"Old man don't know what's happening, but I've been around a while," the song says. "Everybody wants to check you out, everybody wants to be your friend. Fast company."
Instead of "The End of the Innocence" there's "No More Walks In The Wood."
No drugs on this album. It's the voice of sobriety. I guess that means no more sing-along greats like "There were lines on the mirror, there were lines on her face, she pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race" or from Smuggler's Blues,
So baby, here's your ticket, and the suitcase in your hand
Here's a little money, now we'll do it just the way we planned
You be cool for twenty hours, and I'll pay you twenty grand
Is this it for the Eagles? Not so fast.
We've always had a great concern about exiting gracefully," [Henley] says. "We really want to step off the wave just before it crashes on to the rocks. "I'd thought several times in the past that time had come. But now we have a new album. And a whole new life."
Rocky Mountain News music critic Mark Brown gives the album an A-, saying it doesn't so much sound like any prior album as all of them. He also interviewed Henley on the album.
Three of the sounds have political themes, "Long Road Out of Eden," "Frail Grasp of the Big Picture" and "Business as Usual." Henley says he's a news junkie, reading "periodicals." I suspect that means he doesn't read blogs, but I don't know for sure.
About the sound of the album, Henley says:
This will probably be our last album and we wanted something that sounded like the early days. And that does. It sounds like Take It Easy" and "Already Gone"."
I'm sure I'll be one of the first to buy it, although it will probably be off the Eagles' website rather than Wal-Mart. What's up with the Wal-Mart deal anyway? Henley says,
"They've got something we want as well and that's distribution. We sat down and looked at the entire picture. Some people are trying to use the Internet, with, so far, not a lot of success. Some are signing to the indie labels, which aren't really indie. Other people are signing with certain coffee companies and there's not much success happening there. We just said ‘How can we get the most CDs out there to the most people and give them good value for their money?' One of the good things is this is going to cost $11.88. Wal-Mart came to us with this offer. Our deal with them expires in a year. Then the CD can be sold in other outlets.
More justification by him here.
Get ready for a media blitz. Just remember you can buy it off the Eagles' website instead of Wal-Mart.
