We make it harder than it has to be (The Eagles) #107

Oh how we larffed.

The Eagles I Can't Tell You Why/ The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks (Asylum, E 46 608, 1979)

The group Eagles (to give them their real name) had a lot of hits but I only have this one single by them and I think I must have picked it up cheap while working at Marbecks, in a moment of weakness, at gunpoint. 

They had better songs and bigger hits but I'm not what you'd term a big fan. 

I like some of their early songs and I do own Desperado (I'm a sucker for faux western imagery) and I bought an early, pre mega success, version of their Greatest Hits album but I must be one of the few who never felt tempted to buy Hotel California! And I still don't!

When Bernie Leadon left he took any country rock authenticity the band ever had with him. Alas. 

Same thing, to a lesser extent, when Randy Meisner departed. Randy is cool because he played in Rick Nelson's band!

I Can't Tell You Why is definitely at the sappy end of the continuum. I can't tell you why I own it. I really can't.

It's sung by Timothy B. Schmit. Ye gods - that name! That hair! That ever so cosy pose! That earnest puppy dog expression! That languid 'cool' bass style that makes me wanna strangle him!

Hidden gem: Eagles try to rock out on the B side and it just doesn't wash. They go for a garagey feel (the organ and spider guitar sound) but Don Henley does not have the kind of voice to pull that off. No rarity value - both songs appeared on The Long Run.