37 Comments
May 21Liked by Matt Welch

"recent batch of requests to provide various major career/life advices" How bad must things be that they ask you guys for life advice?

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Don't knock til you try it, I say. After all we got "Be brave, call bullshit" from the boys.

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Part of the hatred for the Eagles is their utter ubiquity. I remember hearing Hotel California on four separate radio presets at the same time (every one but the sports station). That level of omnipresence is bound to create a backlash. I’ve felt it, and I wasn’t even alive when pre-revival music was released. That phenomenon is the not band’s fault, but it provides some rational explanation for an irrational hated.

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This is exactly my problem with The Eagles. I AaaaKshuly, really like alot of The Eagles songs, but cannot listen to them anymore because I've already heard them 8 billion times.

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That sums up my feeling towards the Beatles as well - I don't "hate" them, I just never want to hear them again.

I can add a bunch of bands I listened to way too much as a teen (Zep, Pink Floyd, etc.)

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May 21Liked by Matt Welch

I’m only a quarter of the way through this post but needed to comment- that performance of ‘Take it to the Limit’ is what I always think of when people start bashing the Eagles. I’ve watched that video a number of times and it made a believer out of me. There’s a whole hell of a lot of professionalism on display during that performance!!! Plus it’s just a beautiful song. Don’t get me wrong- ‘Life in the Fast Lane’- two thumbs down!!! But the country stuff? It’s fuckin great.

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May 21Liked by Matt Welch

Back when I was in college in the mid aughts there was a random viral porn video of a couple in the 80s having sex on a couch with take it to the limit on in the background and it is the only thing I think of to this day when I hear the song.

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May 21·edited May 21Liked by Matt Welch

I'm so sorry.

I had a college roommate who would bang it out with her boyfriend while listening to Cat Stevens. It's hard to think of less sexy music.

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Or, for that matter, a less sexy phrase than “bang it out”. What, I wonder, is “it” in this case?

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Do you remember when television was full of infomercials for Greatest Hits CDs? That video took me back to 2am History Channel circa 2004

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May 21·edited May 22

Hey man is that Freedom Rock? Well, turn it up man!

https://youtu.be/P3CnvphQs04?feature=shared

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I can regress us all back to our childhoods with one word: KTEL!

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Since the Bangles are still technically together that makes Michael Steele technically the only former member of the Bangles so I am wondering if that was Matt's sly way of saying it was Michael. I wouldn't say it was Susanna because she is out of Matt's league. That's not a knock on Matt, Susanna is out of everyone's league. Susanna is so hot she is out of her own league. Of the sisters Debbie seems like the more fun one.

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I feel like I already linked to her covering Feel Like Makin' Love here, no? Still tempted.

One of the copies on YT just has, as a description, "I'll be in my bunk".

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founding

I am IN LOVE with the youth travel and music stories! Thanks for bringing it up on the pod. It sparked an excellent nostalgic conversation with my now four-deep-in-kids brother and some reminders to get to livin’ before I die.

We don’t need to relive our teens and 20s, but we sure do need to tap into the feeling and energy of them. Thanks again.

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I've got a little story for you: It's 1991 and blonde, southern, 19 year old me is walking around Istanbul by myself, and I wander into the ghetto-ish area. Oh, and it is my first day ever out of the US. I have no map, no money, no ID (dummy), only my hotel room key. Horns and hooves litter the sidewalk, and there's black stuff running down the gullies. When I turned the corner, there's a hajji with a bound goat in one hand and a big knife in the other, and he's loudly saying "dur! dur!" to me. Dur is the one Turkish word I know because it's written on the stop signs. Is he saying stop watching? Stop walking this direction? Stop and watch? Doesn't matter as there is no way this animal lover is going to witness the inevitable, so I walked on. I'd moved to Istanbul for a few months and wondered what kind of barbarity was I in for. FF two years later: I'd moved back to Istanbul and lived there for almost a year when I figure out that my first day in Istanbul just happened to be Korban Bayram - the holiday of sacrifice. Most likely, the hajji was asking me to stay to enjoy the festivities and share the goat meat. (No thanks.)

I now have nieces and nephews who are 19, and I totally understand why my parents were less than happy about me moving there.

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This is one of the oddest and most interesting songs ever. You will most likely hate me after listening fair warning. For some reason, the more I listen the more I like it. Figure I would share anyway: https://spotify.link/VYY9NgnELJb

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I was in until the bwack bwacking began.

Are you working through something??

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Haha no, it makes me laugh a little. I think they might be harmonizing and having a little fun with their song. Their other songs are fairly Americana. If they are willing to do that onstage and recorded I think it's hilarious and entertaining.

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founding

The eagles are good. When I was a kid we did a family road trip/ running from the law trip from Edmonton, Canada to Belmopan, Belize- with a month long stop in Vegas.

Anyway, we owned the following cassette tapes: Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, Beatles Past masters Volume 1, Cat Stevens Greatest Hits, James Taylor's Greatest Hits, Eagles Greatest Hits vol 1&2, Best of Elton John, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits vol 2 and the American Graffiti soundtrack. I'm convinced that these are still all great and that arguments against the Eagles are similar to arguments against greatest hits albums: elitist silliness.

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The thing about all those singers/groups is that you can sing to them! For me, that's why I love the Eagles. They are just so easy to sing a long to.

The song Hotel California makes me think of being a little kid playing on the swings on the elementary school playground. The school was surrounded by college apartments ( shout out to Michigan State!) and the college students were always playing their radios outside in nice weather. The song came out in '76, I think, and it always reminds me of being a kid in the 70's.

My husband hates the Eagles, and John Denver, and he is wrong.

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I don't like the Eagles. I made a post saying so, but decided it was just rude and didn't add anything productive to the conversation so I deleted it. Honestly I have never done a deep enough dive to figure out why I don't like them. Possibly it is just county-rock isn't my thing so that is hardly the Eagles fault. Sure they have some good songs like any band that big, but I just think it is that when I am listening to their music, because they are so loved I am expecting something truly wow, but so much of it seems like the warmed over adult contemporary that played non-stop in the 70's. I am expecting the Outlaws, but instead I get Seals and Croft or Gilbert O'Sullivan.

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Are you coming for Seals and Croft?? Are you trying to escalate this beef??

I am fully ready to admit that I may have shitty taste in music. I don't like the Grateful Dead (boring!) or Bruce Springsteen. There, I said it.

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The mention of Springsteen always brings me back to my favorite story about my wife and her (lack of) musical taste. Music has always been a big piece of my identity. I lost count when I hit about 750 CDs. On the other side of the relationship, I'm not sure if my wife has ever owned any music at all. Back when we were in our 'living together but still feeling it out phase', we'd jump in my car and I'd put in a CD. On one particular occasion, I put in a Tedeschi and Trucks CD. She expressed her displeasure, which spurred annoyance in me, but I wasn't surprised that she didn't like it. She had always advertised that her favorite musical artist was Bruce, and I had taken her at her word. I flipped over to the radio, specifically the local classic rock station. At some point, 'Little Pink Houses' comes on. My wife goes, "Isn't Bruce the greatest?", to which I replied, "uhhhhhh, this isn't Bruce, this is John Cougar Mellencamp."

Fast forward about a month or so, and a similar thing happens. She doesn't like my CD, so we switch over, and 'Jack and Diane' comes on the radio. Wife goes, "Isn't Bruce the greatest?", to which I replied, "NO BITCH, YOU LIKE JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP, NOT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN." Ok, I didn't phrase it like that, but I did get a good laugh out of the situation...

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LOL, I just saw Bruce in concert last month. Awesome show!

I fully admit that while most of my media tastes are rather philistine, not when it comes to music. The more pretentious the better. If Rick Waleman wants to come in and do a 19 minute synthesizer solo, I am there

To each his own though. I think we can all agree it's personal taste and any music can be enjoyed by everyone. Except reggae. Reggae sucks. So does Barbership quartet.

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Every little thing is NOT alright, man.

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John Denver is awesome. It took me awhile to figure that out, since my mom liked him. Of course she probably wasn’t even aware of his recording of ‘Amsterdam’ or the PMRC hearings

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That's what I get for parsing my reading of the Mailbag to multiple days! Thank you Matt, for answering my questions so thoroughly and providing a treasure trove of your writing on Soros. I knew of Alex only tangentially so thanks for the juicy summary.

I appreciate your "half-educated guesses" (you're too humble, sir!) and providing additional food for thought. You rock!

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*whom

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WHICH BANGLE MATT?!? Can’t do us like that.

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Something went over my head with Mark’s redacted photo with Kristy Noem. Why the urgency of deleting it?

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You could always block the face of the writer…

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I am almost tempted to ask for life/career advice, but after 50 grand spent on therapy and meds if I don't have it by now I don't want to drag the boys into my concentric circle of Hell.

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But the rest of us wanna know and provide useless comments a la The Ethicist's column in the NYT (he is not useless but the commenters often are).

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Well I was wondering where we could start. Chronic depression, maladaptive daydreaming, chronic pain, unfulfilled dreams, lifetime of under-employment.

Then as I was walking by the mirror on the way to the shower it struck me who my 54 year old body reminded me of. Dobby from Harry Potter. Yikes no one needs that first thing in the morning! The boys would have to clear their calendar for the next week to talk me up from that one.

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50 grand on therapists but has any one of them ever presented you with a sock?

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Dobby is cute in his own way!

But for real, I'm sorry - it's a lot but if you have a specific question, the boys might make you smile at least. Without humor it's a hard life as is, but I understand. *Hugs*

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