Song #356: "Best Of My Love" by Eagles

Date: Mar 1, 1975
Weeks: 1

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Oh, strummy acoustic nothing songs, how I loathe you.

The bulk of this song is 2 chords from an acoustic guitar. Both the verses and the choruses just alternate from one chord to the other before switching back. There are also some transitions that employ a couple other chords very briefly, but other than technically adding more chords to the song they don't add anything resembling variety to the music.

And there's little else going on to listen to here. There's another guitar noodling away vaguely way in the background, and a lonely maraca on percussion. And there's the vocal harmony, but this isn't exactly Boyz II Men here. The Eagles's voices here are fine, but not particularly remarkable.

And this is where the strummy acoustic guitar song fails for me. There's no interesting sound here. There's no tension building up for release, no energy. There's not even any variety to keep the song compelling. Conversely, they can't commit to the spare, heartfelt song of one person with one guitar, instead adding sound and voices all over the place. So with the music a complete failure, that must mean the lyrics are interesting, right?

I'm not going to pretend the lyrics are terrible, because they're not. But they're not exactly great, either. There aren't any clever turns of phrase or interesting things to say. The singer's had a fight with his significant other and can't quite find the right words to make it right. "We try to talk it over, but the words come out too rough." It's an apology song, an attempt to rise above the specific issues at hand and try to save the relationship because "here in my heart, I give you the best of my love." Mostly I don't have a problem with the lyrics, but I do find the chorus to be pretty generic. "Ooooh, sweet darlin'. You get the best of my love." "Sweet darlin'" isn't exactly an original affectionate, there. And gee, maybe if the relationship is in this much peril, your "sweet darlin'" might actually be getting the worst of your love.

My verdict: Don't like it. A song needs to have either interesting music or interesting lyrics, preferably both. This one has mediocre lyrics and almost no music, so it's no good.

Song #423: "Hotel California" by The Eagles

Date: May 7, 1977
Weeks: 1

This is a nice little 4-minute song that somebody decided needed to be padded out with 2 and a half minutes of additional guitars. Fans of this song always want to make it out to be more important and meaningful than I think it really is, but it just keeps going and going well past its finish.

Other than its length, there's a lot to like here. The music is quality guitar and drum rock, with plenty of rising action and quiet moments of reflection. While I still think the length is arbitrary, at least the guitars are pleasant to listen to after the lyrics are done.

I think the lyrics are cleverly written. They tell an intriguing fantasy story about a traveler who winds up at a mysterious hotel filled with characters and odd events, and then he finds he can't leave. There's obviously a deeper meaning hinted at here. You can probably find far more detailed discussion about the song's lyrics elsewhere, as I know this song has fans who have discussed and interpreted the lyrics for years. Personally, I connect it to a theory I heard once about how nobody makes their home in Los Angeles, they all just stay there because that's where they work. All of Los Angeles is the Hotel California. Granted, that only covers the famous "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" line, but since it's how the song ends it's the line that sticks with me. Anyway, I think that interpretation works well with most of the rest of the song, too.

My verdict: Like it. I don't think this song is as deep as some of its more intense fans do, but it's certainly a nice enough song, and the lyrics are cleverly written.