Doolin-Dalton and Doolin-Dalton/Desperado (reprise) - the Eagles
A couple of years ago I was browsing through the LP's at my local second hand record shop when I came across a section with the heading "Yacht Music". The records in it were by an array of artists: Elton John, Steely Dan, post Peter Gabriel Genesis, and, of course, the Eagles. I asked the shop owner what the term meant and he said that it was populist, easy listening rock. After a further chat around it, he admitted that, though he wouldn't normally say this to potential customers, that it was rock music liked by wealthy people with no taste, as exemplified by the owners of those hideous, sail-less, giant yachts you see all over the Mediterranean.
The term originated in America, created as an umbrella term for California soft rock bands whose members were often pictured sailing genuine sail-boat yachts, suggesting an easy lifestyle to go with the easy listening music they created.
The phrase has evolved further in the UK, to stand for the kind of music that modern giant "yacht" owners play as they lounge on their foredecks while crew members plied them with trays of calamares and cocktails.
When, in 1972, the new, unknown Eagles appeared on "Top of the Pops" to play their first US smash "Take It Easy", no-one got it. The British record-buying public just didn't understand the music style, and it hardly sold a copy, a state of affairs remedied by the band over the years: their 2007 (and final) LP "Long Road Out of Eden" entered the UK charts at Number One.
JD Souther who died on September 17th (see last post) has either written or co-written at least one song on each of five of the Eagles' seven studio albums. The first of these was "Doolin-Dalton", the opener and reprised "closer" on their 1973 concept album, "Desperado". Of all their studio albums, "Desperado" was the best, but, paradoxically, sold the worst. Or perhaps, this does make sense as it is their best, most creative record, their most risk-taking and therefore their least "yachtish", to coin an adjective.
"Desperado" tells the story of outlaw Bill Dalton and the "Doolin-Dalton gang" through 11 songs, not only as a narrative but as a series of reflections on their "outsider" lifestyle, making it a metaphor for being a rock musician. This is emphasised by the LP's back cover which simulates the gruesome photographs of outlaws shot and killed in their final gunfight prevalent in the 1890's. In this case the dead outlaws are portrayed by the four members of the Eagles flanked by contributing songwriters Jackson Browne (far left) and Souther (far right).
Souther and Browne wrote "Doolin-Dalton" with Eagles members Glenn Frey and Don Henley, so it's difficult to know who did what, but it's a great tune along with terrific lyrics that sets up the whole disc. In it Bill Dalton contemplates the temptations and drawbacks of the outlaw life, balancing the brothers shot dead by the law against the other brothers enjoying the good life, before deciding to join them:
".....Go down, Bill Dalton, it must be God's will,
two brothers lying dead in Coffeyville,
two voices call to you from where they stood:
"Lay down your law books now, they're no damn good."
Better keep on movin', Doolin-Dalton'
till your shadow sets you free-
if you're fast, and if you're lucky
you will never see that hanging tree
Well, the towns lay out across the dusty plains
like graveyards filled with tombstones, waiting for the names
and a man could use his back, or use his brains
but some just went stir crazy, Lord, 'cause nothing ever changed
Till Bill Doolin met Bill Dalton;
he was working cheap, just biding time.
Then he laughed and said, "I'm going",
and so he left that peaceful life behind....."
The song is later reprised along with the title track as the finale of the album,
"Well, the stage was set, the sun was sinking low down
as they came to town to face another showdown.
The lawmen cleared the people from the street:
"All you bloodthirsty bystanders, will you try to find your seats?"
Watch 'em duelin', Doolin-Dalton,
high or low, it's all the same.
Easy money, faithless women,
you will never kill the pain.
Go down, Bill Doolin, don't you wonder why.
Sooner or later, we all have to die,
sooner or later, that's a stone-cold fact.
Four men ride out and only three ride back.
The Queen of Diamonds let you down, she was just an empty fable,
the Queen of Hearts you say you never met.
Your twisted fate has found you out, and it's finally turned the tables,
Stole your dreams and paid you with regret.
Desperado (is there gonna be anything left, is there gonna be anything?)
You sealed your fate up a long time ago.
(Ain't it hard when you're all alone in the centre ring?)
Now there's no time left to borrow (is there gonna be anything left?)
Only stardust. Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow.
Desperado,
desperado........"
Fade. The squalid death of an outlaw, the end of his dreams, the Eagles' finest hour. This is sensitive, passionate music, definitely not on the yacht playlist. They'd have to sit up and listen.
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