Get Over It

I remember working at a radio station in Raleigh when the new single from the Eagles came in.

It was 1994, and like many other fans, I’d been waiting fourteen years for something new from this band I loved.  A reunion seemed pretty unlikely, and it became a kind of Holy Grail – one of those albums you hope exists, but fear you’ll never find.

There have been a lot of those over the years.

I remember when it was announced that there was a five-album live set coming from Bruce Springsteen.  Seems almost silly to be excited about that now, but at the time, there had been no legal live music from him.  Sure, there had been live tracks on the b-sides of singles.  And there were more bootlegs than you could count.  But not much else.

Before that, there had been live albums from bands, of course, but most of those were limited to one or two albums, for the most part.  And Springsteen fans knew that one of his legendary performances wouldn’t be able to be adequately captured on just two LPs.  His shows were typically twice as long as anything on a double-album.

Then the five-record set came out.  And while some people may not have liked it, it was treasure for the rest of us.

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By the way, you knew these were records because the writing on the cover was in white.  There was also a cassette version (in blue) and a CD version (in red).

In the 70’s, the band Boston released a huge debut album, quickly followed by a second amazing album.  Then a new single called “Amanda” started to crop up. Some said it was a promo from a forthcoming album, while others claimed it was a bootleg from the previous album’s sessions.

Years went by and the song seemed to go away. A few rock stations played it once in a while.  But the idea of a legitimate release, let alone a whole new album, seemed like an unlikely longshot.

Then we got Third Stage.

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And the Beatles were naturally one of the biggest. 

Hopes for a reunion died with John at the end of 1980.  But there were so many bootlegs over the years, that it seemed like there were hours of unreleased tracks.  Would they ever see the light of day?

Then in the 1990’s, we sort of got it all.  Paul, George and Ringo recorded a couple new tracks, using demos from John.  And scores of previously unreleased material came out on Live At The BBC and the Anthology sets.  There was even a reworked version of Let It Be (called Let It Be..Naked) that came out in 2003.

I’ve been thinking about this lately, and wondering if there are any Holy Grails of rock left. 

We’ve gotten live albums from the Police (from their early days, from the “Synchronicity Tour” and even from their recent reunion tour.

The majority of the Cars got back together as the New Cars, and then they all reunited for a new album in 2011.

The Rolling Stones have even opened up their archives, putting out previously unreleased songs and offering up mp3s of live shows on their website.

So what’s left?  A Led Zeppelin reunion?  Unreleased Billy Joel tracks?  Are there rumored albums that still haven’t been released?

Personally, I’d like a little more from the Eagles.  I’m sure there are unreleased things (though a couple found their way onto the box set a while back).  A new album would be nice, though.  And I’m pretty sure we’ll get a new live set sometime in the next year or so.

Since the Eagles aren’t on any of the streaming services, yet, I uploaded all my Eagles CDs onto my Amazon Cloud player, and here’s what shuffled out while I wrote this…

“Tequila Sunrise”
“Hotel California” (Millennium Concert)
“Those Shoes”
“Doolin Dalton”
“How Long”
“Last Good Time In Town”
“Life’s Been Good” (Live)
“The Best Of My Love”
“Peaceful Easy Feeling”
“Busy Being Fabulous”
“Lyin’ Eyes”
“Life In The Fast Lane”
“New York Minute’ (Live)
“Seven Bridges Road” (Live)

Hope your weekend is filled with lots of great music!

Ken