AJOBO: Why Exactly Do We ‘Hate the F&$%ing Eagles’ So Much Again?
It’s a quote so ubiquitous that even people who’ve never seen The Big Lebowski love to declare, “I hate the fucking Eagles, man!” Jeff Bridges’ character minces no words expressing his disdain for the easy-going California ’70s rock group, and it seems like the rest of the music community rides along the same wavelength, quick to jump on the Eagles-hating bandwagon with the same enthusiasm that “Free Donut Day” at Krispy Kreme inspires.
I hear it from my friends constantly. If they don’t quote Lebowski verbatim, they come pretty darn close. At the mere mention of Don Henley, Glenn Frey, or any of the other faceless members, you can bet your britches that some so-and-so will pipe up from the other side of the table, restaurant, or city just to tell you how much they suck. (Fun fact: a former friend of mine and I used to play a game called “Name All the Eagles” and no one would ever win. Even though I now can, in fact, name all the Eagles, I choose not to.) It’s a pandemic.
But why? Usually when I press friends to elaborate on why they’d like the Eagles to lock themselves in Hotel California and never come out, they hesitate before shrugging and offering something along the ultra-specific lines of “because.” Which I’m happy to accept. I hate iceberg lettuce. Why? No idea. It just tastes wrong to me (and the texture… ugh…), even though a lot of people like or don’t mind it. I don’t have a whole thesis about the pros and cons of it, boiling down to one scientifically proven answer. I just don’t effing like it. And if the Eagles are your iceberg lettuce, than so be it.
But remove the Dude from your equation. Solely hating a band because pop culture has told you that it’s cool or hip or even expected to hate them is just ridiculous, not to mention unfair. How would you feel if you spent a career making music, only to have the entire rock-loving population automatically turn their noses up at you because of a guy in his bathrobe who is essentially homeless with a house indoctrinated a whole segment of the population, however cult-like his following? You’d probably be pretty pissed.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a huge Eagles fan; I wouldn’t even consider myself a casual fan, although I have been known to hit play on their greatest hits from time to time on Spotify (after clicking “private session,” of course). But there’s something distinctly beautiful in some of their melodies. I think if you can hear hits like “Take It Easy,” “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (yes, the very song that sends the Dude over the edge), and “Already Gone” without at least admitting that they’re kinda good, you need to knock your music-loving ego down a few pegs.
I believe that everyone is entitled to their own musical opinions. If people didn’t love and hate the Eagles with the same fervor, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. (Well, it’s kind of a one-sided soapbox rant at the moment.) And, typically, snide remarks about the band from Dude-lovers would just elicit an eye roll from me, but after Glenn Frey’s untimely passing and the tribute to him on the Grammys last night, we really need to talk about this Eagles issue.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve polled a lot of my friends and many of them have come up empty as to why they hate the Eagles, except for an esoteric response. So now I want to hear it from you.
C’mon, REBEAT readers, tell me in the comments. Where do you stand on the Eagles?
