: 5 Stars
The Eagles' eighth non-compilation album Hell Freezes Over was released in November of 1994.
1994 was a memorable year for me as I graduated High School that year, turned 18, started college. Plus that year saw many classic rock bands make comebacks in a time of grunge and gangsta rap as Rush had their highest charting effort with Counterparts in late '93 and had a sold out arena tour, Pink Floyd returned with their classic #1 effort The Division Bell and embarked on a huge sold out stadium tour, The Rolling Stones hit the road in support of their #2 charting Voodoo Lounge, half of Led Zeppelin(Robert Plant and Jimmy Page) reunited for UnLEDded(No Quarter) and The Who celebrated its 30 anniversary.
The Eagles, a band whom had not recorded or toured since 1980, made their unexpected return in 1994 with the album and tour of Hell Freezes Over.
When I heard The Eagles were reuniting, I wanted to see them(unfortunate the shows sold out) but I did buy Hell Freezes Over within its first week and saw the MTV/VH1 special and they proved they could still rock at a time of whiner rock and violent rap and lame pop.
Most of Hell Freezes Over was the band's MTV special recorded and filmed in April of 1994.
However, the album kicks off with FOUR new STUDIO tracks. The rocking Get Over It was a biting Don Henley/Glenn Frey attack on reality TV which was becoming a problem(today it is even worse thanks to celebreality shows). The song kicks ass and Frey, Joe Walsh and Don Felder each get to do a guitar solo at the beginning(Frey and did one after first verse), middle(Walsh's slide guitar) and end(Felder's excellent solo) of song respectively. The song was a major rock radio hit hitting the Top 10 of Billboard's Rock radio chart. The hit ballad Love Will Keep Us Alive is next and bass player Timothy B Schmit sings this song and is a nice ballad. The Girl From Yesterday is a country song which would not have sounded out of place on either Desperado or One of These Nights. Lastly, the atmospheric Learn to Be Still is a great song with some excellent soloing from Felder.
The concert recordings actually started with Hotel California done in a Spanish unplugged way to give it a Mexican-reggae feel. Tequila Sunrise was next and was excellent. Also, I Can't Tell You Why, Take it Easy, In the City and Life in the Fast Lane are performed well. The tracks Wasted Time, Pretty Maids All in a Row, The Last Resort and Dthe ending esperado all were performed with an orchestra to give the tracks a fresh feel. Also, the band's version of Henley's solo track New York Minute was excellent as well with orchestra and so forth.
The band also did performances of the four aforementioned studio tracks, Joe Walsh's Help Me Through the Night and Don Henley's solo track The Heart of the Matter and Seven Bridges Road but they are on the DVD whilst Best of My Love and others were recorded but were unreleased.
Hell Freezes Over was a huge success and hit #1 on the Billboard 200 where it stayed for two weeks and sold a whooping 10 million copies in the US alone.
Recommended!
Free Music Review: Almost the Perfect Collection
Hit: 5 Stars
First, let me start of by saying this is one of the best sounding live albums I've ever heard. It was really mixed well to make the music almost of perfect quality.
But what makes this album so great is the song selections. It starts off with four new songs, including one that charted (Get Over It). I'm not going to judge this album based on those songs. Then the next eleven songs are all classics, six of which were charted hits by the Eagles, four Eagles songs which were never released or did not chart, and one Henley song that never charted.
The most well known of these songs is of course Hotel California. DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM JUST FOR THAT SONG! There are plenty of albums that have that song and other songs buy different artists for non-Eagles fans who loved that song. This album is for classic Eagles fans. Other well-known songs the hits Tequila Sunrise, Wasted Time, I Can't Tell You Why, Take it Easy, and Life in the Fastlane. Despite having five number one hits, only Hotel California makes this album.
But the best songs on this album were not hits. The Last Resort, which was never released as a single, is possibly one of the twenty best songs ever written. It, along with Peaceful Easy Feeling, is what is the Eagles. Peaceful Easy Feeling (which sadly is left off of this album) is the showcase of the group's "Country-Rock" era, which The Last Resort is that song which crossed the line into rock while still saving a little bit of the Eagle's heritage. This is one of the best songs ever written.
Another classic on this album is Desperado, which was a country hit but not a rock hit. This is another great song, even for rock fans.
And for those who love Henley, he threw in New York Minute. I, personally would rather he put in The End of the Innocence or The Heart of the Matter (which happen to be two of the few good songs of the '80s), but I know a lot of people like this song.
The only two songs left out of this concert that should have been in it were Peaceful Easy Feeling and the #1 hit New Kid in Town. Those were two classic Eagles songs that would have made this the perfect collection.
Even though it is not perfect, it is great quality music and a great collection of songs. This album is for the true Eagles fan.
Free Music Review: Its a shame Hell doesn't freeze over every other year...
Hit: 5 Stars
Many considered it more of a possibility that the Beatles would perform together with a resurrected John Lennon before the Eagles would get together for not just an album, but an entire series of concerts...well I don't care what happened in order for all of the stars to line up in such a way that brought these talented men back together again, but whatever it was certainly was a gift from the Heavens as 'Hell Freezes Over' essentially gave us Eagles fanatics what we wanted most: MORE. My ONLY beef came when I realized it was just 4 NEW songs, and the rest was made up of different live versions of the songs we already knew and loved so much. While I admit that I felt cheated in a way because I selfishly wanted an entire album full of new music, my opinion changed somewhat after I got a chance to actually listen to the whole thing. Now THIS is GREAT music. No, it's incredible music. Can anyone listen to 'Get Over It' without thinking, 'This stands up there with the best stuff they've ever done!' And not just musically, but lyrically as well. But then we move to the fantastic 'live' renderings of their classic songs. Without much studio touch-up's, these boys have managed to give us a sound that normally takes a lot of time to achieve--along with some studio wizardry--but they managed to pull it off LIVE on stage no less. Now THAT is the sign of a band you want to see in concert. Few bands can pull off a sound on stage that is comparable in almost every way to that pulled off in a studio, but the Eagles got it with 'Hell Freezes Over'. I can't say enough good about this group or this album. I've been in radio for most of my adult life, and it is just plain impressive what they achieved with this collection of hits. Although, I feel as though I just cannot fathom all of the fuss over the un-plugged version of 'Hotel California' sure its good, but c'mon, how can you improve upon the original? For me, that was just plain not possible -- but this is just MY opinion. Otherwise, this record is as solid as anything recorded in the entire decade of the 90's -- easily. Not just good stuff, but GREAT stuff from a legendary band, who--by the way--are re-teaming for another full-studio record at the end of '01...now THAT is something I can hardly wait for. Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Eagles Comeback
Hit: 5 Stars
In an interview shortly after the Eagles had official ceased being a band, Don Henley was asked when the band might possibly play together again and his response was "when hell freezes over". That quote provided the name for the 1994 reunion tour & this live album that was recorded for an MTV special. Even though it had been about 14 years since they last played together, you would never know it. Their playing is crisp and their harmonies are picture perfect. Instead of playing it safe, the band mixes things up right away by playing an all-acoustic version of their rock classic "Hotel California". The song opens practically unrecognizable with a Spanish sounding guitar fill before sliding into the familiar opening riff. The drums are replaced by congas and instead of the dueling electric guitars, Don Felder & Joe Walsh trade acoustic licks off of Mr. Felder's 6-string and Mr. Walsh's 12-string. Instead of changing a song for change's sake, they breath-takingly deconstruct an all-to-familiar tune. The rest of the live tracks are not nearly as ambitious, but they are played with a lot of verve and you can tell the band is really enjoying themselves. Other standout tracks include a beautiful "I Can't Tell You Why", a majestic "The Last Resort" and a raucous "Life In The Fast Lane". The four new studio tracks that open the album are solid, but not necessarily outstanding. "Get Over It" is good rocker with typical Eagles stinging criticism, "Love Will Keep Us Alive" has a nice Timothy B. Schmidt vocal, "The Girl From Yesterday" touches on their country roots and "Learn To be Still" sounds like it was a leftover from Mr. Henley's The End Of The Innocence album. The new tracks are basically just an appetizer for the main course of the concert tracks. Some people may have doubted them, but the Eagles showed they could still soar above most bands with this album and playing together for them is just like riding bike, you never forget how to.Free Music Review: Hell Freezes Over
Hit: 5 Stars
To listeners near and far, the Eagles were an American band. It wasn't simply a matter of birth or geography, but rather that their songs touched on much of the popular musical heritage of America. To this day, listeners here and elsewhere consider American pop music to be country, blues, folk, rockabilly, rhythm - and - blues, Motown. The Eagles were rooted in all of them. It is only appropriate that the name they took for themeselves was that of the symbol of America.Like most Americans, and most bands formed in California, the Eagles came from elsewhere. Their band of rock "n" roll was nurtured in the heartland, not on the fringes. Early songs from "Take It Easy" to "Desperado" were dubbed "country rock." But, as the Seventies rolled on, the Eagles soared higher and wider. "Best Of My Love" and "Lyin' Eyes" were rock and pop and country and the fans took them as their own. The distance between the country and the city, the redneck and the hippie, narrowed. In the Nineties, that gap would be forever closed by another generation of country rockers.
The Eagles evolved and grew. The same album that boasted "Take It To The Limit" also included the R&B - flavored title track "One Of These Nights." Soon after, the band laid down harder rock with classics such as "Hotel California," "New Kid In Town" and "Life In The Fast Lane." In Fact, the band was so inclusive that the only label that truly attached itself was "California rock." No one knew quite what that meant - except perhaps that, because in California anything was possible, music that came from that promising land was free - spirited and free - ranging.
On six studio albums from 1972 - 1979, the Eagles reflected most of the spectrum of music then heard on American radio and in that decade sold more records than any other American band. The Eagles successfully and populary fused disparate musical roots. That is their legacy, one which we continue to witness today.