What's so wrong with the Eagles?

[SmokeytheBuddha]

I HATE THE FUCKING EAGLES MAN!

Fuck you man!  You don't like my fucking music, get your own fucking cab!

[Andrea D.]

I've had a had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man.

[SmokeytheBuddha]

That's it...outta my fucking cab!

[Andrea D.]

Maaaang!!!

[Dude1967]

The Chief of Police in Malibu, a real reactionary.

[DigitalBuddha]

The Eagles.............bunch of assholes.

Little matter to me that the Eagles chose to pursue a career in boring canned commercial shitty music, nor that they have been "banging" the public, to use the parlance of our times.

[digbys kid]

The Eagles were the "Autobahn" of Californian Soft Rock of the '70s!

But one distubing thing...Have you ever seen a photo of Glenn Frey in, say, 1973?  Let's just say he would be very striking in a pair of jellies and a bathrobe.

[DigitalBuddha]

The Eagles were the "Autobahn" of Californian Soft Rock of the '70s!

But one distubing thing...Have you ever seen a photo of Glenn Frey in, say, 1973?  Let's just say he would be very striking in a pair of jellies and a bathrobe.

Yeah, but he's a pervert, dude.

[brandt]

The Eagles were the "Autobahn" of Californian Soft Rock of the '70s!

But one distubing thing...Have you ever seen a photo of Glenn Frey in, say, 1973?  Let's just say he would be very striking in a pair of jellies and a bathrobe.

Yeah, but he's a pervert, dude.

With records!

[digbys kid]

He did six nights in Chino, flashing himself to eighty year olds.

[brandt]

The Eagles were the "Autobahn" of Californian Soft Rock of the '70s!

But one distubing thing...Have you ever seen a photo of Glenn Frey in, say, 1973?  Let's just say he would be very striking in a pair of jellies and a bathrobe.

Yeah, but he's a pervert, dude.

But let's not forget, let's not forget, he saved Joe Walsh from a darkness warshing over him, darker than a steer's tookus on a moonless night. Am I wrong?

[roystonlodge]

Much like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Eagles suck because all their good songs are the ones written and sung by one member of the band (Neil Young for CSNY and Don Henley for the Eagles).  The rest of the songs are all 1970s AM radio make-out music.  They were an LA-based AM radio pop group masquarading as a Southern Rock band, but they couldn't hold a candle to The Allman Brothers or Lynerd Skynerd.

Don Henley, on the other hand, abides.

[Elbowski]

I actually kind of like the Eagles...parts anyway (the stuff from the early to mid-'70s). Those songs were always on the a.m. radio when I was a kid. Nostalgia, I guess. Their late '70s stuff (New Kid in Town, Heartbreak Tonight, etc...or whatever it's called) gets the same reaction from me that the Dude had.

I think I saw a show or a documentary once that said the Eagles were looked down on by more serious rock/country afficianados because they were, as some have pointed out here, corporate fabrications (i.e., not authentic). 

If my memory's correct (and I can't confirm or disconfirm that), then that might explain why the Dude hates them so much. Sort of ultra watered down CCR?

I've always kind of liked the Eagles too man, but I dig the "corporate" band idea, there's been a few of those, the Beatles were pretty phony too, as far as that goes.

Pretty Maids All In a Row still turns me on.

I know why the Dude hates the fucking Eagles man, it's something else completely. Dig the cabbie's hat. 

[forumdude]

I think the reason that scene is in there is because the Dude had a rough day and the song on the raido is "Take it Easy" - a line that pops up time and time again in the film. At this point, the Dude is finding it exceptionally hard to take it easy and the song just sounds like it's making fun of him.

But yeah, I also agree that they were victims of their own success. Whenever a band portrays an image of roots-based freewheeling drifters who party hard, they're going to suffer a backlash when they become part of the establishment. Glen Frey's acting career didn't help much.

Also, Hotel California is not just overplayed in the States. It's probably the most overplayed song in the world. Ever teenager in the world learns to play (and sadly, sing) Hotel California on their guitar within the first few months. In Thailand it's especially bad. We refer to local cover bands as "Hotel California" bands. It's awful. Like Stairway to Heaven, it's a great song that has all the poetry squeezed out of it by overexposure.

But there also could be more to it. California has long been seen as a golden land of opportunity, where the world's misfits all descend to carve out a new life. But the reality of it is far shoddier. The movie does a good job of capturing that obsessive sense of self-reinvention and pandering that many people in L.A. are prone to be bedeviled by. The Gypsy Kings version of Hotel California drives this point home insofar as it's The Jesus' theme song. And probably the Dude hates all the seedy, phony, self-indulgent side of California Dreamin'. Ergo, he hates the Eagles.

[Elbowski]

Yeah, those are some cool ideas forumdude, no doubt, the "Take it Easy" part especially, but those are very tangential (except "Take it Easy) to the actual scene, and somewhat subjective. I prefer to analyze the actual information in the scene to inform my suppositions.

I don't know the protocol around here, I understand that some groups are sensitive to new information coming to light, in the parlance of our times.  My insight ties together these elements: The cabbie's hat, his cultural affiliation and subsequent likelihood of being a rabid Eagles fan, his unethical, overly aggressive behavior, and the term "the Eagles" and what it may mean, other than the band. It ties directly to the check scene at Ralph's. Can I share this here? The square community may take offense, I am not here for that.

I also recognize the incredible depth of this film, and how it informs many different and worthy opinions, yours included.