Quad LP/Tape Poll Eagles: On The Border [CD-4/Q8]

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Rate "On The Border"

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5: So-so

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Crap Sound, Crap Mix, Crap Content

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    11

EMB

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
4,101
Location
The Top 40 Radio of My Mind
Asylum EQ-1004, from 1974.

Side 1:

1. Already Gone
2. You Never Cry Like A Lover
3. Midnight Flyer
4. My Man
5. On The Border


Side 2:

1. James Dean
2. Ol '55
3. Is It True
4. Good Day In Hell
5. (The) Best Of My Love


ED :)
 
Excellent all the way. Great album and great mix. One of my "quad showcase" album and the first ever i've converted both from Q8 and from CD4.
 
My first CD4 experience ever, I played it so many times I think I know the songs better than the band! I always loved The Eagles, and this is a very nice record to own and hear, I voted 8 just because some choices in the mix were not done properly IMHO.

Like the vocals stuck in the rears on "Good Day in Hell" ? That was a shock to me as well seeing as how nicely the rest of the album had been mixed. I was a little disappointed in the sonics of the Q8. Pretty dull if you ask me and most 8-tracks CAN sound pretty decent.
 
I don't like the Eagles at all. Yet I will purchase this for my collection, but I don't expect to listen to it much. I will take your word for it though mixwise. The Dude abides...
 
I don't mind the mix (although it is occasionally quirky). There is a softness to it, and the vocals don't stand out like the stereo mixes, but it also seems more fitting. Do feel ambivalent about the music, always have. Their next album would have more of an edge--they were headed toward really edgy stuff after that. Still dig "Ol '55" and (in spite of myself) "Best Of My Love," but thought much of this was half-baked, like "Already Gone." "James Dean" sounds like a cheap knockoff, hardly befitting the man's legend (which might have been the point). It was just this kind of material that made Warren Zevon's 1976 debut Asylum Lp so refreshing (and a pity it was issued as quad was dying, so no MC for that one, which didn't sell much anyway). That they had learned much from the Byrds and Gram Parsons was obvious, but the material, for me, just didn't amount to much.

ED :)
 
That's exactly why i like it - it's the most-spinned Eagles disc here.
 
Thing is, they didn't really find their balls (as it were) until Joe Walsh came in for HOTEL CAL...and then they went decadent and a little rock-star crazy, world-weary to the extreme, although "Take It To The Limit" was hinting at things to come, heh. I like this album, but it is transitional in nature, and has its peaks and valleys, IMO. Wouldn't play it often, though I do like the best of it.

ED :)
 
I like this lp and I like the quad mix...
the Glynn Johns produced tracks recorded in the Uk are better recording quality than the rest which were done in the USA with Bill Szymczyk ... there are only 2 Glynn John tracks that made it to the lp ...you never cry like a lover and best of my love...
he had done 6 tracks with them but things were going too slowly and the band wanted a change....

Don Felder joined them on "Good day in Hell" making it a five piece band by the time the lp was finished.

also of note in 1972 before they started this lp as a four piece band , they were actually performing "How long" in their concerts.....there is a video of them playing it in Holland on youtube...funny how it took them another 35 years to actually record a studio version, because the 1972 version is pretty much the same..
 
My wife hates the Eagles with a passion, though I suspect that's because they're so overplayed (though not by me...:D) and held in a much higher regard than any sane person would believe (heh). And I had to explain to her that "Take It To The Limit' is as much about restlessness and desire as it is malaise, the same kind of fits we both (all of us?) have, though she didn't hear that in what I thought was obvious back in the day, how hard it is to break out of ruts, routines, the bullshit that surrounds us all and slows us down. And the very sad but honest "Best Of My Love"--unlike "Lyin' Eyes"--has Truth in it, something that cuts through the slick sheen of the embalmed studio environment they lived in. They were determined to be commercial, unlike the Burritos or New Riders, had to have hits, wanted the big money.

It's also fortunate they had Henley, but that's for another thread...:D

ED :)
 
And the very sad but honest "Best Of My Love"--unlike "Lyin' Eyes"--has Truth in it, something that cuts through the slick sheen of the embalmed studio environment they lived in.

Couldn't agree more.

Best of My Love is not only one the Eagle's very best songs (and performances), it's probably one of the most authentic ballads ever to top the charts. It rings true in a sad, sweet way that few songs do.

"It was a quiet night / And I would be all right / If I could go on sleeping . . . "

Magnificent writing.
 
One of my favorite quad albums and had the tape in the car for a long time with this one. I had seen Desperado in Harrison - or some other folks I was buying mail order from - as being available in quad, but never saw it in real life. On the Border was good, but Desperado was a great concept album with solid tunes all around. Unlike most of you folks here I became less of a fan after Leadon left and Walsh joined. Hotel CA is one of my least favorite Eagles tunes - maybe it's due to burnout from hearing it on the radio ALL THE TIME.
 
I got the orange Q8 in the mail in a few days ago. I gave it an 8. I have the CD-4 too, but it's one of those lousy Asylum pressings so I figured the tape was a better bet. Now I don't usually complain abut sonics, but this is one of those Q8s that really sounds like an 8-track.

The mix is really good, but as others pointed out above there are some minor issues with the vocal balance. On some tunes, the lead vocal sounds buried, and on "Already Gone" the backing vocals in the rears seem a bit too low. I made some adjustments on the PC after recording it in that I think improve it a lot.

There's also the weird mix on "Good Day In Hell" with the rear vocals. It's exactly like how the track "Space Truckin'" on the US CD-4 LP of Deep Purple's Machine Head also has the vocals completely through the rears, while they're upfront on every other song.

My favorite track for surround is actually the title cut. Great use of the rears for the trading vocals ("and we want to know...whose wing are you under?",etc). Man, I wish Rhino would get this and One Of These Nights out...
 
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This one begs for a QUADIO release. As said by others, the orange Q8 is nothing to write home about, and the hard to find Purple has always escaped me. I did get a purple One of These Nights, but although I love the title song on that one, "On The Border" has much better songs on it, and is IMHO a better all-the-way-through listen than OOTN.

QUADIO's are a rare breed, so I won't hold what's left of my breath. Maybe Dutton can connect with WB and make this one happen. I would totally expect if they did, that this would NOT be on a two-fer! :)
 
After years of this being one of my favorite Quads to listen to, I just noticed the harmony vocals are absent on "Already Gone".
On the lines: "Just remember this, my girl, when you look up in the sky, You can see the stars and still not see the light." and "So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key." It's just Glenn singing without the harmony - whether he did his own harmony or got Don Henley to sing it. It's hard to tell.

Heard the stereo version on the way home from work and thought there was a little more going on than in the Quad mix.
 
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