Discovered this day by Neo at Welcome to the acoustic Hotel California – The New Neo. She notes:
A quiet beautiful version I’d never heard before. In this rendering you can pay more attention to their musicianship, particularly the guitar solos (5:34-on), and hear the Spanish influence more clearly.
I concur but Neo is strangely diffident on whether or not the song itself, as well as this version, actually belongs in the Museum of Boomer Anthems. The following discussion ensues:
neo on April 29, 2020 at 5:18 pm said:
J.J.: You call it Boomer music, and technically it is. But I think of it as late Boomer music. It was after my time, I can assure you. The last Boomers were born in 1964 and they would have been 13 when that song came out. The earliest ones would have been 33, born in 1944. I’m one of the earlier Boomers, although not among the earliest. I think of 50s and 60s music as Boomer music (although I don’t usually think in those terms anyway). “Hotel California” was released in 1977. It is indeed a great song.
….
Gerard vanderleun on April 29, 2020 at 5:49 pm said:
Speaking for the Boomer Leadership and the rest of my colleagues on the Boomer Board of Elders (Born between August 15 and December 31, 1945 ) we officially recognize Hotel California — esp this acoustic version — as Boomer Anthem. I’m been making a collection of these official anthems at my place and I shall add this well-curated example to the collection.
Gerard Van der Leun
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN8aa-xuHu8
Here’s a lovely rendition of a Boomer Anthem played by a Millenial.
https://youtu.be/kz7fxTAzan8
That’s a nice version. I appreciate that they threw in a bit of California Guitar Trio magic in the intro. You may think CGT is a one-trick pony, but I defy any three of you to pull that off kind of playing for more than 16 bars.
I shall not be drawn into what is or is not boomer music. I’m more interested in enjoying it. Thanks for the video.
Then again, maybe I’m just hearing things.
“Boomer Board of Elders (Born between August 15 and December 31, 1945 ).”
Hey! Now just a dang minute here.
You saying that those of us born on, just to take an example, December 18, 1942, are excluded?
We call shenanigans on that.
Okay. Fine! Then we will start The True, Original, and Official Boomer Board of Elders, for persons born whenever they feel like it. And WE have T shirts.
A song designed specifically for 3 guitars and executed without sounding muddy. Not an easy feat. Joe getting all ugly faced in those big sweeping arpeggio’s. If you watched this on youtoob you might have waited and watched the next version, done in Melbourne in 2005. Full on totality with a BIG double neck electric, a 12 string Martin acoustic, Joe on a strat where he belongs, and Henley in his normal position swirling sticks. DAWG!
On the song Jewel suggested, notice the tuning pegs on that stick. Not only are they jade, but they are twisted backwards, facing the rear. That means it’s a classical guitar, meant primarily for finger picking, no plectrums allowed because it has nylon strings rather than steel. That makes a difference because nylon string guitars harken to the 16th century version that were strung with animal parts rather than the steel strings of modern guitars. The nylon versions were more delicate and unable to deal with the pressure of the steel until 300 years later.
The very first guitar I bought cost $35 at Woolworth in the Edison Mall in Fort Myers, FL in 1968 when I was 13. Not knowing the diff between guitars I installed steel strings on this cheap classical guitar and watched it self destruct before my very eyes. Nylon strings sound muted and dull but steel strings sound loud and bright. The neck slowly bent forward caving the top of the body in. Retardedly I attempted to fix it by taking 2 steel bolts threaded into a center coupling and putting it inside the body and twisting it to counter the bowing. That worked but then the bridge started to do the same thing. Soon, it was unplayable so I threw it in the corner and got another one, more ‘spensive. The last time I saw that old woolworth guitar if was 6 years later when I joined the army at age 19, hanging on my sisters bedroom wall, stringless and painted 40 different psychedelic colors.
Mowing yards for $3 a crack and in no time I got a Lafayette copy of a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty for $90., like the one Frampton played in the 70’s, and it had 3 pick ups. WoW! Then I got a Fender Bronco amp and I was mainlinin’ baby! My best friend was a preachers son and he played guitar too and we’d go to the vacant church on Friday evenings and plug into the PA system and wail songs by Alice Cooper, James Gang, Floyd, Zeppelin, etc. and his older sister would sometimes accompany us on the giant organ and/or the grand piano. whoa….good ol’ daze.
Haven’t hear this one before, but I like it a lot. So much of this music is better than we thought it was when it was new. But there’s a hard balance between recognizing how good it still is, and just plain having heard it all too darn many times.
I remember going into a bar in San Diego some years back. Someone taped a hand lettered sign over the juke box. It read “NO STAIRWAY! NO FREEBIRD!” I could understand.
JWM
I disagree for the dates of the boomer generation: it begins in 1948. Has been well established that most of the boomers began to graduate high school in 1964. It is an interesting coincidence that it appears the baby boomer generation was delayed a few years after the war while daddy–some, not all, went to school on the GI Bill. This explains the four year delay from the previous babies born during the war and immediately after. If you have siblings in your family take a look at the difference in attitudes (political inclination and scholastic abilities) between those who graduated 1961 or before and those who graduated 1964 and after. The Beetles arrived February of 1964. You may have been born before 1948 and became part of the hippie generation, but that is a small group of people (graduating 1963-1964)
I’ve got the dvd with this version on it. Love both versions. Saw the Eagles on their Hell Freezes Over Tour in the mid-90’s at an outdoor venue in MA called, at the time, Great Woods. Paid an outrageous $95 for fourth or fifth row seats. Tremendous. Felder and Walsh seem to enjoy playing together. Frey’s acoustic 12-string adds a great voicing to the acoustic version.
I am solidly a Boomer, August 1957, and consider this a Boomer Anthem even though the Eagles were a 70’s phenomenon.
As the sire of four boomers (’56, 58,59,61) I’m something of an expert on all things boomer, and this is one of the handful of boomer tunes I can listen to and almost enjoy, which makes it anthem quality.
Yeah, I noticed that Don Felder looked relaxed and happy. Joe Walsh looked like a (healthy, for once) college professor.