ON THE BORDER [CD]

All of a sudden, in 1974, the Eagles became a rock band. Not a country rock band, but a plain old rock n' roll band.
The addition of third guitarist Don Felder gave the band a bigger, more raw, more urgent sound, particularly on the hardest rock tracks "Good Day In Hell" and "James Dean".

Sure, like "Desperado", "On The Border" sounds like songs from two or three completely different albums have somehow ended up on the same release, but as usual, the Eagles manage to pull of having the modern bluegrass of "Midnight Flyer" and the traditional country rock ballad "My Man" on the same album as the twin lead guitar lines of "Already Gone" and the power chords of "James Dean".

The album gave the Eagles their first #1 single, "The Best Of My Love", a country-tinged ballad. A little bit ironic considering how much Glenn Frey and Don Henley wanted the Eagles to be a rock band rather than a country band, but it is really a beautiful song with a great lead vocal by Henley and pedal steel work by Leadon.

The two rock singles, "James Dean" and "Already Gone" (which sports a distinctly country-flavoured melody and really isn't that much of a rock song, in spite of the Allman Brothers-inspired guitar duel between Frey and Felder) didn't fare nearly as well; "Already Gone" made it to #32, but "James Dean" stalled at #77.
They're great songs, though, as is the Eagles' cover of labelmate Tom Waits' "Ol' 55" and the heavy "Good Day In Hell".
The title track is a bit experimental, and not unlike some of the, eh, less conventional songs on "The Long Run", but it's not a bad song - just not a great one either.

"Is It True" is a much more conventional, very pleasant mid-tempo love song with some fine slide guitar.
The Eagles really wanted a good slide player for this album, and they found that in Don Felder, who rocks on "Good Day In Hell". On "Is It True", Glenn Frey, however, is playing the slide leads, and on Paul Craft's upbeat country-tune "Midnight Flyer", sung by Randy Meisner, Frey is also credited as the slide guitarist.

Finally there's "You Never Cry Like A Lover", which has some really great lyrics, but is somewhat hampered by a strange arrangements (gentle ballad - crashing guitar chords and lead lines - gentle ballad again - crashing guitar chords again). It could have been a classic, but because of the strange arrangements, which makes it sound like two songs pieced hap-hazardly together, it is only good.

Glenn Frey and Don Henley had obviously taken firm control of the band by 1974. Frey does two solo lead vocals, Henley three, and they share center stage on "Ol' 55" and "Good Day In Hell" - at least according to the liner notes. It's hard to hear Henley doing more than backing vocals on "Good Day In Hell", though.
Faithful, down-to-Earth bass player Randy Meisner sings on "Midnight Flyer" and on his own solo composition, the lovely "Is It True", and Bernie Leadon does a solid job on "My Man", which is dedicated to Gram Parsons.

The Eagles may sound a little bit like they're in the middle of learning to be a "real" rock band, and the arrangements are not up to par with "Hotel California" or "One Of These Nights", but "On The Border" is a really fine album anyway. Almost worth all of four stars....and closer to four than to three, anyway.

'On The Border' is the dark horse of The Eagles' recording history, featuring just one of their best-known tracks. 'The Best Of My Love', however, is not representative of the album as a whole. Like 'Take It Easy', this smooth, lilting song was the candy used to interest the casual listener. The band's strength was less in writing great songs, though there are several of those, than in their execution. 'Already Gone' is a good song made better by fine harmonies and an ability to rock without going at it too hard. It's a track that exemplifies their ability to appeal to a wide-ranging audience. The title track and the eulogy to James Dean rock harder, while 'Midnight Flyer', with its fast banjo, leans more toward country. 'You Never Cry Like A Lover' is a slow, piano-led ballad at the other extreme and perhaps the least effective track. Elsewhere, the songs are more like 'Already Gone'. The ballad aside, 'On The Border' is a solid album, a reminder of what The Eagles were capable of when they rocked.

There's another customer review of this album on Amazon.co.uk, where the reviewer mentions he's glad that On The Border wasn't his first experience of the Eagles, otherwise it would have been his last. I'd like to offer a flipside: this was my first experience of their music. One day in 1980, my mother came back from town with this album on cassette, which she'd picked up on special offer from WHSmith. I was five years old at the time and hadn't formed any real musical taste, other than listening to various LPs my parents owned and watching the chart music on Top Of The Pops. I'd never heard of the Eagles before, and my mother really just picked it up on a whim. She certainly didn't say anything like "Yes, this is the band that made Hotel California". After the first listen, I was utterly hooked. It's still so vivid in my mind now, listening to each side of the tape and just loving every single aspect of every single song. Four separate lead singers, all with distinct, fabulous voices. Such great musicianship and harmonies; such musical diversity. During the summer holidays, my family used to drive all the way to the former Yugoslavia with a caravan towed behind. We'd depart the ferry at Rotterdam, Holland, then drive down through Germany, through Austria, taking in some of Italy before finally reaching Yugoslavia and hitting the Mediterranean Sea. My younger brother slept through entire countries, but I always loved the scenery and counted all the different types of cars and trucks coming the other way. It was a means to get to the actual holiday but it was a part of the holiday for me. Well, On The Border was the soundtrack for every one of these cross-European slogs (and there were quite a few). I'm amazed the tape didn't completely wear itself out, because we must have listened to it a few hundred times. Sometimes, we'd change to a bit of Neil Diamond or Bobby Goldsboro, but most of the time, it was On The Border. My mother was perfectly happy to keep listening again and again, and even my dad, who doesn't listen to music much (he prefers talk radio) didn't put up much of a fight.

It was a couple of years at least before we bought our 2nd Eagles alum, which was their eponymous debut album. I've since became a complete lifelong fan. I've got all their albums, concerts, even Best Of's and Greatest Hits collections with absolutely no new songs... sad, admittedly. I've got the solo albums from all the Eagles members, not just the good stuff from Don Henley. But of all their output, this album remains my favorite. It may be part down to nostalgia, or the fact that this was my first - I can't totally discount that - but I think there was something else going on with this album too. It's no secret that there were many tensions within the band. People claim they all absolutely hated each other, plain and simple. Even after reading Don Felder's new book, I still think that it was just down to there being a group of young talented guys who had slightly different views on what they wanted to make, combined with the Wolf pack or Lion pride mentality. Everyone wanted to be the Alpha male. In the end, I guess Henley and Frey became the Alpha couple (I wouldn't want to suggest an Alpha female there) and Bernie Leadon was eventually forced out, as was Randy Meisner. Why am I even mentioning all this? Well, On The Border was really a crossroads album, and there are 3 important factors here:

1) The members who left didn't leave until later, so all of the original members were present.

2) Don Felder (Bernie's friend, and one helluva great guitarist) joined the group, knowing fine well - and being warned - that he really was entering the Lion's den.

3) With the previous two albums, there'd been a battle over musical style. Frey, Henley and I think Meisner too wanted a more rock sound. Leadon, who was the most experienced and successful individual before the band formed, wanted a more country sound. As did Glynn Johns, their famous producer. However, Desperado hadn't sold as well as their first album, many putting it down to the fact that it was too rock for country fans and too country for everyone else. So, with On The Border, the other members had their case strengthened, they sacked their producer early on and then really went for a different sound. Felder came in to strengthen this sound, even though Leadon knew that the arrival of his old friend would mean his beloved country sound was pushed further to the background.

I've gone on a bit here, but the Eagles are a huge band, and I think this album deserves more than some people give it. For me, it feels like the old Eagles, plus a bit more. But it also feels much more related to their later albums like Hotel California than their first two albums. It seems that not so many people are happy with this compromise, but for me, it's perfect. I love every song, and I honestly think any of them could have been released as singles. People will always have their favorites, but if you have a balanced and diverse taste in music, I think you'll see the true beauty in each song. Lyrically simpler than the later stuff and I guess more innocent. It's not a rock album. It's not a country album. It's not a pop album. It's not bluegrass, R&B or any one thing, but it is a perfect, radio-friendly mixture of all of these genres in my opinion. I know it better than the back of my hand, and it hasn't aged a bit.