Roots: #66

Take it Easy in Winslow, Arizona | Music | Guardian Unlimited Music: "...while Paul Klee was holed up in Switzerland painting pictures of cute little kitty-cats, Adolf Hitler was wiping out European civilization. And at the very same time that Led Zeppelin IV and Exile on Main Street seemed to be dominating the airwaves, the folk-rocky Eagles were dominating a different frequency on the airwaves with what came to be known as the California sound...while many people believed that they were living through the era of Bowie and disco and heavy metal and punk, the most popular band of the era was writing songs about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. This proves, incontrovertibly, that there is no such thing as 'reality,' that it all depends on your age, ethnic group, and how much liquor you've consumed."

How true. In many ways for us The Eagles were the enemy, the kind of band the blowdried girls we kind of fancied fancied and not us. The bittersweet pain of having to learn how to play Take It Easy, to actually perform Already Gone, to have to listen to Hotel California on every jukebox in a one jukebox town. I even still like Desperado. Now I remember what The Clash and Joy Division were trying to save us all from. Did they manage?